ASUU’S LINGERING STRIKE ACTION IN A COUNTRY OF PLENTY.

The recent and ongoing strike action by the academic staff union of universities is not only an aberration but is also appalling. Imagine a country that prides itself to be the “GIANT OF AFRICA!” the question would be, “Why is Nigeria finding it so difficult to maintain its so-called future leaders in school? At least that’s what they call us, FUTURE LEADERS!” A country that prides itself as the world’s 13^th largest oil producer cannot even invest the recommended United Nations 26% of its annual budget on education for the enlightenment and preparation of its so-called FUTURE LEADERS. This is such a shame! It now goes on to tell us that our leaders just pay lip service to education. My people perish because of ignorance, is a very popular saying. But it seems most people just recite it without actually putting it into context in the daily running of our lives and the nation. A saying also goes thus, “if you consider education to be expensive, try ignorance.” There is no doubt that ignorance is a much worse disease than poverty itself. I stand to be corrected, but to me poverty is the result of ignorance. Ignorance as defined by the dictionary is the condition of being uninformed or uneducated, lack of knowledge or information. Let me seize this opportunity to remind us that information rules the world?

If our leaders decide to pay lip service when it comes to investing in her peoples education, doesn’t that tell something? They very well know that Knowledge is Power, and that when people are informed, it will be difficult to pull wool over their faces. So in order to keep us wallowing in the dark, and for them to have enough space to steal and embezzle our monies unhindered, they decide to leave a very large part of the populace uninformed. At least that’s what the military era used in combination with brute force to keep the people loyal to their government of plundering. Another pain I feel is that these same leaders that are purposely keeping the people backward will rally round their uninformed people during electioneering to act as political thugs and, trust the uninformed, they will give in. To be continued...