There is this popular adage that says that when digging a trench for your enemy, make it shallow. you may be the one who will fall into the trench.
When Buhari used ASUU to perform the Shege experiment (the starvation policy), everyone praised him. The No-work-no-pay policy for the patriotic struggle, a protest strike for the system, was highly celebrated. You expected the public to support such a struggle, but it was seen as if the Union of Lecturers were fighting to protect their father's property.
Someone made a comment while the strike was on that it
was a selfish fight to protect my job. He said I would be jobless if public
universities should die. So, my struggle was for me not to lose my job. That is
one of the many views of the public about the strike. Nobody looked at the
merit of the ASUU strike. A lot of people were not looking at the impact of the
state of the university system on the future of our kids.
Many did not look at the validity of the demands of the
University workers. Nobody was asking why the government allowed the strike to
happen in the first place. Nobody asked why the government was still dragging a
renegotiation that was due in 2012. Nobody asked why the government sustained
the strike for 8 months. Nobody was seeing the benefit of the strike to the
public university system and Nigeria. Nearly everyone was like the
"selfish strike loving" ASUU must be dealt with. Their wings must be
clipped. Have you ever seen someone celebrating that someone was hungry?
Nigerians were celebrating the starvation of their intellectuals. Lauretta
Onoche's write-ups were trending.
The Nigerian intellectuals were dehumanized. They were
turned into beggars in a fight for the survival of a public institution, the
public universities. They refused to give up despite the adopted starvation
strategy by the government agents. The government had to use the court to force
the strike to an end.
The renegotiation was dumped in the bin. Everyone got
paid their allowances but the Earned Academic Allowance, a legitimate
allowance, is not paid. There was no university revitalization fund. There was
nothing. The parents ain't bothered. All they want is for their kids to be on
campus irrespective of the sorry state of the campus, and get taught anyhow.
It's all about the acquisition of the paper called the degree certificate. They
are willing to Manage It Like That (MILT).
No work no pay was seen as a success on ASUU, the
strongest and toughest workers Union in Nigeria, and becomes normalized. The
government was celebrated for such a feat. The poor professors were mocked.
ASUU wings are said to be supposedly clipped and celebrated. Any insulting
articles on the intellectuals were trending. Workers are now scared of strikes
to force collective bargaining for fear of salary stoppage.
We entered the era of "Take it or Leave it".
Not even the military regime treated Nigerian workers this way. But this is
democracy. Is it really democracy or should we better call it by its name;
Plutocracy? The government of the wealthy where the voice of the people does
not matter. Buhari and Ngige became the heroes of the moment.
They thought it was a win against ASUU. The people are
too shortsighted to see the bigger picture. They didn't realise the food they
were cooking for Nigerians. They didn't see that it was rather a victory
against Nigerian workers and the people.
Then, it was time for election and the people that
celebrated the victory over ASUU wanted to change the APC government. Haba
mallam! Why will you change such a successful government, especially with their
victory over ASUU and by extension Nigerian workers? Nah! We need to re-elect
the party to feel the Shege Promax that is in the waiting in a couple of
months.
It was a resounding victory for the master strategist,
the man that "built Lagos". A few minutes after he took over and
before he could get to his office, he said the fuel subsidy was already gone.
The beginning. He didn't leave the podium when the price of fuel instantly
increased from ₦162 per litre to ₦580
per litre.
Then his floating of naira devalued the currency from ₦400
to a dollar to over ₦1,000 to a dollar. Fuel is
imported and every naira devaluation will of course affect the fuel pump price
and purchasing power of the people. Not sure if their IMF agents didn't inform
them. The effect of the naira devaluation was seen affecting the fuel price
every month. Fuel price was increasing by ₦10
monthly till it got to ₦770 per litre last month.
The impact of the unusual inflation on the cost of foodstuff and basic needs is
another discussion.
All these of course reduced the purchasing power of the
people, the poor Nigerians. But unfortunately, the highly rated master
strategist has no strategy to improve the purchasing power of the people that
his policies have impoverished. There was a battle for minimum wage by NLC.
NLC and TUC were asking for ₦450,000
as the minimum. 14 months after subsidy removal, NLC dropped from. ₦450,000
to accept ₦70,000 as the new minimum wage.
Nigerians have no say. But guess what? The price of fuel was just increased
from ₦770
per litre to about ₦950 per litre while the
minimum wage paid a few days ago for August was still ₦30,000.
The reality now is that the monthly minimum wage can only buy 30 litres of fuel
at the moment.
There was a hunger protest, and some people were shocked
with the president's speech. He was like you have the right to protest even
though it won't change anything. Since you cannot understand that the hunger
imposed on you is in your interest and you want to protest, do not just
destroy. The speech did not shock some of us. I learned some of the protesters
are being prosecuted now. We should be praising this government for this
achievement if we can celebrate the persecution of lecturers.
I am glad that the APC government was re-elected. How
would you have experienced the Promax of the Shege that the ASUU members
experienced in their hands in a fight for the survival of our public
universities if you had changed the government?
There was a question asking if Nigerians can ever be
stretched to breaking point. No way! All the results from the social experiment
revealed that our elastic limit is limitless, thanks to our docility. A
reckless political class + Docile citizens = Limitless MILT index with
lamentation.
Just as the lecturers have to endure the Shege that they
are yet to recover from, please endure the Shege Promax and be patient with the
government. Enjoy the sacrifice and pray for the leaders as our paid Imams have
advised. The political class as they swim in opulence meant well for you and
the country just the way they meant well for the lecturers and public
universities.
By
Prof. Abdelghaffar Amoka Abdelmalik, PhD.
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
aaabdelmalik@abu.edu.ng.
Copyright © Amoka 2024
04/09/2024
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