STRIKE: THE MASSES’ VOICES OR GOVERNMENT PUNITIVE

                                                                                                                                  IBIYEMI VICTOR

The strike situation in Nigeria has become an Old Baby- people don’t even want to talk about it anymore. It has lasted more than we want to remember. We have all talked and talked but it seems nothing is actually moving, it is like a predetermined project but we know it won’t be endless- perhaps one day, they will come to their senses and education would be restored. Considering the two opposing sides to the debacle, it is certain that they have stretched the margin too far than there could be any tangible reconciliation. However, it further shows who Nigerians truly are- we often forget the core to go for the peripherals. Maybe we are all guilty of that nagging crime.

The strike palaver is a carbuncle and a rotten eyesore. More shameful that the government is not capable of any good- it is all together a failed state of events. To borrow the words of Niyi Osundare, “the current image of Nigeria is that of a big-for-nothing country where nothing works the right way, a country that is finding it increasingly difficult to govern itself.” How on earth could ASUU and the Government be over a single matter for many months and still no headway? That is the height of shame! I must say! Anyway it is an exhibition or a characteristic of an abject and failed state!

The more important reality is left behind in the shadows of pseudo-conferences and meetings. The Students are the CORE of this whole catastrophe, they have been churned out for quite some time now and many have actually gone their ways… some have heightened their zeal for prostitution, others have amplified their repressed saturnalias for theft and robbery and many other evils. While some have quietly, though without choice, have taken in for petit-bourgeois self-reliant jobs and the remaining have remained idle- in preparation as devil’s workshops. 

The resultant effects of this fiasco is more abysmal, for many of them have forgotten their names let alone their matric numbers! When they eventually resume, it would be a colossal failure and that failure will be ceremoniously commissioned…and the cycle of failure continues. The educational sector must have a turnaround… it must!!!