Nigeria

National electricity grid collapse puts Nigeria in darkness

By Muhammad Sabiu

National electricity grid collapse puts Nigeria in darkness Nigeria’s shaky national energy grid has crashed once more, leaving numerous towns in the dark, including the federal capital Abuja.

Late Sunday, power companies stated that the outage began shortly before 7 p.m.It’s the sixth reported collapse in 2022, while some speculate that the number could be higher.

The administration attributes the recurring breakdowns to inadequate management and a lack of gas supplies.

On Sunday, Jos Electricity Distribution Plc sent out a Facebook message to its clients informing them of the power outage.

The head of corporate communication, Friday Elijah, stated that “The Management of Jos Electricity Distribution Company Plc wishes to inform the general public that the current outage being witnessed is a result of system collapse.

“We hope to restore supply as soon as supply is restored,” he added.

When not to celebrate democracy

By Mukhtar Jarmajo

Every year, Nigeria’s federal government declares June 12 as a holiday to celebrate the nation’s democracy. It used to be May 29 as it was the date democracy returned to our shores in 1999 after many years of military dictatorship. But to acknowledge and immortalise the democratic struggles of the late MKO Abiola, the date was changed by President Muhammadu Buhari virtually two years ago. It is, however, astonishing that as a nation, we put so much time and energy into celebrating democracy, which in the truest meaning of the word, does not exist on the shores of Nigeria.

Democracy is about freedom, but what there is here is post-colonial slavery, where the ordinary man lives in untold hardship perceiving the miasma of hopelessness. When the lives and properties of the citizens of a nation are not safe; when there is no access to affordable and quality healthcare services; when a nation’s education system is shattered; when a nation’s economy is so unhealthy that most of its citizens hardly afford two meals a day, it bears no repeating that the citizens of this country are in the shackles of slavery. Therefore, one cannot talk about practising the democratic system of government.

How can we even celebrate democracy in today’s Nigeria when our universities have been under lock and key for almost six months owing to industrial action embarked upon by lecturers? It is here that Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) is scarce and therefore only obtainable at high prices with attendant consequences on all goods and services.

In today’s Nigeria, human life has no value given the spate of kidnappings and killings that occur daily across the country. Moreover, corruption, which is like a poison coated with sugar and thus mortally dangerous to the entire human species, is rooted in Nigeria’s public and private sectors.

There is no law and order in the polity. Almost everyone is morally and mentally impatient that we cannot follow queues in banks, hospitals, airports and shops. In virtually all instances, one person tries to take advantage of the other. The public space is chaotic. So, ordinary people are under pressure as we go about our daily activities. And worse is that there is hopelessness on our faces, given that there is no hope in sight for merry days ahead.

What is very obvious is that both the leaders and the followers in this country are ready to let the nation continue journeying on this very rough and dusty path. While most of the leaders here are selfish, the biggest number of followers are irresponsible. Most Nigerian politicians aim to rule and please themselves through corruption and self-aggrandisement. They achieve it by using the fault lines of religion, region or ethnicity to divide the people and eventually get the opportunity to perpetuate themselves in power.

And to worsen matters, the people, the electorate, who have the democratic means to save the nation from the drift towards collapse, have failed to do so for obvious reasons. Poverty and illiteracy, which are direct products of bad governance, have effectively forced the people into allowing the leaders of Nigeria to divide us on the fault lines of religion, region or ethnicity and then rule us. This is one of the reasons why Nigerians rarely speak in unison against all the hardships and the apparent injustices the people are grappling with.

Jarmajo writes from Misau, Bauchi state, via dattuwamanga@gmail.com.

The North is Nigeria’s vote bank 

By Abdulrahman Yunusa 

As far as democracy is concerned, Nigeria would forever be governed by Northerners, either directly or indirectly. Not because they are politically astute better than the rest, but quite sure because of the large number of voters they have at their disposal.

As they say, democracy is the game of numbers. Thanks to years of political games, any living soul can attest to this assertion in Nigeria. The North has ever been topping the rest of the regions in numbers. Despite the problems bedevilling the northern part, the permutations often favour them in politics. 

It’s either us or anyone that we choose to side with. History is with us, and we can peruse through it and grapple with the meaning of the mighty political North. Perhaps we may have bad political players or actors in the regions, but despite that, our interest and relevance becloud that of anyone.

Therefore, at this moment, you can campaign against any Northern candidate, but be wary of going too far, for you can’t make it singlehandedly without these “vote banks”. So while criticizing the former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar or Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso in favour of Peter Obi or whatever candidate you may wish to side with, don’t scold the North harshly because they are determinants of your fate politically.

However, in the quest for fairness and justice in politics, I can see nothing wrong with anyone clamouring for zoning or power shift/rotation among the six geopolitical zones we have because that’s the only way to tame the issues of marginalization and Islamization agendas.

Thus, to make the North an object of ridicule for the political loggerhead you have with any other northern candidate is akin to political hara-kiri, if not a hurricane. That action would consume you and the region you are backing because the North can do without you and choose to go side-by-side with other regions.

Northerners might be an epicentre of poverty, illiteracy and crisis for quite some years. Still, denying them one thing they are the best at, meaning “politics”, is absolutely a great injustice to one conscience. 

Hence, Northerners have championed that cause over the years at any length. Taking this credit away from them overnight will be challenging for one to achieve. To say the North is indispensable in the realm of Nigeria is an utter understatement.

You are free to endorse anyone of your kinsmen – be it Peter Obi, Bola Tinubu, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo or whatever you like to choose but make sure your political calculations cut across the broader areas.

We pray to have someone who can unite, restore, develop, and uplift the country. Someone who can be a source of prosperity and national progress is all the eye and yearn as a president. So let’s shun the question of sentimentalism and regionalism and put Nigeria’s image into concern.

May Nigeria and Nigerians win at last, amin.

Burna Boy decries killings in Nigeria

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

Nigerian award-winning artist, Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu, popularly known as Burna Boy, has expressed sadness and delivered condolence over the terrorist attacks happening across Nigeria. 

Burna Boy took to his verified Facebook account on Monday, June 6, 2022, to express sorrow, condolence and solidarity with the victims of the incessant attacks ravaging the country.

“Nothing is sacred anymore!? Mother’s, fathers, children and babies getting killed. 💔My heartfelt condolences to all those who have lost family or friends from terrorists strikes across our country 🇳🇬 these past few months. I stand with you.” He posted 

In recent times, notorious terrorists have been hitting many places in Nigeria, which has caused the loss of lives and property.

Disablism and how we are all potential victims

By Khairat Suleiman Jaruma

Halima is in her teens, tall and pretty. She had a charming smile. All through the chat, she participated actively, and I liked her for that. Halima has hearing loss, and she is mute. We had a conversation on menstrual hygiene at her school.

At the end of the chat, Halima volunteered to give a vote of thanks on behalf of the school. She said in sign language, “thank you for coming to talk to us about menstrual hygiene. We really appreciate it. When we make some of the mistakes you mentioned, we get mocked because we are mute, and most people don’t care about how we feel because they don’t think we have a place in the society”.

I felt my heart break. I fought back the tears that welled up at the back of my eyes. Then I remembered another encounter with a mute gentleman in Abuja recently. He also mentioned that most people in our society mock people who are mute and have hearing loss and other disabilities.

None of what both of them said was false. Instead, what these people experience is called disablism. It is the discriminatory, oppressive, abusive behaviour arising from the belief that disabled people are inferior to others.

In our society, persons with disabilities face stigma and discrimination in the form of negative attitudes among family and community members, name-calling, and wrong beliefs about the causes of disabilities, which results in low self-esteem, depression, and isolation.

According to the World Bank assessment, 29 million Nigerians have a disability, representing 15 per cent of the estimated national population of 195 million in 2018. Unfortunately, a vast number of this population live in abject poverty and are unemployed and uneducated due to stigmatization and lack of inclusion.

Most of the schools for children with special needs are in horrible shape. Parents with children with disability think educating a disabled child is not a profitable venture and can only help the child by keeping the child at home away from stigmatization. According to the National President, Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities, Ms Ekaite Umoh, only two per cent of the people with disabilities had formal education.

In our hospitals, we don’t have provisions for people with disabilities. Patients with intellectual disabilities, e.g. deaf and hard of hearing persons, are disrespected when they complain of any health challenge. Their condition makes it hard for them to discuss their problems with doctors holistically, and several hospitals lack the facilities to ensure equal treatment of all patients.

Perry (2018) asserts that doctors find it hard to believe patients diagnosed with an intellectual disability. Accordingly, medical workers are fond of carelessly assuming that persons with intellectual disabilities fake symptoms and illnesses. This can infuriate patients who have a hard time discussing their conditions and cause the medical staff to demand psychiatric evaluations of the patient. Unfortunately, patients with disability are readily judged as mentally imbalanced when visiting hospitals for treatment or diagnosis (Ayub and Rasaki 283).

Regrettably, at some point in our lives, we all experience one or more forms of disability, at our young age or due to old age, accident or illness. That is why I feel we must take people with disability into consideration and create a society that provides the unique support they need to meet their particular needs, as we would also be beneficiaries of this support in the long run.

Remember that disability is a condition that could happen to anyone, and conditions are not curable. Such conditions can only be managed. So let’s create a system and environment that manages disabilities and optimizes the potential of people with disability. 

Khairat Suleiman Jaruma wrote from Kaduna via khairatsuleh@gmail.com.

Why Kwankwaso deserves more accolades

By Najib Ahmad, PhD

We often hear people saying that ‘he [Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso] did it with the government funds.’ And so? Oh, you expect him to do it with his money; then, you will ponder whether he’s worthy of their gratitude. But, this is not how things have been done right from the inception.

If you read over the history of the previous great Muslim rulers like Umar Ibn Abdulaziz (61-101 AH), may Allah have mercy on him, you will realize the incredible impressions he left on people despite being a caliphate for a short period. But, it is known that all he had achieved and built weren’t from his funds. Still, he’s remembered and admired.

People often appreciate the history of how other nations developed, which primarily transpired through human development. But, for example, how do you think today’s China and Singapore got it right? Do you think they only wake up to all this in the morning? No, it was because some leaders decided to do it right and went on to create policies that enabled them to reach where they are today.

For instance, if you take China, they unconditionally relish Deng Xiaoping – the architect of modern China. While Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew is also highly recognized as the founder of modern Singapore, they constantly appropriate him for its development. During their time as leaders of developing nations, all they have accomplished weren’t with their funds but with the government funds.

Those leaders’ priorities then were primarily policies on education and the industrial revolution transformation. Sending students, including the peasant farmers’ children, to universities worldwide via scholarships was part of Mr Xiaoping’s most significant policies that China benefited from. His initiatives have matured into a whole system, i.e., the China Scholarship Council (CSC) and China Postdoctoral Science Fund. This remarkable initiative alone helps them strengthen their universities and vocational colleges with a quality workforce and, in turn, enables them to become the world’s industrial powerhouse.

Today, check all your household belongings to verify the above. Those two leaders are still relevant in China’s and Singapore’s present days. You can’t underestimate their significance no matter how you try due to the enormous opportunities and equal advantages they created for their people.

I understand your frustrations, which is why one person out of more than 12 million people of Kano is receiving too many accolades. First of all, it is their choice to appreciate him, mind you. This is because he means so much to them. The good thing is, you can’t deny them this satisfaction even if you try. So, why the resentment? Allow those that prefer to do what suits them to continue thanking and re-thanking him till the end of time, if that is their wish. What’s your problem with their choice, fisabilillahi?

Above all, the main thing to look at is that appreciating Kwankwaso’s effort doesn’t physically hurt you or anyone else or destroy any of our fundamental values. In fact, it is teaching people to learn to recognize good deeds and be thankful to whoever is responsible or part of their progress in life. Isn’t this a harmless mannerism to learn, emulate, and propagate?

Dr Najib Ahmad is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Shandong University, China. He can be contacted via namuhammad03@gmail.com.

APC screening committee disqualifies 10 presidential aspirants

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The All Progressives Congress, APC, screening committee has disqualified ten aspirants vying for the presidency on the party’s platform. 

The Chairman of the Committee, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, disclosed this on Friday, June 3, 2022, while submitting the committee reports to the ruling party’s Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, in Abuja. 

The names of the affected candidates are yet to be disclosed, but 23 aspirants participated in the screening, and only 13 were reportedly successful. 

The successful candidates are expected to participate in the primary election scheduled to hold between 6 to June 8.

Is education still key to success?

By Kasim Isa Muhammad

Education is the bedrock of development. Suppose the education system in the country can be revised to emphasize the practical aspect of education, particularly entrepreneurship. In that case, there is a great tendency that youths will be self-reliant and employers of labour. This is because they must have developed knowledge in technology and had productive knowledge for the future.

Education can be the key to success if the government, at all levels, can create a technical support platform for undergraduates to learn how to transform their knowledge into something useful for the nation.

Also, education can be considered a key to success when the students acquire good knowledge from qualified teachers and trainers. Therefore, the government needs to look for quality teachers, put them at the forefront, pay them good salaries, and equip the educational buildings with modern materials. If the students go through such a way of acquiring knowledge, education can be described as the key to success.

There is no doubt that education is the key to the problem in every human society, but, unfortunately, in Nigeria, the case is entirely different, where graduates roam the streets looking for jobs. However, in developed countries, students are taught to invest in entrepreneurship.

Recent statistics establish that 25 million graduates are unemployed, indicating that the government cannot employ the high population of graduates. Thus, there is a need for government to think and rethink providing job opportunities for our teeming youths.

Nonetheless, the government is doing its best to reduce unemployment with many programs initiated by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. The N-power is a good example. The program was solely established to reduce unemployment, but unfortunately, many Nigerians are misusing the money that will help them invest in entrepreneurship.

Yes, education is still a key to success when some skills are acquired. However, many of our graduates do not know that skill is sometimes more important than a certificate. Obviously, in the real world, people need to see what you can give, not what you have.

We all need to wake up from our deep slumber because the government cannot do it alone. We need to use the skills we acquired to help find lasting solutions to problems bedevilling the country.

Kasim Isa Muhammad wrote from Potiskum, Yobe state.

Battling financial insecurity in Nigeria

By Nusaiba Ibrahim Na’abba

It is indeed sickening and quite unfortunate to have been part of the Nigerians alive to witness the gruesome killing of Harira and her children and two others in Anambra State. We haven’t even been relieved of tensions that arose from the derogatory remarks on our beloved Rasul SAW. And amid these tensions, another heartless fellow has murdered his niece in Kano – a similar event as Hanifa’s.

Undoubtedly, these seven years since the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari kicked off have been the most unprecedented for many Nigerians. Stressful periods have made killings assume a state of normalcy, especially in the Northern part of the country, and many horrendous activities now don’t even get into the spotlight.

While we continue to deal with post traumas after witnessing more than enough horrifying stories of senseless murders and killings of innocent lives, we continue to fiercely battle financial uncertainties from different angles, coming in distinct shapes and sizes. There has never been a time when we have found ourselves at risk of losing our earnings. From a series of unfounded mobile messages to mysterious calls and emails from strangers, we have been bombarded with multiple ‘Yahoo! or 419’ daily. We think one step to securing our earnings while these ‘intellectuals’ are already a hundred miles ahead. Such is the cruel world we live in a while our leaders wander in a desultory fashion.

To begin with, are the ‘Yahoo intellectuals’. In this context, they have proven beyond any iota of doubt that they are efficient to prosper and have almost always never missed their targets by successfully outsmarting technologies our private financial institutions, alias banks, breaching secured accounts of innocent people in order thieve their hard-earned money – only God knows the kind of cumbersome efforts put in to get them. They are perfectly immune to any countermeasure provided by these banks. Only a few of them are being traced.

The height of this situation will not puzzle you until you hear a bank staff declaring that it is not the bank’s fault but ‘yours’ – the customers’ fault – who exposed your bank details to a ‘Yahoo Pro’ unknowingly. Ideally, banks are supposed to be substitutes for traditional means of saving assets, but the current situation shows that they’re becoming dangerous institutions. Filing a complaint is intensely laborious as your insignificant earnings do not matter so much to the banks. You’d spend hours in a queue to face your worst fear – they can do nothing to help you.

In a recent report published by FJI Nigeria, a student’s $2000 was stuck and only released after their report. Similarly, just on May 8, 2022, the same FJI Nigeria published how a nurse based in Ogun State lost her N95,000 after her ATM card got stuck in the ATM and after her communication with one of the GT bank’s staff. Millions of peoples’ earnings have continued to slip away through untraceable means as banks claim or through multiple deductions from the banks. In some southern states, you could be robbed with a gun when withdrawing cash from an ATM and others adopt POS machines for these fraudulent activities.

There is also another set of dubious humans that use religious covers to decorate their Yahoo strategies. For example, you’d receive calls from unknown fellows claiming to be in good spirits, giving references from the Holy Qur’an and directing you to a strange place where they want you to keep the money for them, and they help you in return. Sounds hilarious, though, but it still happens. Another way they opt for is by sending random text messages about a critical condition of their family member, and they’d threaten you to send a stipulated amount to them or fear the unthinkable happening to you.

Let me highlight that the current wave of rancorous political exchanges in the primary elections is also enshrouded by financial insecurity. We have all vividly seen the disparity in the offers presented to ‘delegates’; it all boils down to ‘money’. Of course, it unveils how deep-seated corruption is in our country, but it also paves the way for us to see that not only the ruled are financially unstable. As the delegates go for the highest bidder, so do the aspirants try to bid the highest amount or withdraw from the race and embrace the likely winner for basically financial and political advantages. For the aspirants, some are very calculative to either invest where they’ll win or save what they’ve pocketed.

I wouldn’t do justice to this discourse without reiterating the kidnap for ransom mishap that continues to flourish without any sign of slowing down. The ‘business’ has now reached a stage of maturity such that Nigerians are challenged to save for unwary expectations indirectly. You may not be directly involved, but your support would be needed when an outrageous amount of money is demanded from a person you know.

The dangerous convergence of economic hardship, lack of political will, and financial insecurity has placed Nigerians grievously. The damage done to widows, orphans, families, workers and students is unimaginable. Assets aren’t safe at home and are neither safe at the banks. And with the continuous devaluation of the Nigerian currency, the means of our sustenance has become an uneasy endeavour.

For now, the government is overwhelmed with so much politicking – divergences, convergences and calculations are taking a toll on virtually everything. So, since the major financial institutions that deal with the exchange of money are private, and the government has proven its incompetency to bring solace to our impediments being at the receiving end, we can offer solid suggestions on how best we can be treated with dignity by these banks.

Securing our dignity and finance at this point means banks must make a move to create codes that we can use to halt the operation of our accounts when necessary. It’s distressing how they have created codes for transfers and recharge card purchases without prioritising securing our accounts. This can be a gigantic step to counter our susceptibility to fraudsters as they are fully aware that their malicious intentions can only be crushed when the damage is done.

Then, it would be worthwhile for the government to equip its legal system to challenge these private financial institutions to ensure sanity in their operations. I firmly believe they aren’t above the law, and nobody is.

Nusaiba Ibrahim Na’abba is a master’s student from the Department of Mass Communication, BUK. She is a freelance writer and researcher. She can be reached via nusaibaibrahim66@gmail.com.

ASUU Strike: A note to our students at home and the party delegates

By Prof. Abdelmalik Abdelghaffar Amoka

The strike is 14 weeks (1 semester) today and we don’t know how many more weeks we are going to spend at home before getting back to classes. The closure of the universities has afforded us to spend a lot of time on the net, especially on social media, and following the happenings around Nigeria and the rest of the world. It is no more news that primary elections are ongoing in Nigeria and delegates are trending. The best business at the moment is to be a delegate of any of the two major political parties and you make cool millions at the expense of Nigeria. From the State House of Assembly, House of Rep, Senate, Governor, and Presidential ticket of APC or PDP, it is for the highest bidder.

They said Nigeria is broke and can’t fund education but contestants paid so much for nomination and expression of interest forms and are buying delegates to get their party’s ticket to contest to lead Nigerians. They have also budgeted the money to buy votes for the main election. Is Nigeria really poor? Who pays so much to lead a broke organization? While ASUU is on strike because that is the only thing to get the attention of our leaders, the president is traveling around the world, his associates are moving around the country with billions of naira looking for tickets, and the students are at home on Instagram, Facebooking, tweeting, and tiktoking.

You would have expected the students to take their destiny into their hands, but they can’t. They are celebrating the withholding of the salaries of lecturers, queuing behind the politicians looking for tickets, and celebrating the highest bidders that got the ticket. A few weeks ago, the students said there won’t be a primary election in Abuja if the strike is not called off. But PDP just finished its primary election in Abuja in the game of the highest bidder. I actually did not take the threat from our new generation of student leaders serious looking at the “success” of their recent university of the street protest.

With our version of democracy, there will never be money for education, healthcare delivery, and other critical sectors since they have to recover the invested funds to get “elected” with interest. It’s difficult to fight corruption because the foundation of our democracy is corruption. The person expected to fight corruption is fully immersed in corruption. So, how is he going to get the job done?

Somebody once wrote that the government want to give a loan of 1 million naira to students and ASUU was against it. This is the scam. Do you still remember when DISCOs in collaboration with FG came up with electricity bills by bands in 2020? Less than 2 years later, the band on a minimum of 20 electricity per day now gets less than 4 hours electricity per day and no one to complain to and no compensation. That is what will happen to the student’s loan. They will give you the loan which you can’t pay back because there is no job except you the money to buy a job as is currently obtainable. After about 5 years later, the loan will stop and you are stuck with tuition that an average Nigerian parent cannot afford. But why is ASUU even bothering itself with this scam? Why is ASUU thinking for the parents and the general public? We possibly need to start thinking of letting it be and focus on our welfare. Let’s allow the government to introduce tuition and leave that to the public to deal with.

While the government is complaining of no funds for education and our universities are closed for 1 semester and still counting due to a crisis between ASUU and FG over university funding and welfare, the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) has shortlisted 8,800 applicants for its overseas scholarship programme. This scheme is smoothly going on every year for over 20 years without any complaints. It is budgeted for and no need for a strike to get that done. Our universities are underfunded and we are shipping our limited resources abroad in the name of the overseas scholarship to contribute to the development of universities in Malaysia, the UK, Germany, France, and China through PTDF, TETFund, NITDA, etc.

These scholarship schemes have been on for over 20 years and we are gladly sending more for MSc and PhD abroad every year on public funds while public universities are underfunded and ASUU has to fight, the academic calendar distorted to get a little attention for our public universities. While the scholars on FG scholarship are living a comfortable life abroad, the students in Nigeria’s public universities are studying under pathetic conditions and have to suffer from the frequent ASUU strike.

Sadly, the bond signed by these scholars is just a formality as you don’t have to come back. Even the scholars that came back to the country are frustrated and can’t fit into the system that funded their scholarship as there is no preparation for their return. No provision for a conducive environment to enable them to be productive and train others.

You spent so much money to train scholars every year without any plan for them. If care is not taken, the amount of money spent on these scholarship schemes every year may be close to half of the money being requested for the revitalization of public universities. We are rich enough to keep funding overseas scholarship schemes to train individuals but too poor to properly fund public universities to develop better mass human resources for our system.

Meanwhile, what are the objectives of these scholarship schemes? What is the timeline to achieve it? It is definitely not for life. Has PTDF, TETFund, and NITDA sat down to evaluate how far we have gone and the impact of these schemes so far on the system with respect to the objectives? Where is the report? Haven’t we trained enough manpower to be empowered to train others in our universities in Nigeria? Why can’t we redirect these funds to our universities for these trained scholars to use to train others?

Unfortunately, we are developing individuals and not the system. The scholars are trained for themselves, the delegates’ vote is for the highest bidder, the highest bidder will bribe the voters to win the election, and the winner of the election will go there to help himself and leave the system poor. I watched a video recently where the wife of a governor was sharing 1 million naira each to her security staff. Where did she get the money from? State resources? She is not known for any business. Teachers in that same state are paid 17% of their salary. They don’t care what happens to public schools at all levels.

Dear Nigerians, as the delegates that you sent for the primary elections, are happily enjoying the money they were paid for their vote and you are celebrating the highest bidder that got the ticket and mocking those that could not afford to buy the delegates, just know that they have just been paid the money meant for education and other critical sectors. We have lost the moral right to complain about corruption.

Dear students, It is a vicious cycle and it ain’t going to change till we are willing to change it. The lecturers have taken their decisions and they are willing to stay off academic activities for as long as possible with or without salary, till their demands are met. The politicians don’t care that you are at home after all their kids are not in public school. They are bribing their ways to sustain their political and economic dynasty and the delegates are happily collecting it.

Meanwhile, who were the returning officers at the primary elections? Definitely not Professors. Tomorrow you will start blaming ASUU that Professors helped them rig elections. Politicians know how to rig the elections with or without the presence of the Professors that the INEC boss invited. So, use your head when you blame ASUU.

In conclusion, the people that can raise such an amount of money to spend to get political positions can also generate funds to save our universities from collapsing if they so care to lead you. It’s up to you if you want to remain at home, Facebooking, tweeting, tiktoking, and keep watching as the system keeps decaying. The ball is in your court.

Amoka is from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.