?ASUUPROTESTS! ?ASUU PROTESTS!! ?ASUUPROTESTS!!!
PRESS RELEASE
TOWARDS BRINGING THE ONGOING ASUU STRIKE TO AN END; THE INDISPENSABLE ROLE OF NIGERIAN STUDENTS.
It is now so glaring that the lingering
ASUU strike has refused for reasons one cannot comprehend, to abate. The
more we cast our hopes to a lasting solution in the shortest time, the
more the problem continue to deteriorate and even more saddening, the
more our future continue to fritter away at the hands of those whose
generation are no doubt far better than ours.
Sequel to the foregoing, our
gentility and civility has been tried more than enough. Despite having
allowed both government and the leadership of ASUU to find a common
ground and resolve the dispute between them, yet it seems its either the
leadership of ASUU are bent on holding the nation to ransom using the
destiny of students as a bargaining power or, that the government have
sworn to deprive us of our fundamental right-Education for reasons, we
cannot fathom.
But are we going to allow these
people, to steal into our future? Should we continue to fold our hands
and watch like morons while the fools who parade themselves as our
leaders continue to do injury to our today and our unknown tomorrow? Are
we not already tired of being the turf on which this macabre dance
between the Government and ASUU is held? What was our sin, other than
that by the accident of providence we were born into this part of the
world? Isn’t the future ours? Why then has the government refused to
make it a better one for us? Can they compare our university days to
their own? Were they not home to the best learning environment and
academic condition? Why have they chosen to deny us of having just a
little of what they had in their own days? Is it not a case of sheer
wickedness?
But in all of it, what have we done?
Have we shown any commitment on our part? We call ourselves “Great
Nigerian Students”. Do we even know what greatness is about? If we do,
how have we shown by our actions that indeed we are great? True some of
us have tried in one way or the other to show that we are pained and
short changed, but many of us have thrown in the towel and have allowed
despots to lay claims to the most important tool of our
civilization-Education and we have unconsciously done so, by our
inactions and omissions. Having said that, are we also going to allow
them to get away with this latest crime? No, we must do something. We
must rise and allow these scales to be sequestered from our eyes. If a
spell has been cast on us, we must stand up and denounce whoever may
have been responsible for that.
What happened to the revered spirit
of ALUTA? Where is our umbrella body NANS? Where are our diverse student
union leaders in the various state and federal campuses? Perhaps they
have gone cold like black coals in the harmattan. What happened to their
voices? And for the few who have been able to come out clean with their
voices, how have we helped them to shout even louder? These are serious
questions begging for serious answers. If the strike has lingered this
far, I am beginning to believe that it is because we have allowed it to.
Why and how You may ask? – By our inactions and refusal to stand up and
reclaim what is ours.
Only a week ago, a student was
deported in France; those of us who followed the story know what became
of the entire nation. The students in their numbers almost brought that
country to a halt and drew the attention of the world. That is what
students are renowned for. Little Yousafzei Malala, the Pakistani girl,
fought for the right of the girl child to education in Pakistan. All we
do is read about them and block our head to learn a thing or two from
their bravery or even repeat the feat here. No. we so much love our
lives. We fear the men in uniform more than we fear God. We are more
interested in things so mundane and have in that process lost everything
we stand for and have been taken for toothless baboons. We sulk I must
say and I am sorry to say that.
Shall we allow this madness to
continue? It seems many of us still don’t know that in the current
world, it is only in Nigeria that students will be shut out of schools
for four whopping months and that society or that nation continues to
work. It’s leaders continue to live as though, fortune has rather smiled
on the nation. It is only here in Nigeria that we talk but always
lacking in the will to walk our talk. The little time when our spirit is
willing, our love for the flesh makes our body weak like people who
have just ran a marathon. If we continue in this way, our future will be
the darkest in the history of this nation. But no, we must do
something. What then?
I enjoin each and every one of us to
join the ASUU PROTESTS across the social media especially on face book
and on twitter. Many of us are available on that space and for those who
aren’t, we can always tell them verbally. We need to gather all the
momentum we need across this medium before we go out to the streets and
be heard. We have remained silent for too long enough that I wouldn’t
blame anyone who takes our silence for stupidity. Our population is
monstrous. Our target is a one million student’s march on a date to be
communicated the moment our numbers reach our estimated height. Our
vehicle is the Social Media. It is a tool with which we can utilize to
change our society; little wonder many have said that it may yet change
Africa. True we lack access to the old media moreover; our target
audience is barely represented there.
We shall be assigning leaders across
all the states of the federation to direct the forthcoming National
March. We are not out to disrupt the public peace or do violence to
anybody or organization. On the contrary, we just want to be heard loud
and clear saying and chanting, “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”. This is not the time
to give in to fears and despondency. We are on a struggle to re-claim
and restore our relevance and also be factored into the equation of this
comatose of a nation. I am ready to do it; I am ready to put my life on
the line for this cause. I am ready to take that bullet but the greater
question is: when I am gone, will you have the nerve and the onions to
pick up from where we have stopped and continue with the struggle? That
is the biggest question. There is no struggle without tears and that
feeling of giving up, so ours will not and cannot be an exception but
winners are those who never allow themselves to be drowned by their
inner voices. We must not be trapped by any dogma.
The official twitter handle is
@Asuuprotests and the hash tag is ?ASUUPROTESTS. Let us get on the train
and from there organize ourselves and chart out our winning formation.
There is no gain saying the fact that our National or umbrella body-NANS
have sold their mandate and have eaten the biblical Esau porridge but
we must let them know that it is our interest they represent and their
mandate comes from our individual votes and when they cease to be our
representatives for parochial gains, we must show them that it is in our
hands that their legitimacy lies and not some sort of natural,
imprescriptible or inalienable rights conferred on them by Nature.
Our target and goal is to re-claim
back our education from those who are bent of taking it away from us in
the brightness of the sun. If we were once blind, we are no longer
blind. And if we are no longer blind, then we must act like a people who
still have the pristine advantage of their eyes. Join me as we take on
this struggle and how great is our distress and the burden that lies
ahead of us, until it is over.
Nkannebe Raymond is a writer
and a Law student in the University of Maiduguri. He shares some of his
thoughts on twitter via @yung_silky
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