The open-ended feud between the Federal government and the striking Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics is in no petite measure a threatening surge, a menacing ghoul like the evil of the thriller capable of retrogressing the hitherto cancerous Nigeria polytechnic structure into an abyss of reckless abandonment where it obviously seem to be destined for.
The royal rumble between these two authorities has attracted quite a little less lamentation and denunciation than expected from public pundits, educational right activist and especially the masses mouthpiece -the media. Much to the disservice of solitary casualties . . . like me
After a great deal of observation, I fashioned it was more or less a reckless bout between two unmarketable oppositions. The FG on her own regard has an unbridled flair to frustrate agitators and bore out the on-looking public with lullabies of recycled promises. While on the other hand, the acronym, ASUP or any other polytechnic appendage would barely stir two heads amongst a dozen of optimistic Nigerians. This is owing to an oversimplified conception that polytechnic education is the bedrock towards a life of superlative slavery in the labour market. In fact, there are still undergraduates today in polytechnics, many thanks to the ill wind of JAMB that seldom blows any good.
Apparently, both ASUP and their fighting boss –the Federal government have miniature public reputation in their respective regards, which partly explain the apathy of spectators following this brawl.
Beside the wailing students at home and their worried parents, no one else seems to have taken into cognizance the compulsory holiday and the implication of the same in most polytechnic across the country. Left for some faint lamentation lost in the belly of few newspapers and blogs, the uncanny plights suffered by polytechnics, it students and their grievances are under-reported and under-covered.
Even the trumpeters and town criers of the opposition parties like the ACN and CPC, who prey on loose hole in the government’s backline to score cheap political goals, did not recognize the unusual -that thousands of polytechnic students have being rendered retard for weeks now. Our absence from school is barely discernible by their money-coated eyes that are ever lusting after mammon and supremacy. Much to the disservice of solitary casualties . . . like me
In March this year when the Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU threatened a walkout, our legislators in lower house were quick to summon the bespectacled Minister for Education professor Ruquyat into their chamber. That singular action created a cloud of fortification over the university dons and their grounds. Nevertheless, nobody tends to trouble or stir if the length of the industrial action embarked upon by polytechnic lecturers is undefined. I bet ASUP could go on for perpetuity and no eyes would blink in the hollow chamber. Much to the disservice of solitary casualties . . . like me
I often wonder sometimes if there are no polytechnic products amongst those pugilists-cum legislators in Abuja. At least one who can make a noise for polytechnics: push bills in our favour: and be our Joshua. A knight in shining armor who will revoke the law that all graduates are equal, but some are equal then other; a redeemer who will give ASUP a voice and catalyze the implementation of their overdue agreements with the government. Maybe then, the dichotomy in the labour market will ebb; there may be no more reason to strike. Then we shall whack our torso as proud polytes and ease back to campus . . . oh! How amazing! . . . but that may just be another phantasm of a solitary casualty.
Against my mischievous imagination, I have rather observed that the discrimination against holders of Higher National Diploma (HND) from Nigerian polytechnics has congealed and has diffused unconsciously into mainstream politics where they are no more permissible to run for congress, less for Bachelor degree holder Bsc and above. This is an undocumented law that seems effective when closely checked. And even if a diplomat manage his way into the National assembly, the gleaming discord against his academic pedestal will chokes his bravado and he tends to shy away from his ruined alma Mata. Better still, in his quest for advancement he gallivants with the short-cutters and in a spark, he bags a PhD from the skies and forgot the cracked threshold from where hence he had limped.
Otherwise, nothing else can explain this phenomenon of certificate marginalization even in government strata. After seven years of declaration by the then president Obasanjo that HND could go beyond level 14 in the civil service, it still looks like a sweet fantasy. Much to the disservice of solitary casualties . . . like me
But the big question is, why would anybody want to eradicate polytes from the realm of the high and mighty . . .? That would be too much a disservice to solitary casualties . . . like me.
I may just have to make a case for the government at his point. The executive government seems too occupied to heed the mild drone of ASUP at this point. They are too busy with bureaucratic fraud and crude maneuvers. Even now, more engage than 1967. With the sinister brouhaha in the air from across the Benue River, the government would scarcely notice the buzzing of a league of semi-privileged lecturers. The interest of the presidency has been caught in the web of national theatrics and tragicomedy playing out in the upper Niger. He has no stage to spare the ASUP cast and their striking crew. ASUP apparently choose the wrong season to run this episode for Mr President.
I reckon the daily menu at the dining in Aso rock would be a simulacrum of this: Boko haram and 2015 are his breakfast and dinner. While his lunch is a delicacy of PHCN and NNPC. Now where does ASUP fits in the presidential menu? Don’t ask me. Perhaps only Dr Reuben can tell.
This duel between ASUP and FG is like a vicious cycle with the students left in the conundrum and the consequences of the exhibition will be flagellated on the already mutilated polytechnic students. The product of a five years program –a stigmatized diploma would now be stretched –painfully and unnecessarily.
At this juncture, I would rather conclude without pardon that there was actually never a destiny for polytechnics in Nigeria. Even as the prospect of the host nation herself is an austere moorland with legions of daffodils that spread into a horizon of uncertainty. Much to the disservice of solitary casualties . . . like me
O. Valentine
08131058561
[email protected]
