By Adeyinka Adeniran
The Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) University of Ibadan chapter, Professor Ayo Akinwole, on Tuesday challenged the Federal government to promote democratic culture and activities that will boost the Nigerian economy.
Professor Akinwole in a release to mark the June 12 Democracy day celebration entitled “Twenty Five Years of Democratic Era in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic: The Experience of the University System”, noted that “disappointingly and unfortunately, twenty-five years after the return of democracy to Nigeria, the Nigerian citizenry are yet to enjoy the benefits and dividends of democracy, as some or most of the malaise and challenges characteristic of the military rule are still very much palpable and obvious in the Nigerian body-politic”
The ASUU boss noted that “Six years after (June 6, 2018), the Muhammadu Buhari administration announced June 12 as democracy day in Nigeria, we have every reason to think celebrating democracy day cannot be enough without democratic leadership style”
Professor Akinwole noted that the FG owes “it a duty to our children, born and unborn to be educated in decent classrooms and not under the trees or sheds.”
He maintained that “Our children are entitled, as of right, to laboratory and classroom facilities. In the event of a lack of these, they will be enslaved all over again in the coming century by people who are not better endowed by nature and by God.
“The basic social amenities enjoyed by the citizens of other advanced democracies are still elusive and far-fetched in Nigeria. There is still epileptic power supply, inadequate and dysfunctional health care system, dilapidated road networks, dysfunctional educational system occasioned by poor funding and neglect by the government, and the ruling class. Similarly, the twin principles of liberty and equality on which modern democracy is founded are relatively absent in the Nigerian democracy.
“The absence of liberty can be exemplified in the incessant molestation of the citizenry by the ruling class and their agents. This is epitomized in the use of security operatives and the armed forces to brutalize Nigerians who embark on peaceful demonstrations (which is the universally accepted means of expressing grievances) as was the case during the “EndSars” protest in October 2020 and during the 2022 protest by the Nigerian students who were calling on the government to pay attention to the education sector and resolve its difference with the university unions in order to reopen the Universities in Nigeria during the ASUU strike of 2022.
“Again, equality, which is a fundamental human right and enshrined in the Nigerian constitution, is far from being implemented in the Nigerian democratic space. Equality calls for equal access to the justice system and to benefits accruable from citizenship of the Nigerian state. For instance, equal access to education is not guaranteed, which explains the high rate of illiteracy and out of school children in Nigeria.”
In the area of education, Professor Akinwole lamented that the public university system have continued to suffer under successive democratic leadership where “rather than supporting our ASUU’s advocacy for adequate funding of public universities, each Senator is surreptitiously pushing for the establishment of a university as part of their constituency projects while Visitors to State Universities who could not fund existing universities are creating two or more purely for electoral gains.
“This trend has put much stress on the intervention funds of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), which are diverted to establish new universities contrary to the Fund’s Act. I urge the President Tinubu-led administration to refrain from further proliferation of universities and refocus the system”
He noted that what Nigeria needs from the FG is to fund universities and develop them with the capacity to be able to solve Nigeria’s problems.
“What Nigeria need are universities that are adequately empowered to address the challenges confronting Nigeria and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their peers elsewhere in the world. During the lifetime of the last legislative session, a joint committee of ASUU and NUC submitted a draft bill to the National Assembly on this matter.
“However, that bill did not see the light of the day. The fallout from that is the reckless manner by which both the federal and state governments have continued to create universities without preparations for their funding. Nigeria boasts of over 170 universities comprising 79 that are owned by individuals and private organizations while 43 and 48 belong to the federal and state governments, respectively. However, about 95 percent of the students are still found in public universities, which underscores the imperative of prioritizing the federal and state universities in Nigeria.”
