By Om’eranmukaandu

Before proceeding, I choose to wish every reader of mine a very happy and prosperous new year 2021.

I have written quite a few thought-provoking pieces on the University system, ASUU, the industrial action of the union and the bureaucracy and apparachik of the Nigerian state in the last few months to the end of last year, 2020. The urge to write and keep writing has been so strong that I had to succumb and bare my mind herein.

The above title was received by me, whether spiritually or telepathically – you are free to decide – on the same day the Congress of our ASUU branch was held in my University. I was discussing the outcome of the meeting in the company of a few comrades-at-arms, flung in different groups of twos and fours, or even more, scattered around the Secretariat premises that fateful afternoon. Members had thronged the venue with eagerness to listen to the branch Chairperson’s update on the then on-going strike. I said with eagerness, going by the expression on their faces- female and male alike, because we have been consistent in the struggle. And no amount of manipulation or intimidation from the (dis)Honourable Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige on his white, imperial horse, was capable of discouraging or eroding our collective resolve to stand strong till the very end.

But after listening to the update on the strike, which had lasted for almost nine calendar months, minus the lockdown period necessitated by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in late February 2020, the eagerness on our faces got deflated. Especially, when it was obvious that the leadership of the Union had sent directives for a Referendum to be conducted by all the branches over the latest offers from government through its representative and mediator, the man on the white horse. No contrary view was countenanced from those who held such. It was crystal clear that the battle has shifted gear, and even if the majority of our members did not want to support the imminent and apparent suspension of the strike, they would definitely have their say, while the minority, though not minions, will have their way!

In place of the eagerness, what I saw was melancholy, bordering on anguish. It was not unexpected. This is a bunch of workers, intellectual workers who have been denied their wages on account of the struggle for their welfare and the wellbeing of the system in which they work. But no government in this country, none of the men and women on.qhite horses have ever stopped to think deeply about their genuine fight without a flight and their plight. Over the last forty or so years, ASUU has beamed the strong search light on issues of national importance, especially education. The Union has remained consistent, committed, courageous for the love of the country. What does it get instead?

This latest exercise was a near futility, spanning a period of nine calendaric months. The insulting feedback from the public, insensitive to the plot of the oppressors in power and the harrowing plight of the liberators in the trenches, cannot be captured in words. One can only say, Condolences, ASUU, and Nigerians. This is nothing short of the death of our public universities, the dearth of reason and resoluteness. The monster has bared its fangs and sunk deep into the bony fabrics of our national development. Aww! See the bloody entrails gushing out like jaundiced, licit pizza into the outstretched hands of the stunted lickspittle on the white horse! Condolences, indeed, to ASUU.

As at the time of writing this, halfway into the first month of the year of our Lord, the promised implementation of part of the renewable Memorandum of Action, MoA, coined in February 2019, at the behest of the negotiators from the Buhari administration, during the penultimate strike action by the Union, was still defiantly a deja vu. At the end of the first 31st of last month. You can then imagine the dejection in these Homo sapiens, members of ASUU nationwide, who are now being forced to return to the classrooms, on empty stomachs, the infrastructure of living have been denied them. The man on the white horse is suddenly reticent. He doesn’t call the media scurrying to his whim and caprice anymore. He believes in his heart of hearts that he has broken this Union. He is confident he has delivered the death knell. His whimsical tactics seemed to have paid off this time around. Or so he believes.

His threat of registering a rival Association in November 2020 could not swim in the deep freezer he consigned it. He employed all manners of “V.I. boy” gimmicks akin to bolekaja tactics but failed woefully. He refused to “off his mic” when he was asked to, forgetting it is more honourable to quit when the ovation is loudest. But now, his ‘sigidi’ has ended up in the rain, and he is back home, with his tail between his trousered buttocks. Even his colleagues are silent, watching his show of shame, as a loyal errand boy who can be easily discarded.

But the Aluta spirit is an undying spirit that cannot be cowed. That remains to be seen in the days ahead as we approach another 31st of the month. Even though names of members of the Visitation Panels as demanded have been published, it remains to be seen whether funds will be mobilized to meet that obligation. The Earned Academic Allowances, EAA, arrears of salaries, and the Renegotiation of the extant 2009 Agreement with ASUU are still like sore thumbs. Time is ticking as we cling to our resolve: United We Stand, Divided We Fall. The pain is not bearable, though. We have been through it all, before now. We are invincible. A wall of defense for the educational development of generations yet unborn, a wall that is impregnable.

When…

The man on the white horse thinks he has the last laugh. We know better and that was why we bowed to pressure when the ovation was at the highest decibel. In order to remain relevant and responsible, he who fights and retreats, lives to fight another day. This may sound discordant with our slogan, No retreat, No surrender, though. But we know we are pained.
And until the pain is assuaged, all I can say is, Condolences, ASUU, Nigerians.

(Om’eranmukaandu is the pen name of Comrade ‘Diran Ademiju-Bepo, a former Vice Chairman and Acting Chairman of ASUU, University of Jos branch).

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Om’eranmukaandu. Writes Man on the White Horse: Condolences, ASUU, Nigerians