By Professor Aliyu Barau
ASUU’s two-week ultimatum expired last Sunday on the eve of peace deal in the Middle East. Perhaps, the key lesson derivable from the whole saga is the failure of the strongest to quash or quieten the weak. At last, peace avoidance ended in search for peace – regardless of the monkeyshines, both Hamas and Israel sat for ceasefire. Somehow, this underlines the prevailing tug of war between the Federal Government of Nigeria – the powerful, and ASUU – the dogged fighter. By rule of nature, those seen as weak and powerless often win battles in the long run.
I wouldn’t blame the current Minister of Education Tunji Alausa for this imbroglio. But I will accuse him of carelessly mishandling this heritage crisis – repeating mistakes of some of his predecessors.
I carefully watched the Minister Tunji Alausa’s interview with TVC on the current strike. He tried with an impenetrable obtuse to push the Government’s moonshine and Orwellian doublespeak on its commitment to the Nigerian university system. Without saying it, he was very clear on deployment of extant laws to “deal with” ASUU. Certainly, he was insinuating the clichéd ‘No Work, No Pay’ policy. I consider that as typical error 404 – which in this case I will call ‘wisdom not found’.
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I tried to read and analyse the minister’s outburst using one touchstone or another. Eventually, I settled on some psychology devices. In that clip, I observed his expressions, gesticulations and mien. His expressions were boring, lacking deep confidence and relying on the nearby notes to help him zoom in and out of some archly statistics. I could see his deep frustration with ASUU through what psychologists call essential actions of arrogance that individuals exhibit through vertical neck tilt, downward head tilt and downward eye gaze. I saw all of these in the said clip. These are involuntary trait defining features known to psychologists. The Minister must understand that anger, frustration and impatience are not the best tools for handling this situation. I wonder why the Minister couldn’t even find resort in blaming the previous administrations just to construct an alibi.
Not understanding ASUU members’ predicaments and key demands stand as a gargantuan gaffe. Simply put yourself on the position of university teachers in Nigeria. Why weaponising our salaries? It is neither a novel nor an innovative option. To the credit of Tinubu Administration, it reversed and righted the wrongs of the previous administration on this evil and senseless weaponisation. Perhaps, the minister has forgotten a proverb saying: Bi aba so oko loja ara ile eni ni ba. My Yoruba brethren warn mischief-makers that the stone they throw may fall on their relative. Weaponsing salary will no longer scare ASUU. I wonder how humans undo their conscience to invoke hardship hammers for fellow humans and teachers for that matter. Sometimes, this weakness or wickedness is not unconnected to the dopamine, the so called happy hormone. Some people experiencing dopamine-hit develop aggressive behaviours. Does that include the joy of punishing any voice of dissent? I don’t know. However, people who wallow in expensive suits, nice colognes, fine wristwatches, exotic wines and are surrounded by chorus of yes-people become often too undiplomatic. What do you expect when all that matters to the yes-men who in defence of bad actions project hasbara – a Zionists word for you can’t understand it, even if it is explained to you, and yet you should.
To some people, ASUU is just a bunch of recalcitrant troublemakers. Maybe because they are too poor to embark on shopping spree at Galeries Lafayette at the 9th arrondissement of Paris, Dubai and other duty free shops. Thank God for the poor teachers and their nation building resolve. ASUU struggles to make sure no Lazarus is on the campus. Now the question is who is the next Lazarus on the campus? It pains me to see petrol becoming a firewall between lecturers and their poor cars. To my mind, the minister’s old-fashioned directives to VCs to open registers to mar the strike is another messy mistake. Maybe he needs to understand that ASUU is the military wing of the Nigerian university. It is armed with knowledge, logic and reason to defeat all arsenals against it. IBB administration is the first to crystallize and catalyse ASUU into its current diamond-hard resilience.
It seems to me that this fighter minister doesn’t understand the politics of realpolitik. Being in Government in Nigeria is like being in the boiling soup of sinister convulsions. Hadiza Bala Usman, the policy coordination Head Girl of this Administration, in her memoirs namely, Stepping On Toes, offers an excellent vignette of the Nigerian edition of typical scenarios of realpolitik. Those who push the minister today may pull him down tomorrow. I hope the minister doesn’t regret his actions later or late.
I would like to predict the big game that could unfold after the two-week strike. Firstly, President Tinubu comes back from the Aqaba summit in Italy, by then he might chide the minister and probably take over the deliberations himself or direct someone else to ensure the lecturers are back to lecterns. The second scenario could be that the President directs the minister to sit with ASUU and NOT ALL other unions. It will still count as big win for ASUU to push its demands again. Third, and the most unlikely scenario is for the hawkish to win against the dovish and full fledge strike begins. Then public sentiment might push both the government and even ASUU to a reconciliation pathway.
With all sense of sincerity and honesty, God knows, many of us have the wherewithal to leave the country and earn as high as any pride vocation. But, God himself tied us here to cultivate great minds and the future generations of this great nation. Anybody determined to kill ASUU for its fight to right the wrongs will die first. Nigeria has no option but to genuinely come back to education as a pillar of development. For any serious government, No work, No pay is not as damaging as No Pay, No Work.
Professor Aliyu Barau, Bayero University Kano. Friday, 17, 2025
