ASUU : Seun Kuti, Simi Share Views On Prolonged Strike
Reacting to the prolonged strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the son of the famous Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, Seun, has blamed both the union and the federal government for the standard of education in Nigeria.
Seun Kuti, a Nigerian musician, shared his thoughts on the ASUU strike on Friday at a Morning Show programme by the Arise Television, monitored by our correspondent.
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Recall that ASUU’s President, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi had on Thursday, accused the federal government of being unwilling to do its part in upgrading the quality of university education, including paying its 110-billion-naira revitalization fund.
But the federal government had claimed that it could not raise the fund.
However, Kuti shared the view that ASUU, a union of university lecturers, cannot genuinely say it is fighting for the betterment of education, adding that the issue of sex for grade is prevalent in certain tertiary institutions.
He also argued that the quality of education in the country is a direct reflection of what is being taught by the lecturers.
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Kuti also alleged that the number of educationists in the country has not improved the country’s standard of education either.
For the federal government, he stressed that its poor funding of the sector is proof that it does not have education at heart.
His words: “These two organizations combined don’t have the Nigerian interest at heart.
“Both ASUU and both Government, nobody really cares about the students; this is the real issue in the whole discussion that is happening.
“Because ASUU in itself, the relationship between students and lecturers in the university is flawed; you see all the cases of bribery for marks, rape for marks and all of that.
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“And even on the government side, they don’t care about the schools because all their children are abroad and they have divested from our universities whereby education is one of the least funded things in our budget.
“So, these two organizations combined do not have the interest of the enlightenment of the Nigerian mind at hand.
“We have to find a way to create an educational system and educators that have the Nigerian interest at heart. Because its not only education, we have created more educationists than we had in 1960 but has that improved education? No,” he said.
But on her part, Nigerian singer and songwriter, Simisola Kosoko, popularly known as ‘Simi’, believes that the federal government must bear the blame for the prolonged strike of public universities.
She faulted politicians who make promises to voters and abandon them when they get elected into offices.
She said it is the Nigerian students that are feeling the impact of the prolonged strike.
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“Higher institutions on strike for months almost, if not every, year. The odds are always stacked against the average Nigerian. You spend the first half of your life just trying to survive. To eat. To catch up. When you finally decide to settle, you don’t have enough to do even that
“Taking away the hopes and dreams of the youth. Destroying their futures so they’re ready to settle for crumbs. Just so they can live to see the next day and fight for more crumbs. Because they’re not your own children, their futures don’t matter???? Shame on you!!!
“If the leaders in our own country can’t have compassion on their own people, then what can we really do? They get into power and abuse it, abuse the people they should be serving. The rest of the world laughing at the so called giant of Africa. Shame on all of you!!,” she had tweeted on Wednesday.
