COVID-19: An Alibi for Federal Government not to Settle ASUU, IPPIS’ Saga -By Hamza Wankari

It is sad that schools are to remain closed as announced by the federal government last night. You can recollect that schools at all levels were ordered to shut down for a period of thirty days (30), after which the closure was stretched out indefinitely. This decision implies, on one hand, containing the splash of the contagious, quick-consuming virus, on the other, escaping from the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) saga.

If today’s administration which before seeing the light of the day condemned the moves of the ones erstwhile, is now handling education lightly, then I have to say, there’s no development insight for Nigerian universities many more years ahead. The purported failed administration of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan(former president) by the Northerners, has done a commendable job in terms of making education a business of all by erecting eleven(11) federal owned universities which are situated in the states lagging. On these grounds, it’s time we rose above enthnicism, religious bigotry, sectionalism, etc. and give former President Goodluck Jonathan a credit. I have no iota of skepticism whatsoever, if this lasting dispute of IPPIS has met Jonathan in the seat, it has met its death in the twinkling of an eye.

Again, visiting lecturing is uphold by the NUC guidelines. If that is not acceptable by the IPPIS, then the provision that departments in universities must have a few Ph.D. holders as lecturers should be doctored to suit the federal government’s IPPIS. Today, visiting lecturers are the engines, not the engineers of many departments of our higher institutions of learning, if they are weighed against by the so-called impotent IPPIS. Imagine! How do baby federal universities like Federal University, Kashere, Nigerian Army University, Biu, Federal University, Dutse, Federal University, Wukari, to mention but a few, survive? Even some of our universities that breathe for two decades will soon succumb to their shaky foundations if IPPIS replaces university autonomy ultimately.
What about the state universities that support themselves on visiting lecturers? And their respective state governments cannot bear the monetary burden?

In addition to that, it is crystal clear this highly praised administration in the fight against corruption is playing snooker with our education.
In snooker, the blackball is the most important ball and the reason for the presence of other balls on the playing board is always focused or played the last and decides the finality of every snooker contest. This snooker analogy given is akin to the protracted discord between the federal government and the striking lecturers.

This present clueless administration which during electioneering pledged to place education topmost in the shelf, being the mainstay of excellence is now boycotting negotiation table, not to talk of reopening of schools for good, in the name of containing the splash of COVID-19 among the countrymen. News of late has it that FGN/ASUU meetings weren’t possible due to the deadly virus but other meetings not associated with universities or political meetings were feasible. This was a decision from the federal government. If markets, worship places, and other public gatherings of more than fifty are lawful, in spite of the teeming number of attendants, then what makes learning institutions an exception? In all likelihood, there have been fears by the federal government that if the rain doesn’t cease, the blame is usually shifted to the gods. It’s better the weather doesn’t become cloudy.

Hamza Wankari