An Open Letter to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu from a concerned ASUU member
Your Excellency,
Nigeria once again stands on the brink of an Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike. For students, it means wasted months; for lecturers, broken promises; for the nation, another dent in its educational credibility. This cycle has endured for decades, not because agreements have not been reached, but because they have not been honoured.
Your administration has spoken often of renewal and national rebirth. Sir, there is no rebirth without education. The decay in our universities is not merely about wages; it is about laboratories without equipment, libraries without books, and scholars without hope.
The way forward requires more than temporary concessions. Based on experience as a student who would have graduated 1993 in BUK but delayed till 1994 due to ASUU and now as a member of ASUU who love the job with pasion, I respectfully propose these to our active president. He is a president wouldn't wait until the strike reach 2 months before knowing. Unlike the previous government whose ministers of education and labour were indolent and mischievous. Hopefully, Dr Tunji Alausa who has been doing well in the saddle will rise to the occasion. Now my propositions:
- Ring-fenced education funding, allocations for universities should be shielded from political diversion and released promptly.
2. A joint monitoring mechanism, government and ASUU must co-manage the timelines and progress of agreements, with transparent public reporting.
3. Legally binding implementation schedules, every commitment must be anchored in enforceable timelines, preventing perpetual renegotiation. The mistakes of the past successive governments.
Your Excellency, history will not remember how well we managed short-term crises, but how decisively we built enduring institutions. To avert another strike, and to rescue the future of millions of young Nigerians, this is the time to replace rhetoric with resolve.
