FG vs ASUU: Will Gambari broker a lasting truce?

With the appointment of Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari as Chief of Staff to Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari last week, effectively replacing the late Mallam Abba Kyari who died of the novel coronavirus, so many expectations from entitled stakeholders in the Nigerian project have expectedly continued to mount at his doorstep; some founded, others unfounded. The […]

With the appointment of Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari as Chief of Staff to Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari last week, effectively replacing the late Mallam Abba Kyari who died of the novel coronavirus, so many expectations from entitled stakeholders in the Nigerian project have expectedly continued to mount at his doorstep; some founded, others unfounded.

The battle between FG and ASUU is a protracted one and it can rightly be said that the issues of contention in this sustained skirmish are matters that have set the Nigerian Ivory Tower decades behind its global pairs – a worrisome trajectory.

Of the 14 times since ASUU has been on strike since this republic in 1999, 2001,2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2017, and 2018, this is the first time an academic will mount the much coveted saddle of a presidential handler.

As the pioneer Chancellor of Kwara State University, Malete, Professor Ibrahim Gambari is to the best of my knowledge still the current Pro-Chancellor and Chairmen of the Governing Council of Bayero University, Kano.

I expect the new chief of staff not to turn his back on his constituents by using his position to brokers a truce in the protracted ASUU/FG face off, one that will supersede administrations to come.

Even if that will be his only legacy, future generations will ever remain indebted to him because of the indispensable roles of university systems world over, in national growth and development. If FG/ASUU is not on his priority list, he should please make it one.

Meanwhile, I will not congratulate the chief of staff on his appointment until he leaves an envious and worthy legacy behind his trail. May we live to see such a day.

Mohammed Dahiru Lawal  [email protected] writes from Kano.