Registration of APC: some breath of fresh air
I also worry about the inability of the federal government to resolve issues with ASUU and enable our university system stabilise to the benefit of our children. I think there is more ego than sense in the refusal of the federal government to resolve the lingering strike by university teachers. More dangerous is the emerging […]
I also worry about the inability of the federal government to resolve issues with ASUU and enable our university system stabilise to the benefit of our children. I think there is more ego than sense in the refusal of the federal government to resolve the lingering strike by university teachers. More dangerous is the emerging preference to hewing political capital out of the situation without a solution that settles and stabilises education in the country.
APC’s registration
The All Progressives Congress finally got registered as a political party in Nigeria, much to the welcome of all lovers of democracy in the country. When the merger of confederating parties was consummated in February, I had welcomed the development in this column, and described it as a heart gladdening one worth celebrating. All keen watchers of our democracy, I noted then, had been anxious that an opposition that was viable emerged, to challenge the ruling party as this would encourage delivery on promises and mandates for the good of the country. I pointed out that it was a popular opinion that the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had been able to run the affairs of the dear country without a defined agenda and or a manifesto, a situation that the party was at pains to remedy were it to have been without the present internal wrangling. Now there is more to do than just celebrating.
The registration of the APC is a good omen and we must give credit because it is due, to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for fears were evident and genuine that the ruling PDP might impede the registration effort. That Professor Attahiru Jega pulled it off gives ample hope that he just might stand his grounds and courageously give Nigeria its second credible election after the annulled June 12.
It is obvious that PDP, in spite of its upheavals, will in due time apply pulls at the APC and its multi coloured flag may shred into smithereens at each seam. In this regard, there is reason to keep in mind the moves that forged the emergence of the APC and this is regardless of the calibre of the politicians that congregated to found the mega party. They were birds of the same feather as the ruling PDP folk, indeed, are migrants from the self-acclaimed biggest political party in Africa.
In February I had queried thus: “the Congress for Progressive Change, the Action Congress of Nigeria and the All Nigeria People’s Party have actively worked to attain the current merger situation, but how far are they from that point on the eve of the 2007 presidential election, when a merger which would have enhanced their chances of victory even at the presidential polls was derailed by personal preferences, in fact, on election night. It may no longer be a threat this time around only if the federating parties have been deregistered and ‘owners’ of the parties have none to run back to in the event their ambitions are not fulfilled”.
The ambitions of General Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu are uppermost in our minds now as these would determine APC’s fate to swim or sink, and signals coming out from the jostling for the 2015 ticket are not encouraging. Our greatest error in political development is the refusal to conduct open primaries that enable aspirants promote their beliefs, called manifestos, to the people. It is a source for worry that interest groups as usual are mooting names of individuals, instead of convinced patriots declaring interest in offering themselves at the service of the nation, if the people agree. Unless the political parties embrace this basic step to attainment of the powerful position of president, there can be no stability, and democracy can hardly be viable. Nigeria needs convinced men and women openly declaring interest, and competing openly with their opponents and allowing the party faithful to choose. Of course, I recognise that there are other registered parties, but I make no bones about it. More than two parties in Nigeria is a crowd.
The striking university staff
I am glad the Sultan of Sokoto has lent his voice to the national plea for striking university staff to resume work and enable our wards return to their studies. Said the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, according to reports, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), should call off the strike and “embrace dialogue with the federal government in order to bring an end to the impasse”.
It is lamentable as the Sultan noted, that “we are now back to square one and we seem not to have a solution at hand to solve the problem”. More lamentable is the attempt to make political capital out of the strike, given the open attempts to pluralize ASUU, and pitch the National Association of Nigerian Stu-dents against their teachers without regretting their forced holiday. It is a shame that a Nigerian degree takes seven years instead of three or four to acquire, and it comes half-baked even at that.
The federal government, to my mind, should accede to ASUU demands. There are demands that require pronouncements on existing agreements from the Babalakin Commission, specifically those that relate to conditions of service, emoluments and allowances, and due process in appointments of vice chancellors. Those regarding overcrowded campuses, the desired conducive atmosphere for learning in universities should be pursued beyond the lackadaisical approach of the federal government’s Suswam Committee, which only last week set up its own committee to tell what has been agreed upon ages ago – the desired infrastructure for stability in our university education system.
According to reports, the Presidential Imple-mentation Committee on the Needs Assessment for Nigeria Universities headed by the Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, has set up another team saddled with the responsibility of prioritising the immediate needs of universities in the country! Will this action help end the ASUU strike? Are we really serious?