By Phillips Ojumoola
In his highly anticipated national broadcast on Democracy Day, President Muhammadu Buhari failed to address the lingering industrial face-off between federal government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which has paralyzed academic activities in Nigeria in the last four months.
The mandatory presidential broadcast on Democracy Day has been anticipated to be a panacea to the various crisis and unrest in the nation, including the universities lecturers strike, popularly known as ASUU strike.
However, the president focused more on political matters as the day suggests “democracy.” He made promises to ensure that the democratic process is not compromised en route to the 2023 general elections. He also addressed the rampaging problem of insecurity, killings and kidnapping.
Unfortunately, the devastating collapse of education in our ivory towers is not enough to be seen as a major challenge in a nation that has a large number of youths and university students as the presidency preferred to address more seemingly pressing issues like insecurity and economic downturn.
For an issue like ASUU strike to seen as a non – relevant in national matters goes a long way to show the value our political leaders give to education. As we know that a nation cannot grow beyond its educational level and attainment, this means that in matters that concern nation building and national development, education cannot be relegated to the background or ignored.
Furthermore, if the efforts and investment channeled into politicking and electioneering have been directed towards the education sector, Nigeria would have had massive improvement in the quality of our education system and the we all would have been the greatest beneficiaries of it.
Therefore, I call on the government to always take issues concerning the education sector with all importance knowing fully well that the success of our education sector is the success of the whole country.
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