Like Fuel Crisis Like ASUU Strike – Organic Propaganda Will Save The Day
Before now, there has been this praise of the positive impacts Buhari’s administration has brought to the country in respect to the end of the curse of fuel scarcity. To an extent the praise singers were right as fuel crisis had become part of an engrained recurring national problem in Nigeria until the coming of president Buhari. This assertion was always made in comparison to previous administrations as an edge Buhari has over them.
Alas, the fuel queues are back, this time with vengeance and Buhari is still at the helm of affairs, not just of the country, but directly controlling the ministry of petroleum. The current fuel crisis is probably one of the worst the country has ever experienced, running into months, unlike those which last for few weeks.
One might reason that the fuel crisis is a fallout from the conflict in Ukraine which has resulted in multiple global sanctions on the aggressing Russia, sanctions which are having ripple effects all over the world both on the sanctioners and the sanctioned. But this reasoning is faulty as the fuel scarcity began before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, yet, there is no denying that because of Russia’s huge global impact in the oil business, Nigeria could not have completely escaped being affected by the current global reality.
Don’t forget that Russia is ranked second in the top oil producing countries in the world, just behind Saudi Arabia. Nigeria definitely would not have been in this mess if it had functioning refineries.
Among the many discussions which have come up due to the resurrected petroleum palaver, this piece focuses on the trust which the Buhari administration had logically built overtime in the hearts of Nigerians irrespective of political affiliation regarding the availability of fuel. This trust was built by what can be termed organic propaganda; no need for media gimmicks, political speeches and the likes, all that was needed was for fuel to be available.
Organic propaganda is very potent; it finds its way into the mind of the populace and cannot be used by any opposition to score cheap point.
ASUU Strikes and Organic Propaganda
There has been no love lost between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and successive Nigerian governments.
A post making the rounds on social media posits that ASUU has embarked on strike action 15 times between 1999 and 2022 as follows: 1999 (150 days); 2001 (90 days); 2002 (14 days); 2003 (180 days); 2005 (14 days); 2006 (3 days); 2007 (90 days); 2008 (8 days); 2009 (120 days); 2010 (157 days); 2011 (59 days); 2013 (165 days); 2017 (35 days); 2018 (94 days); 2020 (120 days); and the just-declared warning strike in 2022 (30 days), making a total of 1,329 days!
From the above statistics we can see the tortuous journey tertiary education has had to go through in this country, every regime has been implicit in this crime against the education of Nigerians. This is not even putting into consideration strikes before the 1999 democratic dispensation.
These incessant strikes have contributed to the good and bad birth of private universities in Nigeria over the years for which conspiracy theorists may want to posit that the strikes have been intentional crisis created by selfish cabals who profit in one way or the other from them.
Nigerian students who are caught in this ceaseless crossfire between ASUU and the federal government are not only helpless but have also developed an almost equal hatred for the parties; they don’t know who has their best interest at heart, is it ASUU or the government.
This is where President Buhari comes in. He must set aside political permutations or considerations and do that which is beneficial to the students at least for the sake of posterity just like he brought a little sanity to fuel crisis until now (let us not even talk about oil money theft for now).
The president should bring sweeping changes to education in the country, especially the ceaseless ASUU strikes. He should nip the issue in the bud once and for all even if he will do this through drastic measures while he has the opportunity as the commander in chief.
Whether ASUU is the villain or the hero, the government will always be the main determining factor in issues like this and it is important that it becomes noble at least to end the endless blame games except it wants to confirm that it has truly been the villian all these years
Buhari became the petroleum minister and improved fuel supply in the country, he can also add the education ministry to his portfolio to save our decaying education except if oil matters more to him than education.
