Dear President Yar’dua: While I congratulate you on the successful completion of the Ramadan fast and the witnessing of Eid-al Fitr, I find it expedient to write you through this medium on the above subject for your urgent attention.
Your Excellency, recent events in the polity has confirmed your desire to correct some ugly situations in the country. Let me therefore salute the courage of the two main appointees in your cabinet; the Central Bank Governor and the Head of service of the federation. The actions taken by the duo is commendable and will ultimately help reduce corruption and also help Nigeria towards achieving her vision 20-20-20.
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However Mr. President, Nigeria’s vision 20-20-20 can only be achievable when Nigeria has a viable and progressive education sector that can compete internally and is thus recognised internationally. In the recent international University ratings none of our Universities make it among the top 1000, even though some African Universities made it to the top 500. It might also interest your Excellency to know that most of the researches done in our universities are also not recognized internationally. So many factors, too numerous to mention here, led to this ugly situation. This situation, I believe is what the Academic Staff Union of Universities are struggling to address.
The struggle, which your Excellency was part of at a time, has led to endless dagger drawing and saber rattling between the association and previous administrations. In your administration Sir, the hope of some citizens, including myself, was raised due to the fact that you were a lecturer, as such knows fully the problems bedeviling the institutions, hence you are best suited to nip them in the bud. However your Excellency, the association’s strike in your administration has lingered on for exactly three months, one of the longest in the history of Nigeria.
The risks posed by this strike are enormous, worth mentioning here is the danger it pose to the nation’s security. A group of Nigerian students, made redundant by this strike, were reportedly caught in robbery in one of the Southeast States; some were also caught in an attempt to kidnap the present Minister of Education. Your Excellency this is just to mention a few of what has been revealed, but it is apparent that there are so many related crimes carried by some of these redundant students.
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You may be aware your Excellency, the comments made in the recent times by three top security personnel in your administration, further exposing the porous nature of Nigeria’s security. The chief of Army staff was quoted as saying that the police are not capable of combating crime in Nigeria. The SSS Director was also quoted as saying that 2011 elections will be a dangerous milestone in Nigeria’s history if nothing is done on time. And the most recent is the IGP’s lack of information on Ribadu’s visit to pay his last respect to Gani. The Inspector General of Police was so uninformed about the visit that he naively challenged Journalists to bring proof of the visit.
Your Excellency, it is obvious the crime rate in the country is increasing due to the above facts and the involvement of some redundant students in crime. Yet Mr. President, it is in this situation that your Minister of education went on air celebrating his wedding anniversary when some parents were there mourning their children that have lost their lives while travelling back home due to the strike.
Your Excellency, although I recently heard the present Minister of special duties’ claim of the amount being spent in the education sector by your administration and your approval of some of the request being made by ASUU, a lot still need to be done to lift Nigeria’s institution from the morass they are plunged into by decades of neglect, consequent upon which the ugly situation of strike by ASUU will be stymied.
Your Excellency, due to the above stated facts, there is the need for you, as a matter of urgency, to dialogue with the ASUU to find a lasting solution to the problem to avoid further degeneration of the security situation in the country.
I ask Almighty God in His infinite mercy to help you find a lasting solution to this problem; perchance it will be the Sallah gift to the citizens.
Happy Sallah.
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Sincerely
Marwan Haruna Abdulkarim
Center for Research in Energy and the Environment
The Robert Gordon University
Aberdeen
United Kingdom
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