To make matters worse for Tortoise, it was on market day that Tortoise got captured. Everybody going to the market saw Mr. Tortoise bound hand and foot in front of his in-law’s house and asked what the matter was. When Mr. In-law told how he captured Tortoise in the dead of the night taking yams in his barn, everybody drizzled curses on Tortoise and called him all sorts of uncomplimentary names. “So you have been the one privately triggering your in-law discomfort just to sympathise with him outdoors? Crocodile tears! Burglar! Outrageous moron! Wicked soul! A male offered you his child as an other half; yet, you would still take from him! Lazy drone! Could you not have dealt with your own 2 hands?” And so on, etc!
On their method back from the market when the villagers still satisfied Tortoise chained to the tree, the story altered and the tide turned. The blames and curses were now directed at Tortoise’s in-law: “Wicked male! Do you wish to eliminate him? How can you be this uncaring keeping this male bound hands and feet given that early morning and in this scorching sun? Is he not your in-law? And did he take more than yams?” The Yoruba state: Alo ti ahun; abo ti ana re, implying that the blame when the villagers were on their method to the market was Tortoise’s however on their method back from the market the blame moved to his in-law who did not have an understanding of the concept of small amounts. As Orlando Owoh crooned, if you do not comprehend when to stop, normal water, taken excessive, will turn your stomach as if you had actually taken strong white wine. Attempt it and see! Likewise the knowledge of our individuals that the very same mouth that yells applauds “Adegun” (the crown fits) is the very same that will state “Adeogun” (the crown does not fit at all) if you provoke it! The lesson to be found out here is that we need to do whatever in small amounts. As my Grandmother would state: “A jo i dabo oun o muu r’ oko eegun” When a masquerade gets brought away and does not understand when to stop, he dances to the point of revealing his own nakedness; like it took place to King David in the bibles! Let everybody follow William Shakespeare’s admonition and leave the phase when the ovation is loudest.
It is time to foreclose all matters leading to perpetual ASUU strike action so that our universities can take pleasure in commercial peace and consistency. Important to the accomplishment of this is the fast and favorable resolution of the FG/ASUU difference over the 8 months wage defaults that the Federal Federal government has actually declined to pay the speakers. I have actually been vociferous in condemning ASUU and its last strike that was as harmful of the university system as the federal government’s careless and cavalier mindset to the financing, not simply of the universities however of education in basic, along with fixing other concerns that will offer a good making it possible for environment for our universities to grow and complete positively with their equivalents somewhere else. Financing has actually regularly been abject here. Overtime, this has actually resulted in decay on an abhorrent level in our organizations of greater knowing; facilities is decrepit; necessary centers, consisting of lecture halls, hostel lodging, workplace and necessary edibles are either absolutely doing not have or in brief supply.
Nobody who remained in these universities 3 or 4 years back will check out the location today and not “cry, the cherished nation”, to price estimate Alan Paton. Libraries and labs have actually ended up being ancien and disciplines requiring useful presentation are now taught like arts topics. How, then, can the items of such organizations be of importance to nationwide developmental requirements and how can they be anticipated to complete positively with their equivalents in other land where mentor and research study centers are very first class and the environment for mentor and knowing is making it possible for? Now, no country can establish much better or faster than the level of its academic facilities. It stands to factor, for that reason, that by relegating education to the background, succeeding Nigeria federal governments– not the Buhari administration alone however Buhari’s is the worst, fact be informed– have actually shown not just an abject understanding of the location of education in nationwide advancement however have actually likewise been useless in their reaction to concerns impacting the sector. Just illiterates or individuals ponder in their decision to ruin education will act and act the method federal government and its authorities have actually done here insistently and regularly gradually.
That is one side of the coin. The opposite is ASUU’s rejection or failure to consider of package. If they presume, like a few of its blind protectors do, that the only weapon readily available to ASUU is strike action– periodic strike, extended strike– why, then, did they abort their eight-month-old strike without and prior to accomplishing their objective? Federal government has actually not rejected its IPPIS or accepted ASUU’s UTAS; the federal government has actually not executed the 2009 or whatever MOU reached with ASUU; the understanding of ASUU when it was canceling its strike was that its members would be paid their incomes for the eight-month duration they were on strike; none of the above has actually materialised. My understanding is that efforts are continuous to deal with these and other sticking around concerns. ASUU sobbed out– and not surprisingly so. If it stops working to get the defaults paid, it will lose face with its members and its hitherto powerful weapon -strike action– would have had its sharp edges blunted. That is apart from the product loss private ASUU members will need to bring for a very long time to come. To surrender 8 months’ wage can not be simple, specifically so in these hard times. How will some individuals balance out the loans they took in lieu of the awaited wage defaults windfall? Those who offered vehicles and other homes to satisfy exigencies throughout the duration of the strike action, how will they recover?
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
It is reasonable that ASUU will continue to firmly insist on being paid. Why have they stated they are avoiding strike in regard of this brand-new agitation? Why are they pursuing other alternatives? It indicates there are other alternatives! Strike action has actually just been the lazy male’s method, like Mr. Tortoise’s in this story. And since it has actually constantly worked, it is affordable or it makes good sense to believe it will work this time around; once again, forgetting, like Mr. Tortoise did, that every day is not Christmas! Every day for the burglar, one day for the owner! Mr. Monkey, another animal popular in Yoruba folklore, enjoys going to the marketplace; he was cautioned that human beings will one day catch and cage him as a family pet (if not utilize him for pepper-soup!) He would not take follow. Each time he went to the marketplace and returned untouched, he buffooned everybody. One eventful day, Monkey went to the market and never ever returned. To this day, nobody has actually seen Mr. Monkey’s rear light or heard anything about him! What ASUU’s most current method suggests is that there are alternatives besides strike action for it to make its complaints understood; for it to pursue its admirable goals and for it to combat and attain its honorable cause. 8 months’ strike at a stretch beggars belief! Nearly one-and-half scholastic sessions! What employee will desert a workplace for 8 months and will not go back to it work-rusty?
I do not purchase the garbage that ASUU members are not casual employees which they will cover lost ground. They can not! It is not possible for them to cover the 8 months currently lost. Even if they are incredibly human beings or robotics, they can not. “A o r’ ojo mu so l’okun” is the knowledge of our senior citizens in Yoruba land. Nobody can reverse the hands of the clock. Those 8 months are lost and they are lost permanently. The very best the speakers can do is “rush” the trainees– which is what they are doing today. The trainees will merely pack and put. They will merely have a hard time to pass their evaluations. No severe mentor or knowing in the genuine sense of the word can happen under the present environment, specifically where the speakers are likewise groaning over their so-called wage defaults! Is that not why the National Universities Commission has actually cautioned the universities not to collapse a 17-week term into simply 6 weeks! The law states “No work, no pay”. Or are laws made just for casual employees? And are university speakers above the law?
All the very same; please pay them so that we might have peace! Let us put this sorry occasion behind us, hoping that helpful lessons have actually been found out on both sides. The federal government ought to start to provide education the pride of location it should have. The nations that are doing that are no fools. Carry out the MOU with ASUU without hold-up. Where there is the will, there is a method. Need to the Buhari administration stop working to foreclose the ASUU concern, let them alone! There is another saying relating to Tortoise in Yoruba folklore. One day Tortoise placed on his finest outfits and called out to Yannibo his partner: “Yannibo, I am going to display my brand-new outfits” “And when are you returning?” quipped Yannibo. “Not till I get disgraced” responded to Tortoise! In Yoruba folklore, Ijapa oko Yannibo never ever returns house other than in ignominy and disgrace! Some bring the fate of Tortoise; even if you deck them in gold and diamond they will, like Mr. Pig, demand entering into the dirty pond to shower!
