The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has described politicians in the country as “selfish, unpatriotic and self-renting”.
ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, made this claim in a statement on Friday while lamenting the hardship created by the newly designed naira introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Osodeke said Nigerians were gasping under the suffocating atmosphere created by the ruling class.
“Our union, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, has had cause to condemn the anti-poor policies of governments in the education sector. While the ruling class virulently attacked ASUU for insisting on government’s adequate funding of universities and paying a morale-enhancing remuneration for Nigerian academics, the children of the poor now know better, going by a gale of anti-fees protests resonating across the campuses.
“Word on the street is that triggers for the new wave of brain drain, called the Japa syndrome, are not unconnected with the debilitating working and dwelling environment. Added to this are the scornful treatments given to academic and medical personnel whom other nations treat as treasures of inestimable value, and aversion for collective bargaining evident in anti-labour policies such as ‘no work, no pay’ and ‘divide and rule’.”
He added, “The ambush tactic of Godwin Emefiele to ‘eliminate cash’ was applied in India in 2016 with unsalutary consequences. So, ASUU commends the Supreme Court for taking sides with suffering Nigerians whose miserable lives would have been compounded by Emefiele’s policy if they are not sent to their early graves by it.
“As Nigerians continue to lick the socio-economic injuries inflicted on them by unpatriotic, selfish and rent-seeking politicians, the more the country sinks deeper into the abyss of poverty, unemployment and under- employment, preventable diseases and death, insecurity, ignorance and misery.
“In the face of the life-threatening stagflation, the political class carries on as if nothing is amiss. So, rather than abating, the cankerworm of corruption is gaining deeper roots each day among those Nigerians entrusted with their collective patrimony.”
