ASUU Strike: Governments Should Either Fund Education Or Build More Prisons.

By Sulaiman Kazeem.

Caveat: If you can't build good schools and provide adequate funds for them, then, beef up security and build more prisons.

For the umpteenth time, I wish to share my thoughts provoking opinion and reiterate my concerns about the nonchalance of past and present State and Federal Governments to education and the resultant industrial actions embarked on by the Academic Staff Union Of Universities and other concerned Unions. Again, it is not for EVERYBODY but for people who care to listen and maybe act right. At least, I will be absorbed in history and it will be kind to me.

FYI, neither am I expected to partake in the buck passing between the Unions and their paymaster, nor am I expected to discuss the ingenuity or otherwise of the Union's demands and the position of the Federal Government. Instead, my keen interest should be the failures of State and Federal Governments to grease the wheels of education in my country. No doubt, you will agree with me that the conspicuous failure of this organ is a flash point for the dangers ahead of us and a threat to our future as a people.

Once upon a time, I wrote about how public schools in Nigeria keep the poor in poverty and deny them of the necessary ingredients and the needed recipes to stand shoulder to shoulder with the rich. Unfortunately, only a few people were able to synchronize with my thoughts and fears for the known and the unknown. Today, the government must make a choice to either fund education adequately or build more secured prisons for the 'monsters' they have created.

Hey guys, is it cheaper for the government to build more prisons and renovate the existing ones, get them equipped, recruit more prison warders and deploy adequate security to them, than to build good schools, get them well equipped, provide continuous funding for them, and encourage our young people to get education? Let's ignore the economic importance of the duo.

Today, the Nigerian Prison Service can boast of 144 Prisons including farm centers and 83 Satellite Prisons. Recently, the commission reopened 8 out of the 9 Satellite Prisons that were closed down in the wake of Boko Haram insurgency, built 12 new satellite prisons and 3 Prison hospitals and went further to commission 133 Assistant Superintendent of Prisons who have just concluded their six months training at the Prison Staff College.

Interestingly, there are 40 Federal Universities, 44 State Universities in Nigeria and 68 private universities in Nigeria as approved and released by the Nigeria Universities Commission. The total number of Government owned Universities is far below the total number of prisons and slightly above the number of private universities alone. Please ponder on this.

A government that fails to build good schools and provide adequate funds for their running should not bother to build hospitals and other health care facilities for the people because the facilities will need trained health officers, such a government do not need to support or invest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics because it will be in futility, such a government should not invite or welcome foreign investors or encourage locals to invest in the country because businesses thrives only in an enabling and safe environment.

Instead of wasting the crumbs in their 'self-looted' treasury on construction of white elephant projects that will eventually get consumed by the 'monsters' they have created, such a failed government should expect unprecedented terrorism, the government should expect a brain drained country, such a shameless government should expect a sharp rise in unemployment rate, such a myopic government should expect to see a steady rise in prostitution, such a retrogressive government should be ready to welcome kidnapping on a larger scale and should also expect a rise in the rate of theft and armed robbery in the country. Above it all, a country with such attitude towards education can never be in the league of great nations.

Logically, the most suitable infrastructure such a government should provide for the people are not airports, not state of the heart trade zones and definitely not manufacturing industries to mention a few but security vans for regular patrols, feared prisons, satellite prisons and prison facilities, because the monsters they have created must be in chains or caged, else the safety of the ruling elites can not be guaranteed. Mind you, a congested prison with un-sentenced detainees leads to prison break.

On a final note, let me remind them that a majority of the miscreants we have in our present day society are grown up kids of the poor, who were denied education and a future. FYI, never will they stop to make the country ungovernable for the ruling elite.

Tweet at: @MrSteam_
17/08/2017