By- Clement Idoko, Abuja
THE Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said that rather than decreasing, the cankerworm of corruption is gaining deeper roots each day under the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
President of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, who stated this on Thursday in a statement he signed, and made available to newsmen in Abuja, lamented the suffering of Nigerians as a result of the anti-people policies of the Government.
While condemning the scarcity of the new naira notes and fuel, he noted that for a vast majority of workers, peasants and the unemployed, it had been a long tale of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
“To say Nigerians are gasping for breath under the suffocating atmosphere created by the ruling class is to state the obvious.
“Governments at the federal, state and council levels appear enamoured of policies which aggravate the suffering of the mass of Nigerians,” Osodeke.
He said it was unimaginable that a transiting government would elect to swim in an ocean of chaos, as exemplified by the currency swap crisis and scarcity of petroleum products on the eve of an election season.
Osodeke, however, said the Union does not subscribe to the speculation about some fifth columnists who were out to truncate the transition, called on Nigerians, irrespective of tongue, tribe or religion, to stand for deepening and defending democracy.
He said the outgoing government of President Muhammadu Buhari had raised Nigerians’ hope of fixing the country’s refineries when it was coming to power in 2015, saying eight years down the line, it has been giving one excuse after another, “allowing a free rein to the oil subsidy scammers!”
He lamented that in the face of the life-threatening stagflation, the political class carries on as if nothing is amiss, adding, “so, rather than decreasing, the cankerworm of corruption is gaining deeper roots each day among those Nigerians entrusted with their collective patrimony.
ASUU President said: “Governments at the federal, state and council levels appear enamoured of policies which aggravate the suffering of the mass of Nigerians.
“Our union, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), 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 who other nations handle 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’.
“Expectedly, the Supreme Court ruling which halted the 10th February, 2023 deadline on the Naira design policy should somewhat mitigate the aggravated suffering of Nigerians occasioned by yet another anti-poor policy.
“The crisis arising from the redesign of the country’s currency reverberated in every sector of the economy and it will require very serious efforts by developmental economists to fully determine the magnitude of its damage.
“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 and deeper into the abys of poverty, unemployment and underemployment, preventable diseases and death, insecurity, ignorance and misery.
“Today, there is nothing new to calling Nigeria the poverty capital of the world or the country with the highest population of global out-of-school children.
“We in ASUU are saying it is not in the interest of the political class that the suffering is further aggravated in any manner whatsoever.
“The ominous cloud hanging on the horizon comes with frightening foreboding for a fragile country if urgent steps are not taken to suture the bleeding wound of the land,” he stated.
Osodeke, however, called on Nigerians irrespective of tongue, tribe or religion to stand for deepening and defending democracy in Nigeria.
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