Not a few Nigerians were taken aback when images of the Minister of Education,Dr Sam Egwu and his wife,Eunice were shown on TV dancing and smiling in their recent wedding anniversary party and the minister's 55th birthday bash.
Egwu,a former university don threw morality to the wind by a staging a party when his primary constituency was virtually grounded because of the stay-at-home order of his former colleagues association to their members.
The academic staff union of universities[ ASSU],senior staff association of nigerian universities [SSANU]and non-academic staff union of [NASU] are all on strike,thereby bringing to halt academic activities in government owned universities.Egwu just didn't care.
In other climes,Egwu's appointment with the government would have been history but not in Nigeria where morality and politics are like the biblical Esau and Jacob.[ask Senator Satty Gogwim].It is a pity that Egwu,who is a product of public educational institution here in Nigeria made a mockery of the profession that brought him fame by staging an unnecessary party when his former colleagues were protesting negotiated wages,poor funding of universities,payment of monetisation arrears,university autonomy amongst others.
It is a sad commentary on the nation's edducation sector that less endowned nations like south africa[7.9%],Kenya[6.5%],Malawi[5.4%]Angola[4.9%] and Ghana[4.4%] invest more of their GDP in education compared to Nigeria's 0.79%.The ever-confused Yar'adua administration which claims education is one of the critical points of its 7-point agenda have resulted in propaganda to save its battered image,instead of honouring its earlier agreement with the unions.
By staging that party ,Egwu is simply telling ASUU,NASU,SSANU,Nigerian students and their parents to go to hell.In developed countries,the likes of Egwu would have been in political oblivion because of his role in obasanjo's infamous third term agenda,but he was undeservedly rewarded with a ministerial appoinment,Nigeria is indeed the headquarters of oddities.
No comments:
Post a Comment