PATRIOTS MUST SUPPORT ASUU WIN BATTLE AGAINST ILLITERACY!

ZION B-BC   NEWSLETTER.  

(Looking at Nigeria's Political System From a Godly Perspective).

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church Kpeyegyi Abuja Nigeria {Vol. 9.NO 385. 27th December, 2020.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You Free! (John.8:32). . PRAY & FAST EVERY WEDNESDAY TO STOP BLOODSHED IN NIGERIA!

PATRIOTS MUST SUPPORT ASUU WIN BATTLE AGAINST ILLITERACY!

How much education do you need to become a soldier or politician in Nigeria? Very little – education up to school certificate level or possession of the equivalent in technical skills!

Little wonder that a Senator of the Federal Republic in the year 2017, got a ticket to seat at the hallowed chamber with forged secondary school testimonial and West African Examination Council (WAEC), result!

It is no longer news that standard of education was deliberately lowered in Nigeria to accommodate students believed to have come “from educationally disadvantaged states” when “cut off marks” were reduced by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) for applicants seeking  admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria!

JAMB cut-off marks have suffered two set-backs in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
In August 2017, cut-off mark for universities was pegged at 120, while Polytechnics/Colleges of Education and Innovative Enterprising Institutes were fixed at 100 and 110 respectively and whereas the procedure in past years was 200 as cut-off mark! And in June 2019, JAMB applicants seeking admission into the universities were expected to score at least at least 160 as cut off which was still very low by all educational standards!

DILEMMA OF ASUU LECTURES IN OVER FOUR DECADES!

Apart from pressurizing the Federal Government persistently to upgrade educational standard/infrastructures as obtains in other clime, ASUU had to grapple with obsolete scientific equipments/tools, dilapidated/antiquated libraries which are not ICT driven; and the most appalling was that lecturers had to contend with semi-literate JAMBITES to complete the ugly equation!
And the objective of accommodating every Dick and Harry into the university system has backfired on Government because most Nigerian graduates have remained half-baked and unemployable both locally and internationally!

However, individual universities still had the prerogative to admit applicants who fulfil their own in-house Post-UTME - Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, before their admission was made sure!

Massive failures recorded in JAMB, WAEC AND NECO examinations also prompted government to reduce cut-off marks instead of introducing attractive  measures in the areas of “inventions, productions, manufacturing”  etc, to attract the youths to the choice of vocations that would expose their potentials and innate talents as obtained in developed countries.

Nigerian youth inventors who were at times publicised for their ingenuity for fabricating cars, trucks, SUVs, drones, farm tractors, aeroplanes etc, with local contents, were only celebrated in the media and no special effort was ever initiated by governments at Federal/State levels to either encourage or motivate them to achieve greater heights in life outside of strict academic pursuits while their major interests remained rooted in vocational and technical education!

TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING (TVET) IS THE MODERN PLATFORM FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT!

This system of education which is a post-secondary discipline, has been tried and tested in most developed and developing countries of the world, the UK, Brazil, Philippines, etc, and has proved to be very efficient and reliable in keeping such countries abreast with modern technological advancement/achievements by creating the enabling environment to both private sector/self employments that keep the economic engine running smoothly for sure and steady development.
In many cases, the system has provided knowledge and skills for such employments through formal, non-formal and informal learning as a crucial vehicle for social equity, inclusion and sustainable development. TVET is particularly important for promoting economic development, expanding employment size/opportunities and improving the quality of employment!

The WORLD BANK’S 2019 World Development Report on the “future of work” suggests that flexibility between general and vocational education particularly in higher education is imperative to enable workers to compete in changing labour markets ORIENTATION where technology plays an increasing important role!

WHO SHOULD HAVE EMBRACED TVET THAN THE MILITARY BUT INSTEAD THEY BASTARDIZED THE EDUCATION SECTOR!

In the military junta year of 1988, when the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), dared to organize a national strike to demand for autonomy and fair wages, it was summarily proscribed(with all its properties seized), from 7th August of that year until 1990, and was again banned on 23rd August, 1992, when it organised another strike ....!

Through stakeholders negotiations that met several of their demands (including the right of workers to collective bargaining), the Military on 3rd September, 1992, unbanned the union but kept monitoring and meddling in its affairs! ASUU was forced to embark on further strikes in 1994 and 1996 against the dismissal and arbitrary dismissal of staff by the notorious Sani Abacha regime!

From the beginning of a fresh attempt in democracy in 1999, following the death of Abacha the previous year, the Fourth Republic, now 21 years old, has witnessed several agitations by ASUU for better condition for their workers and the upgrading of University funding, better working conditions, infrastructures and educational facilities.
Since its founding in 1978 (42 years ago), to succeed Nigerian Association of University Teachers, which debuted in 1965, ASUU had accumulated a total period of “three years of strike” because governments always reneged on their promises – especially military regimes which ruled with martial laws for almost 30 years and handed over to an equally irresponsive bunch of political jobbers!

PLEASE FIND BELOW SOME EXTRACTS FROM THE 88TH EDITION OUR NEWSLETTER OF 19TH APRIL, 2015, WHERE A PDP PRESIDENT REFUSED TO SIGN CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS ON FREE BASIC EDUCATION, ETC!
“**If constitutional amendments are truly continuous administrative process, what does an outgoing president stand to gain or lose by assenting or dissenting to append his signature to such documents?

We suggest that neither an outgoing or incoming president should lose sleep over constitution amendments because they will always remain the collective wishes of the citizens through their elected representatives and for their mutual benefits!
*Would you regard the veto of any president over your fundamental rights as constitutionally democratic?
*Please find below another list of issues which the outgoing President Ebele Jonathan, is quarrelling with and why he has “thrown away the baby with the bath water!” 
The outgoing president says that it was wrong for federal lawmakers to impose the right to free basic education, primary and maternal care services on private institutions!
Our Comments:
Under Section 18(1) of the 1999 Constitution, (Educational  Objectives), government shall direct its policy towards ensuring that there are equal and adequate educational opportunities at all levels;
Government shall strive to eradicate illiteracy; and to this end Government shall as when as practicable provide:
(i) Free, compulsory and universal primary education;
(ii) Free secondary education;
(iii) Free university education; and
(iv) Free adult literacy programme.

The Peoples’ Democratic Party [PDP] had dominated and monopolized government at federal and states levels for upwards of SIXTEEN YEARS, without implementing any of the above! Nigeria’s educational system had remained on the brink of collapse while those saddled with that ministry cared less whether schools were opened or shut!
*Though education remains the bedrock of development for every nation, universities and polytechnics in Nigeria lost several academic sessions while exorbitant fees are being paid in governments’ primary and secondary institutions to acquire education which should be free according to PDP Manifesto! This insensitivity by the outgoing administration has cost up to a million loss of lives through the insurgency of Boko Haram who were neither given education nor any form of vocation!”

UNESCO’S RECOMMENDED BENCHMARK ON EDUCATION WAS DESPISED BY CONSECUTIVE GOVERNMENTS!

Funding of education in Nigeria is below the UNESCO’S recommended benchmark of 26 percent of the national budget and 6 percent of Gross Domestic products (GDP). Between 1960 and 2020, appropriation to the education sector grew from one percent to six percent which is a far cry from the need of over 200 million parents and children!

QUESTIONS: Should anyone then wonder why most Nigerians could not access free education at any level and why there were always over 13 million out-of-school children roaming the street year-on-year?

Must we also wonder why some States claim to be educationally disadvantaged while the Islamic sect Boko Haram terrorists had flourished for eleven consecutive years in its opposition against Western Education and had also succeeded in recruiting youths between ages six to fifteen and above? The answer should be glaring everyone in the face BUT those who did not choose violence opted for the lucrative jobs of soldering and politicking where they have made so much money without much education to harass the sages, the wise, knowledgeable and very sagacious citizens of the IVORY TOWER! Is this not an irony of fate?

ASSU’S STRIKE WHICH LASTED FOR OVER 9 MONTHS SUSPENDED ON WEDNESDAY 23RD DECEMBER, 2020!

On 9th March 2020, in spite of the prevalent Covid-19 Pandemic, which had ravaged the entire world including Nigeria, with thousands of thousands human casualties to show for it, ASUU began a two-week strike to further press 2009 pending negotiations which failed!

President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has now agreed to pay: (1) Revitalization money; (2) Earned allowances (3) Payment of all withheld salaries; (4) Remove lecturers names from Federal’s Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), payment platform; (5) Payment of N40 billion naira as earned allowances and (6) Pay N30 billion naira as revitalisation money; (7 ) Government also agreed to do integrity test for the lecturers’ preferred University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS),  System of payment because IPPIS programme was introduced to monitor transparency for the academic sectors.

According to available reports Federal Government as at Tuesday 22nd December paid the lecturers, owed two months salaries and also their earned allowance of N40 billion naira, (forty billion)!
ASUU has warned that the strike would remain suspended as long as government did not renege on other AGREEMENTS!

The worst type of punishment that could befall any nation was to be governed by a bunch of ILLITERATES! “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.’’(Prov 22:6)
 

Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord. [For weekly access, to this newsletter, log on to:  facebook.com/zionfaithbible.believingchurch or http://www.zfbbc1.blogspot.com,

If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390.  08080243066. G-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.