By Jeff Godwin Doki Ph.D
One can say with considerable justification that our politicians do not know the meaning of honor. And this is because honor is a very expensive gift, and that is reason you cannot find it among cheap Nigerian politicians. For example, some of the salient attributes of honor include integrity, honesty and the keeping of a promise or an oath. No where is this idea of honor illustrated with more completeness than in the poem, ‘The Franklin’s Tale’ written by Geoffrey Chaucer (1342-1400), the first English poet. The story goes like this: Dorigen’s husband had traveled out of town when a young man came earnestly asking for her love. Jokingly, Dorigen gave the young man an almost impossible condition which is that: he can only get her love if he is able to clear away all the rocks from the sea. Now, the young man took his assignment very seriously because he was in love and through the use of magic and astronomy, the young man was able to clear all the rocks away from the sea and thereafter he returned to Dorigen’s door asking her to make true her promise. Now, Dorigen’s husband had returned and when she informed him of her rash promise, he views what she had told the young man, not as a joke but, as a promise-for-a promise contract from which there is no honorable withdrawal. Accordingly, Dorigen’s husband gave his wife permission to go and keep her promise with the young man. This is the real meaning of honor. In other words, a promise is a matter of honor and integrity. Once it is given it must be fulfilled. Can Nigerian politicians borrow a leaf from Dorigen’s husband?
Now to our beloved country Nigeria, the giant of Africa, that turned 65 years some days ago. During electioneering campaigns in Nigeria, it is fashionable to see Nigerian politicians on the pulpit. They usually put sugar and honey in their tongues in order to win votes from the electorates. They give us empty promises: ‘We will build schools and hospitals’, ‘we will provide water to every backyard’,’ we will drive poverty away from the land’, ‘strikes in the University system will become a thing of the past’,’ we will turn all nights into day,’ ‘we will give the farmer the best for his sweat’, ‘Our children in the universities will complete their degree programs on record time’…The list of their promises could be as long as a railway line. Some times, they even promise to build a bridge even where there is no river. They give the electorates so much hope. They persuade us to hold on to the belief and the conviction that there is a better life, a better world beyond the horizon. But truth is that with Nigeria politicians, we are only facing a future that holds the hope of a thousand mirages.
The most recent example of this deceit and falsehood is the Renewed Hope Agenda of the present government. All our hopes were raised even during electioneering campaigns when we were told at rally after rally that there will be no more strikes in Nigerian Universities if Nigerians vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC). We had high hopes and we voted.
But,It is more than two years now since our hopes were raised and renewed. To his credit, Mr President, is a very experienced politician having served as Governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007, and as Senator representing Lagos West in the third Republic. With such a vast experience in leadership and Nigerian politics, one expects that the Government in power should be more democratic by honoring agreements especially the re-negotiated 2009 agreement between ASUU and the FGN submitted by Yayale Ahmed some months ago. This very agreement is at the heart of the face-off between the FGN and ASUU. One expects that Renewed Hope should mean respect for the Collective Bargaining Principle as enshrined in the laws of the International Labor Organization (ILO). Renewed Hope should mean making progress and not making excuses. For example, what steps has the present Government taken to ameliorate the rot in Nigerian public Universities since it assumed power in 2023? Even the Students Loan Scheme (NELFUND), the Government boasts about cannot get to the real Nigerians and, by that, I mean indigent students. Very recently, the Government announced a loan scheme for staff of the tertiary education sector. But is that the solution to the incessant strikes in the tertiary education sector? Why is the government behaving like the absurd man in the proverbs who left his house on fire to pursue a rat fleeing from the flames? In any case, it is common knowledge that the same Nigerian Government is owing University teachers about four months withheld salaries. As a matter of fact, the Tertiary Education Loan Scheme represents a queer irony: you are owing some one and you are still offering your debtor another loan? What an upside-down-way of thinking. The whole loan project is balderdash and it smacks of deceit and folly. The sad truth is that the Nigerian Government has arrogantly betrayed everything for which our people struggled for because it has been able to count on the silence of the Nigerian people. Not even under past military juntas has there been such a deliberate and carefully organized strategy of pretense, sham and renewed deceit.
On August 26,2025 the Academic Staff Union of Universities ( ASUU) called out its members in all public universities in Nigeria to hold rallies on their campuses. Some members of ASUU also engaged in peaceful protest marches chanting solidarity songs all over Nigeria. And what was the purpose of all these? The rallies and peaceful protests were meant to be a wake-up call asking the Government in power to remember its campaign promises. Several interviews granted by the ASUU President, Zonal Coordinators and Branch Chairpersons after the public rallies all but had one common denominator namely: (1) Re-negotiation of the 2009 ASUU/FGN Agreement (2) Sustainable funding of the universities (3) Revitalization of the universities (4) Victimization of our colleagues in LASU, KSU and FUTO (5) Arrears of 25-35% wage award (6) Promotion Arrears (7) Remittance of third-party deductions (8) Payment of three and half months withheld salaries. And this is only a partial list.
One must concede that since this Government assumed power in 2023, ASUU has employed various peaceful methods of resolving the crisis in Nigerian public Universities including negotiation and dialogue. Lamentably, all these efforts have failed to produce any tangible results. Meanwhile, the Education Minister, another man of power, has consistently continued to demonstrate sheer ignorance about the Negotiation between ASUU and the FGN. Perhaps, the negotiation took place before the Minister was appointed, or perhaps he is suffering from a poverty of sincerity. Whatever way, it is obvious that the Education Minister needs some education about the ASUU-FGN face-off.
The general public knows for sure that all is not well in Nigerian public universities and that there shall be a strike action in the nearest future except the President himself may wade into the matter and perhaps, very quickly too. This is as much as to say that the present regime, like others before it, has made a habit of treating Nigerian university teachers with utter contempt and disdain. For now, the much-talked about Renewed Hope propagated everywhere by Government’s numerous megaphones seems to appear like deceit labeled as official truths.
Any careful observer would have noticed also that dialogue between ASUU and the FGN has failed. Public rallies and peaceful protests have also felled on deaf ears. It has become appallingly obvious, therefore, that the only language the Government shall understand is STRIKE. For the benefit of the doubt, it is the Government’s silence and willful incapacity to resolve the crisis in the public universities that has re-energized a renewed spirit of struggle among the ranks of ASUU. To put it bluntly: a fake Renewed Hope gives rise to a Genuine Renewed Struggle. A Government that gives the electorates fake campaign promises should not complain when citizens begin to embrace STRIKE ACTION as the only alternative. For ASUU as a union, there can be no way out. After all struggles are required to survive under a regime founded on the structures of deceit and pretense. As usual, ASUU is prepared to stand for education; to stand for what is right; to stand for the truth even if it means standing alone. But it should be borne in mind that the FGN shall take the blame if our public universities in Nigeria are shut down in the coming days. Our folks say that a woman who brings home ant-infested faggots should not complain when lizards begin to pay her a visit. It is the social responsibility of government to provide education for all its citizens and Section 18 of the 1999 Constitution is very explicit about this. Furthermore, Section 15 of the Child Rights Act provides that every child has a right to free, compulsory education. And this is precisely what ASUU stands for. The Federal Government should quickly rise up to its Constitutional responsibility. Nothing less than that will be adequate.
***Jeff Godwin Doki is a Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Jos (UNIJOS), Nigeria
