By Dele Sobowale

“Insanity has been described as doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result”. Anonymous.

If there are people not surprised that ASUU is back on strike, they are the faculty and students of UniJankara – Seat of Street Wisdom. We don’t blow grammar like the Professors of ASUU do, but we know when we are dealing with con-men – even if they are called Presidents and Vice-Presidents.

Now that ASUU is again back on strike, let me remind our readers of the article published on these pages in June this year under the title: ROPE A DOPE –ASUU. Enjoy yourself and send us a bottle of beer for accuracy of prediction. Otherwise, advise ASUU to hire us as consultants next time they negotiate with Jonathan and Co. Right now these ASUU guys are pathetic!!

“ROPE A DOPE – ASUU – 4

“We do not know whether there is a special way of passing this Bill that had been begging for attention for years. We also doubt if the lawmakers were equally sensitive to what the non-implementation of the said agreement [emphasis mine] had caused the academic community, students and parents and what it would cause them in the future”.

President Jonathan

Prof. Ukachukwu Awuzie, President ASUU, lamenting the delay in passing the Bill arising from the agreement reached with the Federal government in 2009.

“It is unthinkable that wisdom should ever be popular”.

Goethe, 1749-1832.

Fuel queues are back; your wife is probably still searching for kerosene; power supply had reversed back to one hour a day. A guy seats in Aso Rock enjoying the “breath of fresh air” which his “rope a dope” strategy has yielded. I dey laugh O!!!

Commonsense is not common. If there is anything funnier than the “rope a dope” strategy, it’s the new twist. You would think Professors and Senior Lecturers in our universities are intelligent; that they could not be fooled. Well, you are half right. They are mostly intelligent; but also mostly not wise.

A good lot of the world’s catastrophes had been caused by “egg-heads”. David Halberstam, in his book THE BRIGHTEST AND THE BEST, the best chronicle of the American misadventure in Viet Nam, had called the policymakers and top military brass, who produced the debacle, “intelligent but not wise”.

Back in 1974, when I was reading the book, it had not registered in my mind that someone can be intelligent and not wise. Now I know. Of all the definitions of wisdom, John Milton’s, 1608-1674, is the most apt for this column. According to him:

“To know/That which before us lies in daily life/Is the prime wisdom/ What is more is fume”. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, p 275). Wisdom, is never taught in schools; it is learnt from experience, open mindedness and providential intuition; from being truthful to oneself all the time and not compromising with the truth – however unpleasant.

When ASUU reached the 2009 “agreement” with the Yar’Adua-Jonathan-Namadi administration, the two sides compromised heavily on the truth. ASUU is now left holding the empty bag. As this piece is being written on June 3, 2011, the Sixth National Assembly had gone into history without passing the Bill.

Yet, if the discussion between some of my friends in academia is a reflection of what others did on election days, they also “voted for Jonathan not PDP”. In the end, Jonathan and PDP had colluded to break the agreement entered into in 2009 to get ASUU back to the classroom. That self-deception on the part of highly intelligent people is bad enough.

A look at the composition of the present National Assembly reveals that except for the mini-tsunami in the Southwest, the PDP had again been overwhelmingly re-elected nationwide by people who deceived themselves that they “voted Jonathan not PDP”.

Was Jonathan running for Senate, House of Representatives and Governor everywhere? ASUU members, who might find themselves back in the trenches, can now ask themselves if they were honest with themselves and other stakeholders by keeping quiet until it is too late.

To be quite blunt, did they actually expect Jonathan and the PDP to keep their promises? If not, why the self-deceit especially when it is now clear that the calamity Professor Awuzie predicts would come to pass for Nigeria’s education sector? ASUU is now threatening to go on strike again. A lot of sense that makes!! That’s like bolting the gate after all the chicken have fled.

ASUU was not alone in raising alarm after the disaster instead of warning the nation when it mattered the most — before the elections. Professor Okebukola, former Director General of NUC reportedly pointed out that 800,000 students seeking admission to universities might not be admitted. Like ASUU he waited until after the elections to divulge this closely guarded secret to save government from embarrassment. Yet, these are issues for discussion before elections.

And these are our own brightest and best being dribbled silly by politicians whom they regard with disdain. If Awuzie must know the truth, the first calamity is ASUU itself. All the rest will follow from it. This is no laughing matter”.

That was in June; now Professor Awuzie can take free advice from me. The agreement reached in 2009 and which had not been presented to the last National Assembly is all but dead. Unless Jonathan sends a bill to the NASS soon there will be no action. That is the plain truth. So, for how long will ASUU stay out?

PDTF milked to the tune of at least N500b in three years. No Wikileak. Try Deleleaks. Read the book N5000 per copy.