BY NA-ALLAH MOHAMMED ZAGGA

In his Sunday Trust and Sunday Vanguard “Point Blank” column of December 11, 2011, the former Director General of the NTA, Mr. Tonnie Iredia took a moral high ground and subtly called for the resignation of the current Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayya Ahmed Rufai over the latest strike by the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). He cited the example of countries around the world where leaders resigned to protect their honour.

By his call on the Minister, Mr. Iredia has put Professor Ruqayya in the dock and pronounced her guilty of complex crisis that preceded her coming into the Jonathan administration. Running a column is a privilege and that platform should be used fairly and objectively.

Perhaps, taking advantage of our seeming gullibility and short memories, Mr. Iredia’s flak on the Minister was a diversionary attempt to play to the gallery at the expense of honestly examining the larger issue at stake rather than singling out Professor Ruqayya for bashing.

The English playwright, Nicholas Rowe, said “fault_finding is the easiest task of knowledge.” It is strange to me why Iredia’s rigid moral standards are only applicable to Professor Rufai and not other Ministers that came before her. Where was Iredia when Professor Borishade and Dr. Sam Egwu were occupying Ruqayya’s portfolio? Both of them had a running battle with the ASUU issue. In fact, despite being rejected by the Senate, former President Obasanjo repeatedly re_submitted his name for confirmation as Minister.

This was despite the fact that ASUU officially declared a loss of confidence on Professor Borishade as Education Minister. Yet, one cannot recall Mr. Iredia ever calling for the resignation of either Borishade or Sam Egwu over the intractable ASUU labour crisis.

Didn’t the two former Education Ministers bear the moral burden of resigning? Was the NTA, under Iredia as Director General, not too openly partisan in the coverage of political events? In fact, aggrieved politicians, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, even went as far as writing petitions to the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) but nothing came out of it.

In the court of public opinion, the NTA under him had lost the confidence of the viewers because of partisanship. When former Vice President Atiku Abubakar returned to Nigeria from medical treatment abroad after a knee injury, the NTA under Iredia refused to air the video recorded event.

In fact, the Atiku media office was even ready to pay for the air time but Iredia’s management had turned down the offer. What happened to the NTA manual about the equal treatment of political parties and politicians?

Tony Iredia knew that the Nigerian public opinion was not impressed by his open partisanship. He was widely criticized in the papers for this bias. Why didn’t he resign as a matter of honour in line with the same moral standards he is now preaching to other public office holders?

In 2002, when the House of Representatives served impeachment notice on former president Obasanjo, the NTA played it down. Yet the broadcast station gave an incredible news coverage to hired protesters who poured into Abuja to condemn the House of Representatives “unpatriotic” attempt to “truncate our nascent democracy.”

While he was busy suppressing the news of the impeachment, his counterpart at FRCN, Mr. Eddy Iroh, did a better job. The former FRCN Director General reported the event as it happened with balance, fairness and objectivity. Today, Mr. Eddy Iroh can hold up his head high anywhere.

The NTA lost credibility under Iredia and, despite the widespread criticisms of the station’s open partisanship, the former Director General didn’t find any reason to quit to protect his honour. His double standard on the even application of moral principles for public office holders defies my understanding. It is on record that ASUU, under its former President, Dr. Sule Yau Kano, had openly declared that it had no confidence in the federal government appointed negotiator, Mr. Gamaliel Onosode.

Where was Iredia then? Why didn’t he advise the industrialist to resign when the main party to the talks said it had no confidence in him? When Iredia was ensconced in his seat as NTA Director General, enjoying power to its peak, moral principles no longer mattered to public office holders!

It is, therefore, most unfair and mischievous for Mr. Iredia to now hold the Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayya Rufai personally responsible for the intractable ASUU crisis. As a Minister operating within a system, one can not understand how an individual should be held accountable for this complex problem.

Former President Obasanjo once warned the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), then under comrade Adam’s Oshiomhole, that he would deal with them in the same manner he dealt with ASUU! Yet Iredia was in Nigeria at the time and he did not ask Obasanjo to resign for act of bad faith.

Unknown to Iredia, Professor Ruqayya is one of the most incorruptible and principled public office holders in Nigeria. Since her appointment, she has handled the ASUU issue with finesse and maturity. Never once did she question the patriotism of the Union members. She never engages in careless statements while dealing with a delicate issue such as the long_standing ASUU demands.

Professor Ruqayya did not create this crisis; it has haunted Nigeria like a bad penny since the days of the General Babangida military regime. In fact, she has not done anything to suggest arrogance and bad faith, which could have cost the government enormous good will. It is, however, most unfair to hold her personally liable for the endless ASUU crisis.

It is the prayer of every well_meaning Nigerian that this administration will take the initiative and the credit for ending the ASUU issue once and for all.

Since her appointment and re-appointment as Minister of Education by President Jonathan, Professor Ruqayya Ahmed Rufa’i has put incredible passion in the implementation of the administration’s reform objectives in the education sector.

She has introduced a one-year strategy for the development of education, leading to reforms that helped the universities to be truly autonomous in managing their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). The policy of public/private sector partnership is now producing impressive results in most universities.

This year alone, because of the favourable environment created by the reforms, polytechnics and colleges of education were able to complete their academic calendar that was once difficult. The universities can now carry out their convocations successfully, something they were unable to do in the past.

In fact, because of the favourable environment created by these reforms, which improved their revenue generating capacity, some of the universities are now even considering building their own hotels, classrooms and laboratories of world standard. Why should Dr. Iredia, therefore, intentionally play down these modest achievements and choose to use the ASUU intractable crisis to obliterate her record?

*Mohammed Zagga is a journalist and a writer on national issues.