Of electricity, ASUU strike, pipeline contract

Recently, Nigerians saw one of the most asinine videos ever of electricity workers gleefully shutting down the national grid. Their reason for doing that? They were going on a strike to protest a promotion exam. You heard it right. Promotion exam. Just because they don’t want to write a promotional exam, the workers plunged the whole country into darkness. This is tomfoolery taken too far.

I don’t think the workers who videoed themselves shutting down the national grid knew the implication of what they were doing. How selfish can one be? You put the whole country in danger because you don’t want to write a promotional exam. In a period when the country is experiencing its worst security challenges, the workers endangered the country because of their selfish reasons. Do you know how many lives would have been lost in hospitals where they can’t afford diesel for generators? Because of the astronomical cost of diesel, most businesses are operating at less than 20 percent. Do you know how much some businesses have lost because of the asinine strike by the electricity workers?

There should be a level to which national interest should take priority over selfish interest. What the electricity workers did can be termed economic sabotage and terrorism. Watching the videos and seeing what their actions have caused, I believe they should be ashamed of themselves by now. Many have called for the arrest of those workers in the videos. I think those workers should tender an unreserved apology to Nigerians for their juvenile actions. On no account should workers in essential services embark on strike.

This brings me to the over six months strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). The union has been synonymous to strike in recent years. ASUU has been going on strike since the military era, and yet, no administration has been about to solve the issue. Something is wrong somewhere. The lecturers have assumed a militant position that you are labelled an enemy when you give a contrary opinion on the strike.

No doubt, our tertiary institutions need funding — and so do the health sector and other critical sectors. A majority of the blame for the perennial strikes lies with the federal government. Most times, the federal government signs agreements they know they cannot implement just to buy time, and that practice needs to stop.

I don’t think going on an indefinite strike will help the situation. ASUU should just count its losses and move on. The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is in the departure lounge and ASUU should just wait till the next administration. Besides, the prolonged strike will not hurt the children of the rich or those in government but the children of the poor and average Nigerians.

Also, last week, many Nigerians were engaged with a news report that the federal government has renewed a multi-million dollar pipeline surveillance contract to a former militant leader and commander of the defunct Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo.

It was gathered that the government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited signed the deal with Tompolo to end illegal bunkering, illegal refining, and other forms of oil theft in the Niger Delta.

Many Nigerians are asking what is the military doing that the surveillance contract will be given to a single individual. This contract is a vote of no confidence in the military.

No doubt, oil theft is at an all-time high with the country said to be losing 400,000 barrels of crude daily. Again, this is not a business for small crooks. It’s an open secret that oil theft is thriving because of the collusion between top politicians, community leaders, and top military officials. We have been playing the ostrich for too long.

This goes to show that the only way to cash out in Nigeria, as we say in local parlance, is to be a bandit, Boko Haram member, or a militant. Sad.