ASUU: Of the Emptiness of Festus Keyamo

By Bode Ojoniyi

… “The moment they went on strike, we intervened…” ”The moment they declared the strike, even before the strike… and, as the talk started, they still went on strike” …”One sector of the economy to hold your jugular…” “we are putting our cards face up…” …”50% of the total wage…” “Go and beg ASUU…” …Go and beg them…” “Do you want me to kneel down on air?” …”They are not the only one feeding from the Federal purse…” …“Let’s go to the more critical issue why I am here…!” – Festus Keyamo

Any critical mind listening to Festus Keyamo gibberish on FG-ASUU faceoff yesterday, part of which I have captured above, can easily again see the emptiness of those who are unfortunately running the affairs of the Nigeria State at this critical moment. For instance, we know that communication or conversation runs on logical presentation of thoughts or ideas on the matter under discourse. Unfortunately, everything spewed out by Festus Keyamo yesterday runs afoul of anything known to logic in meaningful communication or conversation.

Now, let us start from his claim that “The moment they went on strike, we intervened.” For a start, a critical reading of Keyamo’s presentation shows a lack of logical coordination which is known as coherence of thought/idea. “The moment they went on strike, we intervened” means the Ministry of Labour only intervened after ASUU had declared strike. This claim cannot be mutually true with the claim that “…even before the strike”… To intervene the moment they went on strike is not the same thing as intervening before the strike. This is also not in agreement with the claim that “as the talk started they still went on strike…” The questions are: which talk? Was it a talk before the declaration of the strike or a talk after the declaration of the strike?

There are evident manifestations of the fallacies of undistributed and excluded middles in Keyamo’s claims above. And, in logical analysis, we can infer that those fallacies were deliberately committed on the part of Keyamo to sell his lies as truths to the listening audience for the purpose of wiping up sentiments against ASUU. The point is that the claim that “..as the talk started, they still went on strike” does have a logical link with the claim that “The moment they went on strike, we intervened”. The only logical truth here can only be: “We intervened immediately they declared strike!” In essence, the claim that “they still went on strike” is clearly logically redundant in the conversation. The claim that they still went on strike can only make a logical sense if the claim was: “The moment they were planning to declare strike, we intervened. But, they still went on strike”. That is a logical statement with a clearly distributed logical middle!

Keyamo deliberately omitted logical sequence of events in his claims on ASUU’s actions because the government evidently failed in their responsibilities to the State and to the people.

The claim that “…One sector of the economy to hold your jugular…” shows that Keyamo is clearly ignorant of the place, purpose and the importance of Education. Sure, Keyamo is bereaved of the true ideas of Education. A sound mind knows that Education is not just a mere sector of any country’s economy. Education as a sector is the mother, the spring board, on which the economy of any nation breathes, feeds and survives. If Education fails, there cannot be anything called functional economy. Any economy that is not run and propelled by functional Education will only remain at the level of the early men’s economy of subsistent farming, of such a time when rustic men only fed and survived on fruits. Such time that men lived in houses of leaves and grasses, before building mud houses.

Keyamo, playing the Lord of Lords in that conversation claimed, “we are putting our cards face up…” Now, you wonder who are “the we” against the rest, the us, in this matter? Of course, this is a “we” that is clearly against the people, the rest of us, who cannot send our children abroad like the “we”, the them in government who have been flying abroad to attend the matriculations and the convocations of their children. We must admit: fate has been good to these powerful “we” against the rest of us. It is a “we” that has the power to negotiate with the rest of us; the “we” that have the cards to place on the table against the people without a table, the masses, those who have no cards at all to turn.

When Keyamo said, “Go and beg ASUU …Go and beg them…Do you want me to kneel down on air? …They are not the only one feeding from the Federal purse…”, one can only pity whoever or whatever ASUU is! This ASUU that is a baby sucking on the breasts of FG, thinking it is the only one feeding from the Federal purse must be told that it is not the only baby of the almighty FG… There are more important FG’s hungry and feeding babies: The government of Afghanistan that needs a billion US dollar, the government of Niger Republic that needs 1.4 billion naira SUVs and billions of rail-line projects, the National Assembly with the bogus individuals’ pays of over 30m per month, the yearly budget to renovate the Assembly complex, the political office holders’ reckless pays, billions for ludicrous trade money, and billions for the so-called school feeding programme… I think Keyamo also needs to tell us what he earns as a junior minister compared to the 400 thousand plus of a University Professor…

Sincerely, Keyamo is just a ridiculously reckless fellow in his blackmailing propaganda against ASUU that you begin to wonder who ASUU is, and, if the matter is ASUU against them or ASUU against us! Of course, that was what earned him his place in the present government, propaganda. Somebody to whom useless politics is critical than education! Or how do we interpret Keyamo’s outburst when he told Seun Okinbaloye in clear terms “Let’s go to the more critical issue why I am here…!” It is clear that Keyamo and his gangs in power do not see education as anything critical to the survival of the nation… After all, their own wards can always go abroad to get good education and when they return to the country, they will definitely be in the position to lead the Professors and mass of Nigerians with no functional education… It is the hegemonic neo-liberal agenda of the political class in Nigeria to perpetuate themselves and their generations in power over the illiterate mass of the people… Keyamo has indeed demonstrated his emptiness as far as Nation building is concerned…

Finally, for the avoidance of doubt, ASUU is us, we the masses. ASUU is the parents who cannot send their children to Universities abroad like the politicians. ASUU is the entity that is against the reckless insensitivities of the Nigerian politicians. I am ASUU. I have two children in Nigeria Universities. I support ASUU… We are ASUU. We are the people. ASUU is the people demanding that government must fund education as a matter of its priority,