Once upon a time, there was a lawyer in the ancient Greece by the name of Protagoras. A young boy, Euthalos, requested to apprentice under him, but was too poor to pay the fees. The student promised to pay the teacher the day he wins his first case in the court. The teacher obliged.
The boy completed the training and a few years passed without him paying up. The teacher decided to sue the student in the court of law. His thought was that, ‘If I win the case, the student will have to pay me, as the case is about non-payment of dues. And if I lose, he will still have to pay me because he would have won his first case.
On the other hand, the student also agreed to be sued. He thought to himself that, ‘if I win the case, I won’t have to pay my teacher because the case is about non-payment of dues. If I lose, I still won’t pay because I wouldn’t have won my first case yet. Either way, I will not pay the teacher.
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The above is what is called the ‘Protagoras Paradox’, where both opposing sides have genuine, convincing points. The same scenario is playing out in the recent face-off between the FG and ASUU face-off regarding the IPPIS scheme.
To be sure, ASUU has always been at loggerheads with successive governments in Nigeria. However, the present debacle between the two parties is taking a dynamic dimension in the sense that a larger number of academics are unanimously into this struggle against the federal government.
The University of Ilorin that has a twenty-something year record of uninterrupted academic session has had its academic session ruptured in view of the recent face-off. In short, most university dons are telling the federal government that enough is enough. The Nigerian academics are the most underrated compared to their counterparts across the globe. Outsiders may throw invectives at the academics because they are not privy to certain information.
If the government is accusing academics of engaging in shady deals, they pushed them into it by not attending to their welfare. What would one say about the offices of lecturers? Successive governments have failed to listen to the yearnings of reputable dons. Most buildings erected in universities are from ASUU struggles via TETFund. Must ASUU react before the federal government do the right thing? Many other travails of the Nigerian academics abound.
When one travels out and experience the working conditions of other academics, one cannot but weep for Nigeria, a country that has thrown its academic bloc into the mud. The consequences are what we are witnessing in virtually all aspects of life in the country.
Though I agree with the good intention of government, he who must come to equity must come with clean hands.
Source:The Nation