ASUU’s INTRANSIGENCE, BUHARI’s COMPLACENCY: The Fela’s Ròfòrófò Fight Metaphor
By ‘Tunji Ajayi
Becoming a war generalissimo is not a trite issue, as there is no hero in a defeated camp. To be feted as a war hero, he must have fought many battles gallantly and won without blemish. His gallantry is never measured by Pyrrhic victories. Some battles are won and also “lost” simultaneously. Oh! It sounds so curious and antithetical. Thus, I can hear the expletive of “how so?!” A certain war commander went to fight the enemy with a battalion of soldiers under his command. For several days, he led his men in a fierce soul-crushing battle to subdue the enemies. He did. He won the battle! But he also lost the battle. Yes. A Battalion comprises 1,000 able-bodied soldiers. But the war commander managed to crawl back home alive in pain with only one fighter, both as one-eyed soldiers now, with severed legs. I am certain he would not be lavishly feted. Why? . . . His losses far outweighed his gains. He had a Pyrrhic victory. He probably was not methodical and fought roughshod on the battlefield with attendant disastrous consequences.
In “My Dear” – an epic musical album released in 1986 by King Sunny Ade, the music maestro applied his usual idiosyncratic witticism. According to him, a gallant war generalissimo must know when to fight and the right time to retreat. He does not fight roughshod. Otherwise, he would be subdued or exterminated. Hear KSA’s philosophical words: “Mò’jà mò’sá, làá mo akíkanjú lógun. Akíkanjú tó mò’jà tí ò mò sá. Irú won máa n b’ógun ibò míì lo ni”.
Yes! The music maestro was downright right. This explains why a fighter’s versatility is not measured just by his bulldog-like strength. Like the legendary erstwhile world heavyweight boxing champion, the Louisville Lip, Muhammad Ali, unarguably the most celebrated boxer who ever lived, Ali often won his battles long before he entered the ring to fight his opponents. The loquacious and vociferous methodical fighter would lacerate his opponent with acerbic commentary, threatening and frightening him in the media, days before the fight. “I am the King of the world... Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can’t hit what his eyes can’t see…” Challenging Sonny Liston for the Heavyweight title in 1964, Ali said of Liston: “He’s too ugly to be world champion. The world champ should be pretty like me!”
Ali would boast of his tact, pooh-pooh, lampoon and denigrate his opponent’s skills; while applying the “principle of anticipated reactions.” The methodical “rope-a-dope” pugilist would often run away from his opponent, leaning on the rope in one corner of the ring while his opponent rained heavy blows on his athletic body frame. Throwing his punches methodically and accurately after the opponent had spent all his energy pummeling his (Ali’s) body with blows, which don’t count in boxing, Ali the pugilist would land just one calculated blow on the face of his opponent who would thereafter lie flat on the ring floor writhing in pain. The deal is sealed! Like the legendary Muhammad Ali, a dogged fighter must be methodical to record successes in his battles.
The Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) appears to be fighting a battle and is poised to win a Pyrrhic victory. Having been in the lecturing profession for the greater part of my working career, I am not apathetic to ASUU’s sympathetic situation. In fact, I have written copiously in defense of ASUU’s position at various instances during their strike actions and the great profession I hold so dear in my heart. In “More Football Medals Please” (Nigerian Tribune, August 19, 1996) I had sarcastically decried the retrogressive and ridiculous stance of the then Nigerian Government who, due to their ineptitude and recalcitrance often pushed education, the bastion of national development to the background but would often in spur of the moments ecstatically reward football players for winning medals at international competitions; but thereafter forget to consolidate by developing our sports and games any further, until next competition was few months ahead when they would wake up from their slumber to remember their sportsmen and footballers. In “ASUU’s Malady & Government’s Complacency” (Ohio Wesleyan University Press, USA, November 20, 2020), I had lamented: “Many of our dedicated Professors and scholars in Medicine, Social Sciences, Technology, Law, Agriculture, Education, Management, etc, in our universities continue to wallow in penury for opting to become what they are. They chose to be imparting knowledge into our youths so that our nation can attain enviable position educationally amongst other nations in the world. Many of our academic dons who could no longer bear the anguish and the excruciating pain of squalor have fled the country in search of better opportunities elsewhere, while the government is fighting the scourge of brain-drain on paper and with her media sloganeering. Any nation that snubs her own knowledge givers will wallow in ignorance, because it is knowledge that liberates a people.”
“It is what a man values that he esteems greatly and protects with his might and resources. How much value do past and present governments place on our educational system? The rich have the option of abandoning our decrepit and decomposed educational system, by sponsoring their wards and children to foreign or private universities. The Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities has always gone on strike in the last 25 years. What makes a situation so intractable that a government cannot nip in the bud for 25 years!? The university system can no longer function with a purposeful academic calendar like in the past, without being disrupted by incessant strike actions, whilst our children’s educational progress perpetually remains in quandary. The rich and the powerful aristocrats in government often send their children to private universities, where strikes and lock-outs are almost non-existent, while the government watches our predicament helplessly. ASUU has always accused the government of breaching bilateral agreements by not honouring her own words. The most dishonorable thing for a man or an institution is to breach agreement. A breach of agreement is a criminal breach of trust.”
The above shows that the ASUU-Government faceoff has been part of our decrepit system for almost three decades. And here again we have witnessed another imbroglio for over six months. In Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s album entitled “Ròfòrófò Fight” (Ferocious Fight in the mire) Fela gave a vivid picture of what became of a friend who engaged in a street brawl with a stubborn, impenitent rabid fighter: “By and by, the fight go start... By and by, dem go fall for ròfòrófò o! Dem face go be ròfòrófò face! Dem yansh go be roforofo yansh! Dem body go be ròfòrófò body! You no go know who your friend be. You no go fit help your friend, just because ròfòrófò dey! If you wan help your friend, ròfòrófò go rub for your face!”
ASUU has engaged in a ròfòrófò fight with an impenitent and stubbornly rigid government who cares less about what education can offer a nation, but what they can gain from “serving” the nation and helping Niger Republic grow. Corruption stinks to high heavens while profligate spending becomes the order of the day. From the construction of a $1.96bn rail line from Kano to Maradi in Niger Republic, to spending un-appropriated N1.15bn for car gift to aid security in Niger Republic ”in the interest of Nigeria” whose citizens are enmeshed in stark poverty and daily crass insecurity the government remains the greatest clown of all time. Blessed be the magnanimous decision of a philanthropic President who is yet to agree that charity begins at home. . . ASUU is now in a 6-months old fix. Hear Fela’s continuation of his Ròfòrófò track: “If you wan help your friend, ròfòrófò go rub for your yansh!. . . You don tell am make him no fight because ròfòrófò dey! Now listen to me now now now now. Ròfòrófò don change them, dem go look like twins. You no go know who be who! Ròfòrófò don change them . . .” Yes. Buhari’s Government is like repulsive malodorous mire - the ròfòrófò around which it is dangerous to engage in a brawl. Thus, never argue with an unresponsive and self-opinionated person. People might not know the difference, because like twins with semblance you might end up looking similar. It is in vain that a sane person engages in an argument or street brawl with an insane. People might not know the difference. And if a dog barks at a man on the street, it is unwise to bark at the dog in retaliation. It is discreet and methodical to just walk away. ASUU needs to walk away now. Yes. Talking repeatedly to a deaf and dumb person who doesn’t even understand any gesticulation or sign-language is a sheer waste of energy, time and efforts. It’s like waiting for a crab to blink. There is wisdom in ASUU retreating now like a discreet war generalissimo who knows when to retreat, and the appropriate time to fight. By the recent expletives from the Minister of State for Education, Mr. Festus Keyamo, especially after Universities have been shut for a whopping 180 days, thus sending millions of our students back to the streets and rendering lecturers and those engaging in ancillary private services idle; there seems to be no penitence from the government. This government doesn’t know what ASUU has been saying ever since. Keyamo said pointblank that the spendthrift government spending recklessly on Niger Republic’s security had no money to solve ASUU’s problems. C’est fini
Fela ends his Ròfòrófò Fight song. Hear him: “You don tell am before, make him no fight o! Ròfòrófò dey for there . . . Two people dey yab, Crowd dey look! Ròfòrófò dey . . . Wetin you go see? Ròfòrófò fight eh! . . .” Yes. The same people who supported ASUU ab initio seem to have become tired after watching the endless ròfòrófò fight with a government that is so insensitive and impenitent; leading to millions of our university students staying idle at home, while parents continue to lament the ugly trend. But here lies the caveat: At the end of the Liberian civil war, their school system re-opened. The gory sights included thousands of secondary school students who had become nursing fathers and mothers of many children. Many who were still determined to pursue their education went back to school tying their babies to their backs. And the primary and secondary school classrooms were filled with distraught mothers and fathers; who hitherto would have become managers and technocrats contributing to the economic system in the industries, ministries and government parastatals, but were reading to sit their O’Level exams in secondary schools. The adult citizens of university ages were still learning A for Apple and B for Bandits in the primary schools. Time and tide wait for no man. This may also happen here in Nigeria soon due to the present government’s pigheadedness and ASUU’s intransigence leading to this endless strike action and subsequent universities closure for six months now.
In spite of having a good cause to fight, there are times one has to show maturity and allow your opponent have his way to avoid having a Pyrrhic victory whereby what one gains from fighting a cause is less than the humongous losses. This is especially so with respect to a government that is so self-opinionated and insensitive. The truth is that it might be a discreet step for ASUU to call off this strike now, accept a middle-point option, and re-present her case to a saner government that is not deaf and dumb. It is an excruciating task talking to scarecrows dressed in the garb of humans when they are truly inanimate objects. Everything happening in Nigeria seems like an interregnum where there is no government in power. Consequently, ASUU might need to learn a good lesson from the brave hunter Chief Afifìlàperin who, with his mere magical cap, subdued and killed a monstrous Elephant one day. He was subsequently honoured lavishly by the elated King who felt so proud of having such a brave man amongst his subjects, and was being feted in the community with people dancing and making merry in recognition of his bravery and exploit. But the second day Chief Afifìlàperin saw no one around to continue the conviviality. He was derided and accused of witchcraft, while everyone in the community warned their loved ones and wards to avoid Afifìlàperin like a plague, arguing that if a man could kill a whole elephant with a mere cap, he could as well exterminate anyone making friends with him whenever he gets irked. Hence, the proverb: “Afifìlàperin, ojó kan n’iyì è mo” – The honour lasts only for a day of a man who kills an elephant with his mere cap. ASUU has already made her points and has received public sympathy and approbation. Let ASUU bury the hatchet and go back to the classroom pending the inauguration of a better administration that genuinely values educational development. This Government’s main attention now is on the security of Niger Republic. Speaking to the deaf and dumb is an effort in futility. Permit me to quote from “A Reticent Script Writer and His Actors’ Place in History” (Ohio Wesleyan University Press, USA., July 16, 2021) in which I had submitted: “Every government – good or bad, has her conspicuous place in history books being scrupulously kept, so that on-coming generations may make reference and learn some lessons. Thus, while History is busy recording, the Archive too is busy keeping such records.” That remains our consolation. Verbum Satis Sapienti.
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*Tunji Ajayi, a creative writer, author and documentary producer writes from Lagos, Nigeria.(+2349020007004; +2348033203115)
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