Opinion: Pius Adesanmi On Ibikunle Amosun's Treatment Of Teachers

Editor’s note: As a scholar, Pius Adesanmi, the internationally recognized Nigerian educator and author, could not remain indifferent to the woes his colleagues have to endure in Nigeria. In his column for Naij.com, Professor Adesanmi talks about the Nigerian mentality and Ogun state governor Ibikunle Amosun’s treatment of teachers who dared to bring certain government’s policies up for discussion.

Ibikunle Amosun, the Ogun state governor

October 5, 2015 was World Teachers’ Day. Nigerians took to social media to celebrate their teachers. For me, it was a day of reminiscences and sober reflection. My parents were teachers. Dad and Mom belong in the generation of teachers who taught and shaped Nigeria in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. I decided to spend the day thinking about and celebrating that generation of teachers – with emphasis on three of the teachers who taught me in secondary school – Titcombe College – and shaped my future.
Governor Ibikunle Amosun is sensitive to criticism

My celebration of this generation of teachers was cut short by a tragic new twist in a drama which has pitched Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun state against the ethos and the freedoms of the teaching profession for several weeks running. The details of the drama are sufficiently depressing. A secondary school teacher in Ogun state had dared to set examination questions (essay questions) critical of the state government. Governor Amosun caught wind of the situation and promptlyhad the teacher sacked. There have been other ramifications and consequences for everybody in the bureaucratic chain of command. How could anybody have let questions critical of His Excellency pass through the system?

I had initially watched this reprehensible and irresponsible use of state power by the Ogun state governor with mild irritation. The rulers of Nigeria are such prolific authors of irrationalities that the social activist and public commentator must determine wisely which buffoonery deserves attention and critical intervention at any given point. I was too engaged criticizing instances of assault on our national psyche by Akpabio, Saraki, Diezani, and other assorted yam eaters to be able to devote full attention to Amosun’s brutalization of a teacher. But I monitored the situation from the margins all the same – expecting legal action against Governor Amosun at some point.

Then a headline in Premium Times and other newspapers on the World Teachers’ Day caught my attention. Under two umbrella associations, the Academic Staff Union of Secondary School of Nigeria (ASUSS), and the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), teachers in Ogun state visited the governor to “beg” him to recall their sacked colleague! Every Nigerian should be interested in what the leaders of the two unions had to say to Mr. Amosun. Says Mr. Akeem Lasisi, chairman of the ASUSS:

“A teacher who has served the state for about 20 years wrote an offensive question. We are not happy with this. The union, in conjunction with the ANCOPSS, has already set up a disciplinary committee who attended to this issue. Whether we like it or not, Mr. Jola Adegbenro is one of us. Even though the man defended himself, both ASUSS and ANCOPSS, we would never be a party to a situation whereby one would bite the finger that feeds. The man is seriously dying, we are celebrating the World Teachers’ Day today, the man is somewhere crying.

“Your Excellency, we are pleading. Consider the case of Adegbenro. He is somewhere crying, he has suffered untold hardship. He has learnt his lessons in a very hard way. This is the lesson to all of us; but in the spirit of the World Teachers’ Day, we are appealing for help.We have declared three days fasting in order to see your favour and we believe you will give us the World Teachers Day gift. We are not asking for salaries this time around, we are not asking for deductions this time around, what we are asking for clemency on Adegbenro.”
Stop begging

The least said about Governor Amosun’s actions the better. He obviously thinks he is a tyrant in a banana republic hence his high-handed and clearly illegal action in sacking the teacher and enthroning himself in a position to be begged out of his irrationality by the very teachers he is terrorizing.

Nigeria is such a sickening, unfair and unjust society. Governor Amosun needs to be told in no uncertain terms that issues of academic and pedagogical freedom, of essayistic latitude, and of curriculum scope are not designed to massage the atrocious and outsized egos of foolish Nigerian politicians, and you cannot just wake up and sack a teacher because you do not like the tone of an essay question he set. Where does Governor Amosun think he is? Who exactly does he think he is? Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada?

Beyond this arrogant and high-handed governor – who certainly does not need to be begged out of his irrationalities – Nigerians need to worry and reflect deeply on the degree of self-abasement and self-abnegation displayed by the teachers of Ogun state when they went to beg the governor. That teachers in Nigeria are displaying such unbelievable ignorance of due process and their rights is worrisome. When an arrogant politician dabbles into curriculum and sacks a teacher without due process, where the teachers’ unions need to meet him is in the court room and not on the begging mat. Governor Amosun and his high-handed administration should be sued – not begged – and compensation sought for the teacher he sacked.
Dear Nigerians, know your rights

There is another worrisome dimension to the teachers’ statements during their begging expedition. The idea that they conceptualize Governor Amosun as “the finger that feeds them” is worrisome. It is the summation of the reason why the Nigerian elite declared war on education and completely destroyed it. For three decades and counting, Nigeria’s leadership has systematically produced a citizenry starved of civic and basic knowledge of the rights of a citizen in a democracy. Civic illiteracy leads to Stockholm syndrome. The collapse of education largely explains the portrait and the psychology of the modern Nigerian citizen: ignorant of his rights, obsequious to a fault when dealing with his political leaders, ardent defender of his oppressor.

This explains why teachers doing an honest job and earning their due wages believe that some governor living off the resources of the state is “the finger that feeds them”. We must explain this clearly to every honest, hardworking Nigerian civil servant: your salary is your right and your entitlement. You worked for it. You earned it. Your salary is not a privilege conferred to you by your state governor. It is not a privilege awarded to you by President Buhari. On the contrary, whenever these politicians delay or do not pay your salary, they are committing serious crimes and violating local and international labour rules. You do not owe any Nigerian politician gratitude for paying your salary.

Hear ye, hear ye teachers and workers of Ogun state: Ibikunle Amosun’s tyrannical finger does not feed you. Do not raise your children – Nigeria’s future – and let them grow up believing that honest pay from honest work is a privilege handed out at the discretion of benevolent politicians.

Professor Pius Adesanmi

Pius Adesanmi is a professor of English and African Studies at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. In 2010, he was awarded the inaugural Penguin Prize for African Writing. A widely-cited commentator on Nigerian and African affairs, he has lectured widely in African, European, and North American universities, and also regularly addresses non-academic audiences across Africa. Naija No Dey Carry Last, his collection of political satires on Nigeria, was recently published to critical acclaim by Parresia Books and Premium Times Books.

The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial policy of Naij.com.