As the Corona Virus continued it ravaging and devastating impact globally affecting every sector of human endeavours, Nigeria has continued her curtailment strategy on a very high note. As at the time of writing this piece, the Italian index case that came into the country has been said to have recovered fully and discharged from the health facility where he was hitherto held.  One Nigerian case that was suspected to have had contact with the Italian has tested negative.

To have kept a clean state from COVID 19 at a time drastic measures were being taken across the world to curtail its spread is an indication that Nigeria has learnt lessons from the Ebola outbreak and leveraged on the resilient system built at the time. The US has imposed travel restrictions on travellers coming in to the country from European Schengen countries. The restriction take effect from today.The country has also banned sports activities and public gathering. Scotland has recorded her first novel virus death. The UK has shifted her local and mayoral elections for one year. Canadian Prime Minister’s wife has tested positive to the globally declared pandemic. The whole world is making frantic efforts to delay the spread of the deadly virus which has been responsible for 5,374 deaths across the world with China still leading the charge as the country of origin of the deadly virus. In all of these frightening statistics, Nigeria has kept her calm and has not recorded any case of death from the virus.

Image : Eight badly hit country by COVID 19 (Source: Worldometer,2020)

In an earlier analysis of Nigeria’s effort at combating the virus, stakeholders and institutions were urged to assist government institutions not only in the fight against the virus but also the attendant fake news and misinformation using. One Nigerian that has stood up to this challenge is the former Vice President of Nigeria and the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in the 2019 Presidential Election, Alh. Atiku Abubakar. A dissection of two of his press release made since the first case of the novel virus was discovered in Nigeria has shown that he was more patriotic and solution oriented than the average Nigerian opposition figure that he represented.

In the first release made available on February 28, 2020, a day after the index case was discovered, Atiku charged the APC-led government to call upon the experience of the nation’s battle with the wild Ebola Virus. He said “we must call upon our experience with the Wild Ebola Virus of which we were the first nation in the world to defeat the scourge in 2014.” He went further to advise against any attempt to blame and point fingers. He urged Nigeria to look for solutions rather than engage in a blame game. He preached firm and decisive  decisions as the country moved to curtail the scourge then. He waxed patriotic as he charged both individuals and government to work towards securing the nation from the rampaging virus. He concluded that “ the crisis is an opportunity to show that we are first and foremost Nigerians and that we have no other country but our dear fatherland, which we must work together to keep healthy and secure.”

The strategic importance of his statement was underscored by his party’s release few days after his own. On March 1, 2020, the main opposition party had called out the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration asking him to address the nation on efforts made to contain the virus. Nigerians berated the party for its unpatriotic stance on the issue despite noticeable successful attempts displayed by the government and its health institutions. The effort has yielded the present result where no single case of the virus is recorded in the country despite the high numbers of infections and deaths recorded  globally.

So, in another release made available to press men and personally signed by him, he has again urged the Federal Government to take every reasonable step to protect Nigerians from the scourge of Coronavirus by topping flights from countries where the virus has become more aggressive. He noted  that “Despite the commendable efforts of our patriotic health officials, it will be recalled that to date, we are yet to identify and or locate multiple passengers who flew in with the index case from Italy. They could be anywhere.” He then suggested that Nigeria “must, therefore, err on the side of caution”. He argued that “we cannot afford to broaden the possibility of future infections.”

Atiku then played a patriotic card when he said “I urge that every political and any other difference be put aside. On my part, I am first a Nigerian, and I am willing and ready to work with anybody, at anytime, at whatever cost, to ensure the safety of this country, which is the only country we have to call our home, and her peoples.” The strategic importance of this statement is glaring. The handlers of the former vice president portrayed him as a selfless national leader who is ready to make personal sacrifice for the nation to confront and conquer the new world health challenge. This shows a point of departure from his party’s stance on the way the COVID 19 issues  were handled by the APC government. In times like this, the nation desires a strong support and commitment from all stakeholders.

The recent power tussles (if I may call that) between Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has yet shown another instance of the negative feelings people have towards their teachers. If ASUU was expecting sympathy from Nigerians, it would have been heartbroken because almost every single Nigerian believes they don’t deserve whatever it was they were striving for. Nigerians have already passed judgement, without hearing, and have declared ASUU guilty of bullying FGN.

But, if you truly look at this, you will come to agree with me that Nigerians are subjective in their judgement. Trust me, if it were the Super Eagles that said they won’t be captured by the IPPIS, Nigerians would have backed them up and fought FGN with them. In fact, Nigerians would have taken over the case and done the fighting for them. But here, they found themselves between their two “enemies”, so they stood with the less threatening one this time.

So I ask, why do people dislike their teachers? Why is it that teachers are never treated with the honour they deserved? Why do Nigerians decide that teachers should remain hungry and wait for their rewards in heaven? Why is it that when teachers start striking people will ask them to consider the welfare of their students without joining them to make their voices heard?

I know that the first thing everybody will say about lecturers is that they are mean, selfish, greedy and inconsiderate. I know some people will be fast to remind me that lecturers collect bribe, or rather sorting, and that they compel their students to have sex with them. But, do all lecturers engage in these acts? Besides, if ASUU is inconsiderate of the economic situation of the country, as people kept reminding them, how come those in the House, that are living a lavishing lifestyle, allocating excessive funds to themselves and using public funds and properties for their personal gains, are not considerate? Or is it because the demand came from ASUU?

Having been a teacher for more than a decade, and having tried several methods to keep the students relaxed, I’ve found out that no matter what you do as a teacher, you are never loved by your students, whether incumbent or past. The past ones may acknowledge what you’ve done for them, but deep down them remains that feeling that bothers around dislike and anger. That is why someone will say something like, “That man helped me to understand Pythagoras theorem, but, men, that man no be am.” If you ask him what that man did that earned him the “no be am” comment, you may be surprised to find out that no coherent answer will come forth.

What I have come to realise is that teachers push their students out of their comfort zones. That is the only crime they committed. I’ll try my best to explain how they do this.

1. Disruptive Knowledge: When teachers teach, they pass on sets of new knowledge to their students. Most times, this could be quite challenging to the students, who might need to unlearn what has been instilled in them for a long time in order to pick up what the teacher is saying. Some may create a dissonance and ignore the new knowledge. This last set of people always do the possible best to discredit their teachers. In fact they are the ones that usually see teachers from the negative light.

2. Tests and Exams: Another crime teachers commit is testing their students. A lot of people don’t like any form of tests or exams; they want an exam-free education system. But here they are, scheduled to write challenging tests given by their teachers, who denied them time to play football and hang out with friends. And in the exam hall, she will bring out questions that make them think for 10 minutes before they can understand what was expected of them. By the end of the day, the students write their exams with annoyance, which they transfer to their teachers and never to themselves.

3. Evaluation: It is common for a teacher to “give” students D, E, and F, and for the students to “get” A and B. This is the common believe in our country. When a student knows he didn’t do well in the exam, he will still claim that the teacher “gave” him F. This is just a way of insinuating that the teacher wrongly evaluated him. But should the teacher “wrongly” give him A, when he, the student, knows he didn’t merit it, he will not say the “teacher gave” him but that “I got” A. This is just to say that students blame their teachers for their (the students’) failures, but never give them credit for their success. This follows them even after leaving school. That’s why people don’t speak out for the welfare of teachers, because they never truly saw them as having done anything for them.

4. Punishment: People hardly forget those that punished them even when the pain has gone and the memory is blurred. A single punishment from a teacher is enough to earn him a life enemy. He, the teacher, may forget the punishment but the person that received it will bear it to heart for long. That the punishment was meted out to help or to reform the student isn’t the concern of the student; all he cared about at that moment is that he was humiliated and penalised for something he saw as nothing. The worst thing here is that this affected student will transfer his dislike for the teacher to others teachers, even to the ones that were his ‘friends’.

It’s high time Nigeria started according teachers respects due to them. Teachers are the lowest salary earners in this country and there is no sign that this situation will change anytime soon. Even professor in the university earns what an entry-level BSc holder in some MDAs receives (and most of them are not under IPPIS) but nobody notices that. So if ASUU is the only strong body that will make the voice of the academics heard in this country, then I’ll stand with them. FGN shouldn’t turn academics into puppets, IPPIS or not.

Let me also ask one more thing, are those in the National Houses paid under IPPIS? Or are Nigerians misfiring their ‘anger’ to the wrong party?