Rev. Fr. George Ehusani has called on leaders to do all it takes to rid Nigeria of the myriads of problems facing the country, particularly that which concerns the continued closure of universities, owing to the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU strike. Speaking at one of his homily sessions, Fr. Ehusani condemned the lackadaisical attitude of government and the ministry of education towards resolving the face-off between ASUU and the government, noting that universities have been closed for over two months, and the ministry is not worried about the closure.
According to the priest, to keep young people who are in their twenties at home doing nothing for months, spells doom and a time bomb waiting to explode. He said if the leaders are talking about leadership without tackling the issue of the closed universities and allow ASUU strike continue, it shows the height of bad leadership which he said is tragic. Said he: “There are people; experts, who have said, ‘keep young people busy’. If you do not keep young people busy, you are calling for criminality. An idle mind is the devil’s workshop. “How can we keep our public schools closed for three months? And I am talking of millions and millions of young people; they are doing nothing. We have not engaged them at home; there’s no online learning organized for them, and we think there will be a country to run for 2023?” He urged the people to challenge politicians running for various positions in the country to ensure that the schools are reopened.
“If you know anybody who is looking to be governor, senator, president, help me ask him, ‘President of where?’ This country that is collapsing now? The minimum we can do all of us is call on our leaders to make sure that schools are open tomorrow. See crime everywhere. We can afford to keep our schools closed? What kind of human beings do we have leading our affairs? Is it really that we are completely helpless?” He asked Nigerians to ensure they call their leaders and send letters to them to express their dissatisfaction with the situation of education in the country. “Bombard them with calls and letters. Make them uncomfortable. Make the President uncomfortable. Make the Governors uncomfortable. Make Ministers uncomfortable. How can the Minister of Education sleep through the night when all the schools that he is superintending are closed?” Urging Nigerians to propose a bill where heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs will patronise institutions in the country. Fr. Ehusani noted that as long as the education minister’s children school abroad and the health minister takes treatment outside the country, there would not be improvement in the sectors.
He said: “If I have my son in University of Abuja, I have my child in Federal University, Lokoja, then I will do whatever it takes to make sure that schools are not closed because I don’t want to have my child in February at home, in April at home when he is supposed to be studying. “Let’s take this up. Let people of vision; people who are concerned for the common good lead us. And for once, let’s begin to run a country the way a country is supposed to be, otherwise, what do we do with 200 million people? If this country completely fails, West Africa will not be able to accommodate us. We need to begin to do something,” the clergy submitted.
