Trends and Facts: a review of last week’s events



The FATSSSA PRESS ORGANISATION welcomes you to the 10th week of the semester; let it be known that examinations are just few weeks away. It is time to pick up your books. That being noted, this week, we are reviewing some of the news that made the rounds both on campus and off campus, the reactions that trailed the news, all about facts and trends.

On campus, we welcomed the preceding week with the knowledge of the five day warning strike by the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU). For some, it was a no-class week as most of their classes were cancelled while for others, it was not just about classes, it was all about tests and assignments. For the latter, it was an unpleasant affair as the no-light syndrome inhibited many academic activities that required power.

With the benefit of hindsight, a week before the preceding week, we all converged at the Large Lecture Theatre (LLT) of the Faculty of the Social Sciences to hold a conversation on whether school is a scam and a week after, we were greeted with a rather daunting news of the NASU strike, further revealing the laxity in our educational system.  It would be recalled that the union had declared a five day warning strike over the failure of the government to meet the 2009 agreement. Conversely, in foresight, a definite, extensive and total strike is imminent if the government fails to take urgent actions to quell the looming threat to our educational system.

Last week, we also received the news of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministers and their portfolios. Noting the facts, among the ministers are 14 returning ministers, 29 new names and seven females. Several reactions trailed the news; however, one that caught attention was the newly sworn-in minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola saying he knows little about the policies and operations of his ministry and that all he knows are those he read on the pages of newspapers. He was quoted by PUNCH to have said, “I don’t know much about the operations or policies of the ministry apart from stories about the ministry on the pages of newspapers. My relationship with the ministry is distant. What I know about the ministry is what I read in the newspapers.”  Similarly, the newly sworn-in minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu who is serving for the second time also noted during his visit to his ministry that it took him one and a half year to understand the Ministry of Education and the idea of what education is in his first tenure. Maybe this is a clear statement for Nigerians to be wary about how long it will take Ogbeni Aregbesola too and what his performance will look like in the coming months. However, time will always tell.

In the same week, 77 Nigerians charged by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for massive fraud in America. PREMIUM TIMES reported that “a 252-count federal grand jury indictment unsealed Thursday charged 77 Nigerian nationals with participating in a massive conspiracy to steal millions of dollars through a variety of fraud schemes and launder the funds through Los Angeles-based money laundering network as uncovered by the FBI.” We recalled that just about 2 weeks to the time, Forbes under 30 Nigerian, Obiwanne Okeke (Invictus Obi) was arrested by the FBI over $12m fraud and the sad story of the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) placing a life ban on former Nigeria Player and Coach for agreeing to receive bribes for match fixing. These indictments have only shown the corruption of our moral capital as a nation and how we have continued to trade our value of omoluabi for the la vida loca life.

On the other hand, the list of 77 Nigerians particularly received both wide and wild reactions as the hashtag #IgboYahooBoys became the trend. PUNCH reported the resurfacing of the April 2019 list of convicted drug dealers in the media. The four month-old report had revealed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was set to execute 23 Nigerians who were arrested for drug offences as far back as 2017. Consequently, as the hashtag #IgboYahooBoys trended last week, #YorubaDrugDealers took the centre stage on Sunday, PUNCH reported. If we must say the truth, albeit, the Nigerian situation has given unprecedented impetus to criminality and each crime has been known to be peculiar to certain ethnic group, we must also take caution to not label the entire people of a tribe criminals over the crimes of their tribesmen.

Again, the international community now has another reason to doubt every Nigerian and to think that we can take recourse to our primordial public reveals the level of distrust we share as a nation. Significantly, the international community only recognises the Nigerian Passport and not the tribal identities that differentiate us.       
©FATSSSA PRESS ORGANISATION 2019
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