Dear Professor,
As your colleagues in the academic community, we note your recent emergence as the leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party with keen interest and deep reflection. We recognize your scholarly pedigree and your lived experience as a product and indeed, a victim of the long and painful demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
However, let us be clear from the outset: your new position will be measured not by titles, ceremonies, or political posturing, but by your ability and willingness to convince the leadership of this country under your party to urgently and conclusively resolve the long-outstanding issues between ASUU and the Federal Government.
Don’t be carried away by the new salaries, privileges, and perquisites of high office which we are certain will be entirely new to you. Do not allow them to blind you or seduce you into silence while your abandoned colleagues, the very constituency from which you emerged, continue to suffer. Remember where you came from, and understand that we are watching whether you will return to lift up those left behind.
We have seen professors like you even more senior rise to the loftiest positions in this country: as vice presidents, ministers, chief economic advisers, governors, and more. Yet, they have left little or no legacy in the struggle to rescue Nigerian universities from systemic decay. History will surely remember them, not for their decorated resumes, but for their failure to stand for their own.
This is why we are not rushing to congratulate you. We are watching. We are waiting. We will only extend genuine congratulations when we see a demonstrable commitment to justice for Nigerian academics and the university system.
Let no one be deceived: our outstanding entitlements, rights, and dignity are not negotiable. Whether in life or death, they remain our due. Let this be known before death comes knocking, because after death, no one should dare ask us to forgive those who consciously denied us justice. We won’t.
Your assumption of this role is not just a personal achievement it is a burden of history. And we hope you understand the weight.
Sincerely,
Muhammad Lawal Ibrahim
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
A Concerned Colleague and Academic
On behalf of all those still waiting for justice.
