One would think that a country that already posts some of the world`s worst human capital outcomes in the world would be loathe to let anything with the remotest chance of complicating what is an already thoroughly embarrassing crisis fester. But, no. Not here. The posture of those in power is of a country only slightly perturbed by its predicament.
According to the 2020 Human Capital Index (HCI) which was based on a range of metrics of health and education including infant mortality, expected years of schooling, and stunting, a child born in Nigeria that year will grow up to achieve just 36 per cent of the productivity he or she could have attained with full health and education. This was below the average for sub-Saharan Africa of around 40 percent.
This human capital crisis is no doubt a chief contributor to the backbreaking poverty of which the Giant of Africa is the largest contributor in sub-Saharan Africa.
According to the Nigeria Poverty Assessment 2002: A Better Future for All Nigerians by the World Bank Group,1 in 5 poor people in sub-Saharan Africa live in Nigeria, with the country key to global and regional poverty reduction.
In this wise, given the historic interlink between lack of education and poverty, it can only be utterly shameful that Nigerian undergraduate students are approaching the sixth month marooned at home as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government continue what is an unsightly squabble.
 The gladiators of gloom
  The feud has a long history. Between 1999 and 2022, more than ten different strike actions by ASUU have been recorded as the body has fought with the Federal Government on the graveyard of education in Nigeria.
The issues have largely bothered on the welfare of those who teach in Nigerian universities, and the state of university education itself, as a body which considers itself the custodian of university education in Nigeria has developed into one of the country`s more formidable trade unions, one which is capable of bending the government to its will.
But among many Nigerians, there is a lingering feeling that over the years, ASUU has been far too flippant in its engagement with the Federal Government.
 Keyamo`s flawed counsel
That the strike action is headed into its sixth month is not for want of efforts to resolve the lingering impasse. It is rather that the efforts the Federal Government has made so far have lacked transparency and credibility.
The Minister of State for Labour and employment, Festus Keyamo, certainly epitomized this when he fielded questions on the strike action during a recent appearance on Channels Television.
With the negotiations led by his ministry proving futile so far, Mr. Keyamo said that Nigeria cannot be expected to borrow the sum of 1.2 trillion naira to give in to the demands of ASUU. While saying that Nigeria cannot grind to a halt because of ASUU, he appealed to Nigerians to beg the body to prevail on its members to return to the classroom.
Keyamo`s appeal, which most likely fell on deaf ears given the prevailing mood of the country perfectly summed up what has recently become a favourite refrain of  the current administration: that Nigeria is broke and as such, Nigerians should bear with the government.
 Woe at home, windfall abroad
Yet, in a country where there is supposedly no money, and about 91 million people live below the international poverty line, the president of a country supposedly struggling to meet its many financial obligations at home can fork out a staggering 1.4 billion naira to purchase exotic vehicles for another country where he is rumored to have cousins.
In a country where the cupboards are supposedly bare, government officials live like princes in some filthy rich gulf states, with some of them numbing their consciences enough to heist billions of naira from the public purse.
Hounds from the past
If Nigeria is haunted today, the hounds come from the past. It is the unbroken chain of desperately poor leadership in Nigeria that has now midwifed the challenges threatening to break up a sorely tried country.
The lingering insecurity in the country is a testament to this, as much as the broken education system now epitomized by this strike action. It is not that there is no money to meet the demands of ASUU.
What is lacking is the political will on the part of those who would rather cross the border to go and play ‘Father Christmas’ in neighboring countries.
Nigeria is not broke. It is the broken leadership in place in the country that is gradually breaking a once prosperous country.
 Kene Obiezu
keneobiezu@gmail.com
