an epistolary poem

dear art.

I'm sad, ironically, 

Sa'ad was his name I say,

a friend of mine 

whose mind was mine

who, in metaphor,

was the cream in my coffee,

and who shone as bright

as light, in simile,

& it was a friendship I deemed

bittersweet, oxymoronically,

and of such bitterness,

I wanted to ripe sweet-drink

& I'm writing, in synecdoche,

that you own my hands -

you are now the friend I trust,

the friend I love

In you I see myself, 

don't you see in me yourself?

that's not just an elf

in me he didn't see himself. 

— Omar Mu'az, Sun. 14th. February. 2021.

"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today." -Malcolm X (1925-1965).

For anyone, who is cognisant about the lingering strike in our public universities nationwide will sympathise with its students, now it's clear that students understood the government negligence and I don't care attitude towards education sector because non of their sons and daughters go to public universities.

The government that supposed to do the needful actions regarding the strike is showing lackadaisical attitude towards it as if education system is in normal state, and ASUU Strike is not the topic of discussion today.

The government is hellbent with political affairs than returning the students to their classes, It's unfortunate that the issue of ASUU Strike has become a secondary matter to the government in national affairs, sad.

The dreams of public universities students have been shattered by the strike, a graduation period of million students has been extended to another subsequent year(s) (I do not pray for that occurrence).

It's a herculean task for a public university student to graduate at the stipulated period allocated for his or her studies, almost every student's ID Card graduate before him or her.

The victims (students) of ASUU strike have lost hopes in learning and scholarship, they shift their focus from education to other life activities such as businesses and learning skills to build their lives since the government failed to save their future.

The statistics of students call-up for NYSC in the camps nationwide is low, compare to when public universities are not on strike.

 The NYSC camps are filled with HND students, students from universities abroad, students from private universities in Nigeria and students from affiliated universities (FCE/CEO/Polytechnic graduates).

There will be may be a hope of fulfilling the ASUU demands soon (I pray) because I know the Nigerian politicians and INEC will need serving corps members to work for them in the 2023 general elections, which if the strike is not call-off the current corps members are not sufficient for the election's tasks because they are few in number.

The (our) striking lectures are not the problem but the government. May Allah put end to this strike menace,Amin.

Aliyu Idris can be reached via mail [email protected] and goes to Bayero University Kano.