The new Abubakar Baraje-led PDP has declared a one-week prayer and fasting, hopefully, in order to secure a divine intervention on the lingering ASUU strike which is about three months old now. The fasting exercise commenced on Monday 16th September and it’s scheduled to end on Sunday 22nd September, 2013. The move was designed to protest what it describes as the Federal Government’s failure to honour the agreement it signed with ASUU in 2009. Maybe Baraje and his team want us, ordinary Nigerians, to believe that all human efforts aimed at solving the strike have been exhausted and they are now seeking a divine hand into the matter. The white-washed party is apparently desperate to identify with the masses for obvious reasons and in doing so they devised a means to reach the heart of the most common Nigerian sentiment – Religious devotion.

Most Christians and Muslims in Nigeria do not play with the words ‘fasting’ and ‘prayer’, it is usually assumed that the words are holy in themselves thus they are mentioned with some degree of piety. Quite unfortunately, the lives of most of these people do not reflect the tenets which they uphold, much worse for politicians. The nPDP overlooked the Lent and Ramadan seasons as appropriate religious occasions to insert the ASUU-strike prayer item and instead carved another time for people to go on a fasting festival for the sake of ASUU. For those who would volunteer to fast with nPDP, I wish them well, but I will not risk a self-inflicted punishment in the name of fasting organized by PDP, old or new. My first question is: Are they qualified to implore their members worldwide to fast for ASUU? The nPDP should do us a favour by telling us where they were when ASUU was warming up for the strike action, when it started and lingered till PDP splitted at their convention. Perhaps they should let us know when they anointed themselves after misusing people’s money for their own gains. My second question is: Is there any need for fasting on the ASUU strike matter? I believe God has given FG the might, ability and common sense to end this dispute but they chose to initiate a marathon round of negotiations that could likely end on the first recommendation of a previous committee. In my opinion, this is not an issue that we need to bother God with since government can afford wasteful expenditures.

The new Abubakar Baraje-led PDP has declared a one-week prayer and fasting, hopefully, in order to secure a divine intervention on the lingering ASUU strike which is about three months old now. The fasting exercise commenced on Monday 16th September and it’s scheduled to end on Sunday 22nd September, 2013. The move was designed to protest what it describes as the Federal Government’s failure to honour the agreement it signed with ASUU in 2009. Maybe Baraje and his team want us, ordinary Nigerians, to believe that all human efforts aimed at solving the strike have been exhausted and they are now seeking a divine hand into the matter. The white-washed party is apparently desperate to identify with the masses for obvious reasons and in doing so they devised a means to reach the heart of the most common Nigerian sentiment – Religious devotion.

Most Christians and Muslims in Nigeria do not play with the words ‘fasting’ and ‘prayer’, it is usually assumed that the words are holy in themselves thus they are mentioned with some degree of piety. Quite unfortunately, the lives of most of these people do not reflect the tenets which they uphold, much worse for politicians. The nPDP overlooked the Lent and Ramadan seasons as appropriate religious occasions to insert the ASUU-strike prayer item and instead carved another time for people to go on a fasting festival for the sake of ASUU. For those who would volunteer to fast with nPDP, I wish them well, but I will not risk a self-inflicted punishment in the name of fasting organized by PDP, old or new. My first question is: Are they qualified to implore their members worldwide to fast for ASUU? The nPDP should do us a favour by telling us where they were when ASUU was warming up for the strike action, when it started and lingered till PDP splitted at their convention. Perhaps they should let us know when they anointed themselves after misusing people’s money for their own gains. My second question is: Is there any need for fasting on the ASUU strike matter? I believe God has given FG the might, ability and common sense to end this dispute but they chose to initiate a marathon round of negotiations that could likely end on the first recommendation of a previous committee. In my opinion, this is not an issue that we need to bother God with since government can afford wasteful expenditures.

Let me categorically state that I am neither in support of the old PDP or the Tukur-led PDP but if there is another brand of PDP that would appear to absolve itself from PDP crimes against Nigerians while beguiling the masses that it is better, then I stand to refute that claim; a decorated monkey is still a monkey. Whether old or new, PDP is still PDP since the same old rooks and knights are involved. They probably would have been more appealing if they had declared that they were going on a hunger strike in protest of the federal government’s inability to keep her part of the bargain. It would have made more sense, you know, PDP going hungry for ASUU’s course even when ASUU herself couldn’t do so, instead of declaring a fast, but I bet those guys love their belies even more than you care.

After a critical thought, I decided that nPDP’s decision on the ASUU strike is most likely a huge joke. Think about it! They never meant it anyway, or would you follow them to their closets to know whether they are fasting or not? This demonstration is what is referred to as ‘typical showmanship’. It’s probably the kind of fasting that ends in a carousal and I doubt if any meaningful prayer would be said. Let us face it! The long and short of the PDP crisis is about POWER and each faction would not hesitate to use any means necessary to grab it, including Fasting and Prayer. Given a genuine fasting will be done by the PDP, it will be done for the ‘power to control’ and not for the seemingly helpless ASUU. Besides, which God/god are they fasting to? I guess reasonable Nigerians would be glad if Baraje & Co. confess that the fasting was actually a joke.

By Bizum Yadok

Bizum is a political analyst and social affairs commentator who writes for ViewPointNigeria from Jos

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nPDP ON ASUU STRIKE: FASTING, HUNGER STRIKE OR JOKING? by BIZUM YADOK