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The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU began a total and indefinite strike after it became obvious that the government was not ready to sign agreements it jointly reached with ASUU through its Technical committee. Really, what does ASUU want? Why is the government acting up? Is there hope for this country?

The Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU began a total and indefinite strike after it became obvious that the government was not ready to sign agreements it jointly reached with ASUU through its Technical committee. Really, what does ASUU want? Why is the government acting up? Is there hope for this country? If you want answers, then, join me on this voyage of critical evaluation of the situation.

What does ASUU want?
‘In view of the enormous importance of education for national development, education must continue to be funded heavily by public funds through budgetary and non-budgetary provisions. Aminimum of 26% of the annual budget of the state and federal governments ought to be allocated. We need to develop a knowledge-based society in the 21st century.’
--Excerpt from ASUU NEC Release on the ongoing Indefinite Strike

What are critical issues that have been the bone of contention between ASUU and the Federal Government of Nigeria FGN?

ASUU has struggled to ensure that there is adequate funding of education and remuneration of its members, renovation and upgrade of university facilities, workshops, laboratories, libraries, research centres, studios, and students’ housing facilities. Other issues include autonomy of the universities, pension scheme for members, roles of educational bodies like JAMB, NUC and the Education Tax Fund. ASUU also claims that any agreement reached at the negotiation table should be implemented through massive funding particularly by budgetary allocations.

Because of these pressing needs, it reached an agreement with the FGN in June 2001 after a serious strike during the Obasanjo Administration. ASUU-FGN 2001 agreement needed implementation/review as far as back in 2004 possibly because there was no sign of significant change in the University system. But this did not start until December 2006; for the next three months, the two teams could not agree on the principles of collective bargaining which form the foundation for lasting agreements. So another strike action ensued in March 2007 which rolled into the period of Presidential elections and handover. Soon after he assumed office, President Yar’adua appealed to ASUU to call off the strike with a pledge to resolve the crisis. ASUU, through its NEC, met with the Presidential Ad-hoc committee to establish that the UNILORIN 49 lecturers should be reinstated in line with ASUU-FGN 2001 Agreement; and that negotiations on other cogent issues should be concluded by September 2007 based on the principles of collective bargaining. So the three-month old strike ended and there was hope that the new government may tilt the tide of educational waves.

The Government instituted a technical committee headed by Deacon Gamaliel Onosode to enter into serious negotiations with ASUU and other University staff unions to useful agreements which, if implemented, will facilitate uplift Nigeria’s university system. This arduous tasks commenced in July 2007 but was not concluded until December 2008 [as against the initial September 2007 deadline].

And the final thing: the FGN should sign and implement the ‘unsigned’ agreement. But it refused. Why? I really don’t know. This is reason why the Minister of Education Sam Egwu claimed the FGN did not sign any agreement with ASUU. Indeed, the FGN did not empower its technical team to sign any agreement with ASUU. That’s why we’re where we are! What has worsened the situation is the recent step by government in setting up a technical committee/inter-ministerial committee which may undermine already reached agreements. Now ASUU insists that until the agreement is signed, the strike will continue.
We must not lose sight of the fact that the Gamaliel committee’s work also affects NASU, SSANU and other staff unions. Perhaps, this is the reason we have this University Staff Unions Strikes ‘US-US’ which have totally paralysed the public universities across the country.

What about the government? To understand government’s role, it is important to access ASUU’s achievements. If we critically evaluate ASUU’s achievements between 1999 and 2009, we’d see that 49 lecturers were victimized in UNILORIN in 2001: 5 have been reinstated with full benefits due to the Supreme Court Ruling a couple of weeks ago and the remaining members await the fate come September. There was minimal increase in workers’ salary payment during the Obasanjo Administration. And the Universities have limited autonomy, at least with the POST-UME examinations.
On the other hand, the funding of education has consistently reduced from 5[Obasanjo] and to 2% [2009 Budget] compared with 12% [Abdul-Salami pre-democracy era]. So what does this mean? It is pellucid that there is no significant improvement in university system for past TEN YEARS OF DEMOCRACY.

Whose fault?

Will a sensitive government reduce funding of education? Will it not be right to say FGN is at fault for her failure to pay her intellectuals while she pays Equatorial Guinea workers three month salaries? Isn’t it pathetic to realize that the President, his vice, and Ministers of Education and Information and national orientation are former higher institutions’ lecturers who should understand the plight of university dons and the decaying system? Is it not absurd the supposed giant of Africa cannot place premium priority on education by taking it as a ‘do-or-die’ affair as ruling party took the Ekiti State rerun elections? It would be sad to know that most of our ministers wards study abroad or in private institutions: can’t you see why you and I as students waste enormous time at home because it has become a ‘civil offence’ to attend public university? In my career as a Nigerian medical student, I have spent more than a year in all on University Staff Unions Strikes ‘US-US’, what kind of graduates can we produce from such a university system?
No wonder my co-winners at high school national contests opted to go abroad and are now proud graduates of American institutions. Little wonder why many lecturers [at least I know of two personally] leave the country because of perpetual frustration in the class without tables, laboratories without chemicals, workshops without tools, residential halls without stable water and power supply, and lecture theatres where adult innocent undergraduates sit on floors to receive lectures! Tell me: what kind of graduates can we produce from such a system? The mind of this country-the university system-is crying for help. But you what? The flesh is weak.

Is there any hope?

While Luke Onyekakeyah proved in his GUARDIAN article titled ‘ASUU, universities and the wilderness’ that the country and the university system is ‘wondering in the wilderness of despair’, I believe there is a flicker of hope.

But this can only widen when students join reputable organisations like the Promote Education in Nigeria [P.E.N.], Education Rights Campaign [ERC] and support just course to improve funding of education. Private universities may be doing well, but how many Nigerians can afford the exorbitant costs of education there? There will be hope when ASUU refuses to fall at government doughnut-offer in salary increase while it insists on other demands. There will be hope when parents unite, all workers unite, and students unite to wipe out corrupt politicians from this country. This is not a call for revolution it is simply a relevation on what can kindle the light of hope. It is but a town-cry for massive pressure on our government to restore true light.

Our government must quickly wake up from its slumber before the noise of strikes and educational militant wars reach its barricade. Will they even care if that happens? But it must increase funding of education and give workers their due pay. The Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress must join hands with USU and Nigeria Union of Teachers to give hope to the youth. If education is the only hope of masses, any attempt to strip them of that privilege must be resisted by all and sundry. While it attends to other matters of national importance, education must be placed as a priority. The Presidency and the National Assembly must rise to the occasion to save this nation from educational degradation before it becomes necessary to grant amnesty to educational militants! Universities should be given due autonomy so that they can raise enough funds for their activities without compromising integrity of such noble institutions, and so their dependence on government will drastically reduce.

Education, and not religion I believe, is the light of the people. In the film ‘the Great Debaters’, learned Rev. Foreman of Wiley College asserts: ‘Education is the only way out: the way out of ignorance, the way out of darkness into the glorious light’. It is the light while we walk through away from the ‘wilderness of despair’; the light that leads us out of the darkness of imperialism and perpetual Western belligerence whose interest is to keep our government and our people under perpetual 21st century-slavery.
Is there any hope? Sure. That’s education!

Thanks for your patience!