IT”S now official, that the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has declared a total and indefinite strike. This decision followed the meeting of the union’s National Executive Council held in Abuja on Sunday, at the end of which the press was briefed. In his address to the press, captioned, “ASUU strikes are to save public universities”, the controversial president of the union, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said and I quote,
“the NEC regretted that the union had experienced deceit of the highest level for over five years, adding that the government engaged ASUU in fruitless and unending negotiation without a display of fidelity. In view of the foregoing, and following extensive deliberations on government’s response to the resolution of February 14, 2022, so far, NEC concluded that the demands of the union had not been satisfactorily addressed. Consequently, NEC resolved to transmute the roll-over strike to a comprehensive, total and indefinite strike action beginning from 12.01am Monday, August 29, 2022.”
The implication of this is that, effective from 12.01am, Monday, August 29, 2022, tertiary education has become permanently banned in Nigeria. Yes banned, because, according to the law of systemic analysis, if a segment of a system is banned, the whole system is banned. University education is the pivotal section of the tertiary education. So if it is paralysed, the entire section is paralysed.
ASUU is on strike for a number of reasons, key among which are the failure of the government to release revitalisation funds for universities, failure to release the white paper report of the visitation panel to universities and the failure to deploy the University Transparency Accountability System for the payment of salaries and allowances of lecturers.
Impliedly, and summarily, ASUU want’s total autonomy in running the affairs of the universities. They want government to hands-off the administration of universities, but at the same time, and ironically, or contradictorily, they want the same government to continue funding the universities, a hundred percent. This is laughable! You can not be Public and Private concurrently.
Apologists of ASUU are always quick to call for the adoption of those conditions that are practiced in the private sector, without telling the academics to drop the public sector regalia, and embrace the private sector ways of service. Some would say, because of underfunding, poor funding or sometimes, zero funding, Nigerian universities are virtually breathless, academically. Lecturers are pushed to work under wheezing circumstances, due to exertion.
Many times, the apologists of ASUU would cite examples of what politicians earn, and make comparison with the poor remuneration of lecturers, as reasons or justification for the necessary payment of the controversial earned allowances. But the question is, who stopped the lecturers from contesting elections, in order to participate in the earning of such public largesse?
The last time I checked, there are many members of ASUU that have dropped the chalk and joined the National Assembly, including the present President of the Senate, Senator Ahmed Lawan. To be a successful politician is not as easy as some ASUU apologists think, I think.
I can’t remember his name, but there is what one politician referred to as, “the eggs and bullets hazards of politics”, where he said, “Having egg on your face as a public figure is probably not very pleasant, but when compared to the occupational hazards faced by politicians in some countries, it’s pretty trivial”. Nigerian politicians may be taking home a lot, but they also receive a lot in insults and humiliation. How many, amongst the academics can stand such disdainful spurn?
The most thorny among the demands of the lecturers is the issue of the “earned allowance”, an allowance where the employee dictates the number of hours he spent at work, often, without the supervision of the employer. I am not a lawyer, but I find it hard to understand how, in an employer/employee arrangement or contract, the employee is the one dictating the terms of the contract.
But that not withstanding, the government agreed to pay the sum of N22.172 billion of such earned allowances. Equally, the government said it would commence the disbursement of the N30 billion revitalization funds to public universities very soon. But still, in its characteristic intransigent attitude, ASUU is not pacified.
The fear is, even if the money is paid, the issue of how to share it would remain prickly, because of the crisis between the various arms of the university workers. The teaching staff are under the umbrella of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU. The non-teaching staff are under the auspices of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU. The Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Allied Institutions operate under NASU, and the National Association of Academic Technologists, are called NAAT.
While ASUU is insisting on taking 75 per cent of the money and leaving the three other unions with 25 per cent, the others, being part of the Joint Action Committee, JAC, are saying NO. The Hausa man would ask, “wasa tare ci ban ban?” For fear of crucifixion by ASUU, I would not translate the adage.
Indeed ASUU has turned into a tiger that is threatening to subdue the society. By declaring an indefinite ban on education, ASUU is silently acting the script of Boko Haram. No wonder, a Hausa cliché is circulating in the social media, the literal meaning of which in English is, If the late leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, had been patient enough, he would have lived long enough to see the fulfilment of his ambition by ASUU, who have now officially banned western education.
So beyond calling for a meeting with the Chancellors of the universities, the official employers of the ASUU members, the government should do the needful, by taming the Tiger. Since the lecturers are envious of the earnings of the politicians, they should be encouraged through proscription. Thereafter, they can enter the political field, to test their popularity in political offices, that would pay them higher than the earned academic allowances.
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