BackpageEnding Incessant Conflicts Between ASUU And FG

Ending Incessant Conflicts Between ASUU And FG

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May 15, (THEWILL) – Between 1992 and 1993, I was a victim of two strikes, which were called by the Academic Staff Union of Universities over a pay structure dispute with the military regime of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and for the purpose of restoring the cancelled results of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by Chief Moshood Abiola

Between 1992 and 1993, I was a victim of two strikes, which were called by the Academic Staff Union of Universities over a pay structure dispute with the military regime of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and for the purpose of restoring the cancelled results of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by Chief Moshood Abiola.

The Babangida government clamped down on the Union for its militant advocacy and resilient opposition to limitations of personal and collective freedom under boot and force of military rule. By military fiat, which ASUU was fighting against, the Union was proscribed for a two-year period with attendant knock-on effects on academic activities during that period.

I was meant to commence tertiary education at the time, but when Babangida picked a fight with the Union, I lost a year and some months sitting out the confrontation between the academia and the government of the day.

Most universities scrapped their 1993/1994 academic sessions because of the strike. You would hardly find a matriculation number beginning with 93 or 94 in the Nigerian university system. It was my first direct experience of being the proverbial grass caught in the conflict of mega-sized elephants, as far as ASUU’s relationship with the government was concerned. Yet, it was by far not the last. There was another strike in 1996 under the regime of General Sani Abacha.

After 26 years, 23 of which have been part of the longest continuous civilian rule since independence, we still have not worked out the crises bedevilling the education subsector of the economy.

On Monday, May 9, ASUU publicly announced a 12-week extension of the ongoing strike action that will continue the perverse annual ritual of forcing students home from academic institutions, thus truncating the smooth running of the academic calendars and stretching the regular term of their educational programmes while worsening the overall situation of microeconomic activities that are tied to the tertiary institutions, which also operate alongside the school calendar.

This is coming at a time when many institutions were just beginning to get back to a semblance of their regular schedules disrupted by the global shutdowns occasioned by the need to mitigate the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is also unfortunate that a government, which doled out $8.5m for the evacuation of Nigerian students caught in the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, has been slow to invest a fraction of that amount to assuage the protesting academic staff, address their concerns and improve the sector to avoid the need for Nigerians to seek better academic fortunes abroad.

This blight on our educational system has gone on for far too long. At every time, it is mostly the students that are caught in the crossfire. They are the ones who end up as the casualties in the shoot-out between stubborn government authorities and a resilient union determined not to take “No” for an answer.

From the past administrations of Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan all through to Buhari, the strikes have been incessant with several lost months and years, which the hapless students will never get back. The result has been a sustained brain drain and capital flight to African countries and overseas and to “saner climes” as the cliché goes.

The best and most intelligent students and academic staff have taken flight to avoid the stunted educational future awaiting them with intermittent strike actions at home. The less fortunate ones are left to their fate with their educational progress dependent on ad-hoc adjustments to their programmes to make up for time lost sitting out another period of strikes, while they hope they will have made progress before the next strike is called.

As with the latest action, the basis for these perennial strikes are mostly a lack of congruence in what the academic staff of universities are demanding and what the government is ready to provide for the sake of the educational fortunes of the country. Those who were at the forefront of the initial ASUU formation often trace the crises in the sector to the military regime of Obasanjo, when he abolished the payment of school fees in tertiary institutions, placing the burden of financing these institutions squarely on the shoulders of the government.

At a time when oil wealth was plentiful, the surplus comfortably served the academic needs of the schools in existence and was attractive enough to draw researchers from across the globe, all of whom benefited from the largesse made available from the common purse. This remained the case until the ill-fated Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of the Babangida junta. Suddenly, the funds required for financing necessary research and running the administration of tertiary institutions in the country dried up, forcing academic institutions to begin to require alternative sources of revenue, such as charging a subsidised amount as fees and other administrative charges.

Today, students, who ought to be in school studying, in partial fulfillment of their respective degrees, are struggling to find options to keep from idling away productive time as their plan to finish their studies and get on with the remainder of their lives will have to be readjusted once again. Some will see it as another indication that they too will have to find a way to seek “greener pastures” elsewhere and this has the potential to persist well into next year and beyond as politicians turn their attention to the frills and thrills of the electioneering season, which is just getting into full swing.

In fact, ASUU’s reason for extending the current strike by 12 weeks was that the Nimi Briggs-led renegotiation committee set up by the Federal Government to mediate with the Union over their demands was yet to arrange a sit-down this far into the strike, apart from their first initial meeting. They were even more miffed that at the said meeting, the committee demonstrated an acute lack of understanding, preparation and clarity to engage in the bargaining the negotiation called for.

What the foregoing points to is an educational sector in desperate need of a change in the status quo of engagement. The way the government engages with ASUU has to change and vice versa, for the sake of moving forward with cycles of academic calendar unaffected by incessant calls to industrial action.

On the part of the Federal Government, there is a perception that it is dishonest about its dealings with the Union and this must be dispelled for any meaningful progress in their relationship towards avoiding incessant strikes.

The government’s refusal to conclude the draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) reached in May 2021, while refusing to accept their 2009 deal, is particularly seen by ASUU as a point of divergence and until both sides can go converge on a way forward, there will be little to no difference in the status quo. This is not helped by the approval of $8.5m for Nigerian students in Ukraine, while those at home are not given a similar consideration as they idled away at home due to the strike. Furthermore, the poor timing of Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, the Minister of State for Education’s announcement of his presidential bid and his payment of N100 million for the APC’s nomination forms plays into the hands of the Union, with its claim that there is enough money in the system to meet its demands but those involved are simply self-serving and need to be strong-armed to do the right thing.

Yet, there are faults on both sides. In the 23 years of unbroken civilian rule, Nigeria is yet to reach the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) recommendation that developing nations should allocate up to 15-20 per cent of their annual budget to public education. In the 2022 budget of N17 trillion, only 7.2 per cent was allocated to education, even with the proliferation of universities. It means education will be stifled in trying to fulfill its role of increasing economic efficiency and social consistency to the point of helping to raise the poor from poverty and it will continue to suffer funding shortages that will limit running costs, truncate research advancements, result in lack of infrastructural development, encourage further brain drain and capital flight, prevent institutions from operating laboratories, running electricity, maintaining staff offices, libraries, students’ hostels, administrative blocks, recreation centres, good road network and undoubtedly lead to more strikes, in the long run.

The striking lecturers will have to accept the fact that the rot of many years will never be repaired by the bulk allocation of billions of naira overnight. As a result, there is a need for a comprehensive outline of developmental stages worked out by all stakeholders and composed into a realistic and actionable plan to which the government and ASUU will agree as binding. This will involve all their requests, such as funding for the revitalisation of public universities by the Federal Government, payment of Earned Academic Allowances, signing of the re-negotiated 2009 agreement and deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), but spread out over a range of 10 to 20 years with measurable milestones and monetary allocations for every stage.

Progress will be monitored by a committee made up of leaders of the National Assembly, Judiciary, Executive, the NBA and NGOs, which will adjudicate, should any party fail in its responsibilities, while the National Assembly will play its allocatory roles to ensure the milestones are met all through to completion. Putting this in place and faithfully adhering to the terms and conditions will raise the bar of government-ASUU relationships, bring some trust into their parleys and restore confidence in the process of university governance and financing.

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