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By the end of the next 60 days, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) would have effectively wasted three months of university students’ academic time. That is approximately a semester lost to industrial action. And, from that fateful date in 1988 when ASUU went on its first strike, the union has made university shutdowns its unique selling point. It knows of no other bargaining tool than to shutdown universities mindless of their negative effects on the academic progress and, future, of students.
As it is, ASUU strike has become the only constant in Nigeria’s universities academic calendar. Not even examinations are as certain as ASUU strike. 1n 1999, ASUU shut universities for five months. In 2001 it sat at home for three months. In 2002 ASUU members dropped their chalks for two weeks. The 2003 version of ASUU shutdown of universities lasted six months while its 2005 edition lasted two weeks. In 2006, ASUU declared a three-day warning strike. They however had their fun for one week. The 2007 edition lasted three months and the 2008 ritual lasted one week. For four months in 2009, ASUU shut the universities leading to an agreement with the federal government which is the basis for renewed annual strike ritual by ASUU.
The 2010 ASUU annual ritual lasted five months and its 2011 version lasted 59 days (approx. two months). The 2013 strike lasted five months and 15 days while the 2017 session was for one month. The 2018 strike lasted three months also while the 2020 ritual lasted nine months. the initial 30 days have already been enjoyed by ASUU which, unsatisfied, decided to extend it by another 60 days. Cumulatively, ASUU has, since 1999, wasted about 48 months (time needed to graduate) on strikes, over different reasons, some as flimsy as payment system, making their industrial actions selfish, meaningless, unconscionable, wasteful and retrogressive.
With these strikes, ASUU undermines the same university education it pretends to be protecting or fighting for. Besides, it seems that the ability to call a strike, and also, prolong it for as long as it offers members the needed opportunity to trade their time with private universities, is the yardstick to measure the effectiveness of an ASUU executive.
Sometimes, reason for the strike is flimsy. It is on record that ASUU had gone on strike over the system through which its members on federal government payroll are paid. They opposed enrolment on IPPIS and opted for an ASUU-authenticated platform. This is simply an employee dictating to his employer how his salary must be paid. However, those of their members who also hold teaching appointments in private universities have never dictated to those employers over their payment platform.
ASUU strikes pose a dangerous trend in the development of university education in Nigeria. As it is, most of ASUU demands have never been about the good of federal or state universities in Nigeria. They have been largely selfish. A thorough review of their 2009 agreement with the Federal government is clear on this. Most of the demands are about what accrues to individual members. Nigerians are yet to see ASUU go on strike over insecurity in the universities or sex-for-mark syndrome or lack of adequate lecture halls and laboratories or even absence of current books, journals etc. in university libraries.
The tradition that lies ahead is that other academic and non-academic staff unions in the education sector are standing by and watching to see hoe the current ASUU strike is resolved before they announce theirs. Be sure that soon, those in the Polytechnics and Colleges of Education will do the same. Recently, the union of academic technicians announced a warning strike and the crux of their argument is that government hasn’t acted in accordance with their 2009 agreement. This cycle does no good to the development of students and scholarship in Nigeria. That is why, I believe, that it has become imperative for the government to impose a freeze on strikes in the education sector for another 20 years, or more.
However, while ASUU has messed with the university system through strikes, the blame still goes to the Federal and state governments for refusal to do the needful in adequately funding education in Nigeria. The federal budgets have been abysmal in funding education. Presently, Nigeria’s budget for education has never been up to 15 percent of the federal budget. This is very poor considering the enormity of fixes that are badly needed to make education in Nigeria worth the effort. The Education Minister, Mr. Adamu Adamu, had said that the federal budget for education, since 1999, has hovered between four and ten percent.
According to him, “None of the E9 countries (a forum of nine countries -Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Nigeria- that commit to achieving UNESCO goal of Education for All), or the D8 countries (eight developing countries -Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey- that had agreed to cooperate for development) other than Nigeria allocates less than 20 percent of its annual budget to education”. He also stated that “even among sub-Saharan African countries, we are trailing far behind smaller and less endowed nations in terms of our investment in education”.
Funding for education in 2016 federal budget stood at 7.92 percent of the budget. In 2017, it stood at 6.12 percent and in 2018 it was 7.14 percent. In 2019, the federal government allocated 7.12 percent of the budget to education. It dropped to 5.62 percent in 2020 but increased to 5.68 percent in 2021. However, it dropped again in 2022 to 4.30 percent. This was after President Muhammadu Buhari had in 2021, promised to increase education funding in the 2022 budget. He said at the Global Education Summit in London, last July, that “we commit to progressively increase our annual domestic education expenditure by 50 percent over the next two years and up to 100 percent by 2025 beyond the 20 percent global benchmark”. His audience applauded him then. But then, “after the reggae”, we “play the blues”.
While it is fact that ASUU has constituted itself to a body of academics whose strikes undermine universities, and who ought to, in the interest of Nigeria’s children and future, moderate its insatiable hunger for sit-at-home, it is also true, that the federal government has failed woefully to show serious concern about addressing issues of education funding across all levels. One clear fact here is that the federal government entered into an agreement with ASUU, which it never intended to honour. Many had said the agreement is not implementable. The response from ASUU, however, need not be shutdown of universities and systematic destruction of the lives of students. The agreement is not cast in iron. Even if it was, iron bends. ASUU can as well bend to seek a review of the agreement and not insist on the implementation of an unimplementable agreement. That, to me, is an alibi.
