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By Cosmas Omegoh
Right now, the Federal Government-owned universities in Nigeria are shut as a result of strike. The stakeholders in the institutions are all sulking and grieving, their hearts hurting, and bleeding. Not one is spared of the simmering crisis.
At the moment, everyone in the web of the ongoing strikes is hoping that something different will be done soon by those at the helm of affairs to halt the crisis. They are wishing that the narratives will soon be back tracked as it is increasingly becoming an albatross to all.
Sunday Sun learnt that parents, students, lecturers are all saddened by the strikes. Many are getting heart-broken, counting their losses as the logjam persists. They keep wondering how the nation got to this crossroads. Everything about the strike is assuming the character of the proverbial ill wind that blows no one any good.
Sunday Sun checks showed that it probably has not happened before that all the unions in the federal universities went on strike at the same time. That is strange. Worst still, there seems to be no way out of the woods. Many who are deeply pained by the situation are now either angry or marooned.
Going down the memory lane, it would be recalled that the Academic Union of Universities (ASUU) has had a long-drawn history of struggle with the Federal Government.
According to an unverified report, ASUU over the past two decades had dragged out its members 16 times on industrial action for a period believed to have lasted for 51 months. As a commentator recently put it, “ASUU’s lone weapon against the government of the day is strike.”
As recent as last year, ASUU had to call for industrial action to press home its demand: that the 2009 agreement it had with the Federal Government be respected. Months after, it suspended its action which allowed its members to return to the classroom.
But on February 14, 2022, again, ASUU returned to the trenches, announcing an eight-week nationwide warning strike. At the expiration of that duration, ASUU claimed it did not get the right attention from the government.
ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, declared that his members would on March 14, 2022, commence another strike for another eight weeks, leaving a caveat that it would totally shut down the universities if its members’ demands were not met.
ASUU claims the crux of the matter is its 2009 agreement with the Federal Government.
Our correspondent learnt that ASUU’s demands centre around revitalisation of public universities, payment of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), recognition of a special package called University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) for the payment of its members’ salaries, against the government-proposed Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) as well as promotion arrears among other things.
Sadly, while the stakeholders struggled to factor in the latest ASUU action, two other umbrella unions in the university jointly announced their own strikes.
For instance, the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Educational Institutions (NASU) not long ago, directed its members to proceed on a two-week warning strike effective from March 28, 2022.
JAC in a letter signed by SSANU President, Mohammed Ibrahim, and NASU Secretary, Peters Adeyemi, noted that “in view of the nonchalant attitude of the government to our demands, this is to direct our members in all universities and inter-university centres throughout the country to commence a two-week strike in the first instance as earlier conveyed to the Federal Government in our letter.”
JAC on March 16, 2022, had written the to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, accusing the present administration of insincerity in its implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Memorandum of Action (MoA) they reached in October 2020 and February 2021.
Meanwhile the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), another umbrella body in the university system is also on a two-week industrial strike.
NAAT’s involvement sends industrial actions in the university going full circle, leaving academic activities prostrate. And now, the university communities are like ghost towns without any life. The students have all been sent away, leaving the federal universities in coma.
FG’s response
Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige after a marathon meeting with ASUU in March that focused mainly on the contentious EAA and revitalisation fund for universities, later gave hints that some solutions were underway. He revealed that ASUU had agreed to go home and “talk to its members; show them the proposal that had been offered by the government so that they can call off the strike.”
Dr Ngige recalled that the Federal Government had so far paid over N92 billion as earned allowances and revitalisation fund to the striking university lecturers.
According to Ngige, the move was part of the government’s commitment towards the implementation of the agreement it reached with the union in 2020 December.
“Why I said that the 2020 December agreement we had with ASUU is on course in terms of implementation is that in the agreement, there is a line that says the Federal Government should pay ASUU and other unions N40 billion for EAA and that has been paid.”
On the controversial payment app, UTAS, proposed by ASUU, Ngige claimed that a joint committee of the university teachers, officials of the National Information and Technology Agency (NITDA) and some independent IT experts had been assembled and given till March 8, 2022 to come up with a review of the app.
According to him, “they will also go there with the technical team and do a joint test on integrity and vulnerability test on UTAS. And we are hopeful that when they commence the test, they will do it and give us a joint report.”
While describing the 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement as “work in progress,” he revealed that “a lot of the items have been dealt with extensively.”
He stated that as part of commitment to resolving the problem, the Ministry of Education had set up a committee to revisit the report of Jibril-Munzali led renegotiation committee.
Recall that Wale Babalakin, was the head of the government team before he quit as chairman of the Governing Council of University of Lagos.
ASUU’s response
Meanwhile, our correspondent has been told that the Federal Government was doing other deals outside what it agreed with ASUU.
Dr John Edor, ASUU chairman, University of Calabar told our correspondent that the “Muzali committee that negotiated with ASUU had submitted its report. But we are now surprised that the Federal Government constituted another committee headed by Prof Nimi Briggs to renegotiate the 2009 agreement which had already been renegotiated and the report submitted.
“Whatever the antic they want to deploy, it is unfortunate that they are going about it that way. This is suspiring.”
Parents’ lamentations
While ASUU strike subsists, parents have been lamenting and counting their losses.
A parent, Mr Livi Nwachukwu told our correspondent that incessant strike actions by ASUU have been tasking.
“My son was supposed to have completed his studies since last year, but that has not been possible. Right now, nothing is certain that he will graduate soon.
“I have had to pay for his hostel accommodation severally. Anytime they go on strike and come back, the rent will expire, and the landlord will insist they pay for the days they were away.
“That has been a huge drag on me. Once he returns to school now, he is expected to pay additional money for his accommodation – all because the Federal Government and ASUU cannot come to an agreement.”
He noted that a friend of his lamented that his son was making frantic efforts to join some of his friends who are into Yahoo-Yahoo just because he had been idle.
He said: “My friend said when he learnt about that, he scolded his son.
“But that is what the ASUU strike has foisted on the nation. Yet we have not seen an end to it all. Sadly, we are gradually ruining this society by ourselves.”
Another parent, Best Aigbebiole, whose son is in University of Benin, berated ASUU for always employing strike to delay the students. “My son, before now, had lost a session – all because of this same ASUU saga. Right now, he is in his final year. He cannot graduate because of the strike, and I ask ASUU, if you cannot accept the government conditions, why not take a walk? Must you teach in government-owned institutions?”
Lecturers too count losses
Lamenting the lecturers’ own predicaments, Dr Edor said: “Oh yes, we too have continued to sustain enormous losses. When our students are not in school, we feel deep pain.
“Our students are not in school now because of the negligence of the Federal Government. Why are they finding it so difficult to implement an agreement they willingly and voluntarily signed?
“There is no ASUU member that will not like to be in his office working. We don’t enjoy staying at home.”
He disclosed that the Nigerian universities are now like ghost towns.
“They are like a desert. The University of Calabar where I lecture is like a desert at the moment. Nothing is going on there.
“It is not in the interest of the students; it is not in the interest of the lecturers; it is not in the interest of the university; it is not even in the interest of the Federal Government.”
He blasted the government, saying: “We are saddened by the refusal of the government to fund the universities, the refusal of the government to pay the academic staff proper remuneration. This has a lot more impact on the students we produce than the strikes.
“When this goes on, the students come out half baked. Is it not better to address it than for the students to stroll through their programmes and come out unable to defend the certificates they have earned? We want the government to properly fund the universities so that the best can be obtained in terms of productivity.”
Prof Ademola Aremu, a onetime chairman of ASUU, University of Ibadan, equally decried the losses associated with incessant strikes.
“No one like strikes,” he said on a sober note.
“As a teacher, everyone wants to do their job.
“Now, I tell you, as a lecturer, you are like a door, you see the outside, you see the inside.
“When you go outside, people start complaining: you are producing half-baked graduates. But they don’t know that you don’t have the requisite facilities to deliver.
“No one likes strikes because during the period, you are not giving your best.
“But again, no one likes to cut his nose to spite his face.”
Commenting on the time lost, he went philosophical: “Time is important in everything we do. Time wasted is life wasted; it cannot be recreated. It is lost.
“Time is one resource we often lose during strikes. A three-year course now lasts for five years all because of strike. That is sad.
“For lecturers, during a strike, you are not giving your best. This is a period to teach, but we now do none of that. This is bad enough.”
He, therefore, told people who believe that strikes only favour the lecturers to perish the idea. “Our own losses are dual fold. I’m a parent too; as a matter of fact, most of us have our own children in the universities. They too are affected.
“When our children are not in school, they at home, consuming plenty of electricity watching this and that; they are on the computer. So, the running cost of the home during strikes is very high. And don’t forget that when they are at home, they eat more food.
“Besides, some of our ASUU members are also students,” he said.
On the knowledge impacted, he contended that: “The quality of knowledge does not depend on the time spent in acquiring it. The most important thing at the end of the day is the quality of knowledge impacted.”
He argued that “if the capacity of the lecturers is not being toiled with, the quality of what they are giving at the end of the day will not be affected. It is about capacity; it is about manpower development.
“To me, strike is an aberration. But what else do you do?
“We challenge ourselves. We table all the options, but they don’t work. We ask the traditional rulers to intervene, but that yields nothing. You go to the legislature, but get nothing.
“In Nigeria, everything is about politics. There is no premium on education.
“Elections are coming. If INEC asks for N1 trillion to conduct elections, the politicians will look for it. But when it comes to education, they will tell you there is no money, yet you see them spending money on frivolities.”
Students’ reaction
Unhappy with the developments in their institutions affecting their future, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) expressed solidarity with their teachers.
To underline their grievances, NANS’ President, Sunday Adedayo, earlier called for mass action which he said included blocking highways and the offices of the education and labour ministers to pressure the Federal Government to listen to ASSU.
“Every Nigerian student that the ASUU strike has sent home should block all the federal roads and the office of the Minister of Education, and the office of the Minister of Labour should also be blocked. If Nigerian students are at home, the office of the Minister of Education and Minister of Labour cannot be opened,” he said.
He accused the Federal Government of playing games with ASUU since 1999 when both signed an agreement, describing the crisis as unfortunate, while insisting that the government had basterdised education in the country.
In a related development, NANS in the Southwest zone, days ago, expressed solidarity with ASSU, describing attempts to make the body look like a villain as “reckless, inconsiderate and myopic.”
The Southwest geopolitical zone of NANS led by Adegboye Olatunji, in a statement signed by the Deputy Coordinator of the zone, Alao John, said: “A quick analysis of the root cause of the ongoing industrial action in the course of the meeting, and a cursory look at the history of ASUU strike in Nigeria show a striking similarity in the demands of ASUU over time.
“This also reveals how the two-term administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and other successive Federal Government regimes have failed to stem the infrastructural deficiency and academic decay on our campuses.
“The problems of decayed and inadequate infrastructure, archaic facilities and equipment, acute staff shortage, poor funding, decreased subvention and non-payment of salary backlogs, among others, remain persistent.
“The above and others have been a concurrent feature in the demands of ASUU for years.
“As much as we totally condemn this strike; it will be tantamount to irresponsibility to cast aspersions on the integrity of ASUU or to tag the union as the villain in this case.”
Then he added: “NANS Southwest is standing tall with ASUU, and we are pragmatically ready to do a walk with ASUU.”
