For how long would public university students, their parents, and stakeholders in the higher education sector continue to watch the unending drama between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government that forced university teachers to walk off their jobs? No one knows the timeline for ending the strike. The frustration, the uncertainty, and the agony of looking at ASUU leaders and government officials play hide-and-seek in their protracted but unproductive negotiations five months into the strike has left an entire nation disoriented.
Nigeria’s higher education sector desperately needs a deal broker but no one has come forward with a magic rod. ASUU leaders and government officials are uncompromising. They have dug into their trenches and shut their ears and eyes. They are not listening to public appeals for a return to normalcy in the universities. Government officials and ASUU leaders are not ready to admit that, no matter how complex, there is always a solution to every problem.
The ongoing strike is indeed a test of maturity. But it is even more degrading and damaging that a government that oversees public university education has remained headstrong and allowed the dispute to drag for months. Whether the government or ASUU likes it or not, at some point in the future, something must give. One of the sides must blink. At that time, the government would realise, belatedly, how it failed to show leadership during a dispute that became a national soap opera.
In its half-hearted attempt to find a solution to the awkward situation, the government responded insensitively by the way it engaged public university teachers in the never-ending, silly, and senseless arm-wrestling game. There will be no medals at the end of the swordfight but there will be a lot of recriminations and regrets.
Someone once said the hallmark of maturity is the ability to remain calm in the face of all provocations. The Federal Government has behaved like an autocrat who feels they are not obligated to provide for the welfare and comfort of university students and academic staff. That is a tragedy. The impasse between a government that is headstrong and not easily restrained and the leadership of ASUU reflects what you will find in a country without shame, a country led by self-serving, naive, and incompetent political leaders who have no regard for the economic, educational, scientific, and technological development of the society.
Five months of stillness in public university campuses provide us with ample evidence of a deadlock in discussion between the government and ASUU.
The past two weeks have seen emotions run high, as ASUU leaders and government officials argue in less than diplomatic language about what must be done to end the strike. Rather than ease the unbearable tension, the government seemed to have stoked the anger of ASUU leaders when Buhari warned university teachers that the strike has lasted much longer than the nation would tolerate. Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Buhari, said in a statement released on July 11, 2022, that Buhari was unhappy with the closure of public universities because of its impact on students and their parents.
In the statement released by Garba Shehu, Buhari was reported to have said: “We hope that ASUU will sympathise with the people on the prolonged strike. Truly, enough is enough for keeping students at home. Don’t hurt the next generation for goodness sake.”
By that statement, Buhari appeared to have run out of ideas about how to end the dispute, particularly when he appealed to Nigerians who are close to ASUU leaders to mediate to resolve the dispute and to persuade ASUU leaders to rethink their decision to prolong the strike.
The call by Buhari is patently an open admission of failure of leadership. If a President who is endowed with all the powers and resources to govern a country could not deploy his authority and God-given intellect to intervene to end a strike that has lasted for five months, the future of university education in Nigeria could be well and truly shattered, dead, and buried. If Buhari cannot hold urgent direct talks with ASUU leadership to explore ways to end the strike, no one else has the potential energy and goodwill to end the embarrassing situation.
Buhari made a valid point about the consequences on the nation of a strike that has no clear end date. He said Nigerian university students would be confronted by several challenges such as competing unfavourably with overseas students who have profound knowledge and understanding of how to use technology. However, a President who is fully aware of the impact, on the nation, of a five-month closure of public universities would have acted decisively to ensure that academic activities were restored urgently at the universities.
What is strange and disconcerting is Garba Shehu’s lack of logic in turning the current spotlight on Buhari’s government to a previous government that signed agreements with ASUU in 2009. Shehu said Buhari’s government was not responsible for, and did not concur with, agreements that were signed by a previous government in 2009. Shehu said: “Don’t forget that the problem started by the then 2009 government which incompetently signed into agreement which they had no capacity to deliver upon and they have passed it on from one government to another.”
Garba Shehu should understand that industrial disputes are never resolved through provocative statements or through erratic media releases.
By dragging its feet, the Buhari administration has shown it has no faith in, or intention of, honouring a pact which a previous government signed with ASUU. However, the government is not at liberty to abandon the agreement irrationally. In every democratic country, there is continuity in government. It is only in Nigeria that an incumbent government finds fault with agreements signed, or decisions made, by a previous government. The Buhari government cannot change arbitrarily any clause, word, or coma in the pact that ASUU signed in 2009. An agreement is an agreement and must be treated and honoured by parties to the deal.
Soon after Buhari aired his appeal to university teachers, ASUU leadership hit back angrily, saying Buhari’s statement symbolised lack of leadership that has seen public universities turn into a shadow of what they used to look like. ASUU zonal coordinator, Lagos, Dr. Adelaja Odukoya, criticised Buhari for responding too late to the crises in the universities, reminding Buhari that “your position is to be on top of issues and solve national problems, no matter how tough the situation, instead of hopeless lamentation and sermonising.”
Odukoya continued, saying “this strike should not have lasted beyond the first week after it was declared because the issues at stake were neither new nor do they require rocket science to resolve given that there had been memorandum of understanding and memorandum of action as well as a duly renegotiated ASUU-FGN agreement completed way back 13th May, 2020, before your government which you and your administration neglected and refused to implement…”
These acrimonious exchanges portend an evolving but fractious relationship between university teachers and the government. The current crises will not be solved through angry exchanges but through open, frank, fair, and confidence-building negotiations that would lead to enduring agreements.