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The continuation of the industrial action by the Academic Staff of Universities (ASUU) following the failure of the Federal Government and the varsity teachers to resolve the lingering dispute will further worsen the deteriorating condition of the nation’s public university system. The logjam over the industrial dispute will seriously affect the future of many Nigerian university students.
The unpredictable nature of our academic calendar has adversely affected the quality of our university graduates and the global rating of the nation’s varsities. Allowing the ongoing strike to continue will lead to the eventual collapse of the nation’s public universities. The lingering strike is having its toll on some of these universities as some of the university teachers are said to be resigning. If the strike is not halted forthwith by the Federal Government, the university system may likely witness an unprecedented brain drain. The government and the striking teachers must reach an agreement before more harm is done to university education. While the Federal Government says it has made some offers to the varsity teachers, available information from ASUU indicates that the government has not made any worthwhile offer.
Regardless of which party to the dispute is right or wrong, it has become imperative to settle this matter once and for all. The nation’s public universities cannot afford to continue on an indefinite strike because those in government have refused to adequately fund education in general and university education in particular. The seeming neglect of the public universities by the Federal Government will haunt the nation’s social and economic development. With our poor rating in human capital development index, keeping the universities under perpetual lock and key will worsen our human capital development rating if nothing is done now to holistically address the problem.
The government should see ASUU members as patriots who are asking for the best for the public universities and make significant offers to them. The current muscle flexing over the strike will not augur well for the development of university education. The earlier both parties understand and appreciate what is at stake the better for the varsity system. Let ASUU and government resume the suspended dialogue and quickly resolve the matter amicably. It is not an impossible task.
In anticipation of early resolution of the industrial dispute, we urge the Federal Government to resist any temptation to proscribe ASUU due to the protracted industrial action. Banning the varsity union will be counter-productive and even lead to more crises in the public universities. The varsity teachers had, after its National Executive Council meeting on August 29, 2022, resolved to continue with the industrial action. ASUU commenced the ongoing strike on February 14, 2022. The strike is gradually inching to the 7th month. This is about the 17th strike by ASUU since the commencement of the present civilian dispensation in 1999. In cumulative terms, the university system has lost two academic sessions within the period.
The strike has to do with the failure of the Federal Government to renegotiate the agreement it signed with the university teachers in 2009, the replacement of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), with the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), as the payment platform in the university sector, among others. The teachers have insisted that IPPIS has never been implemented in any university system anywhere in the world. ASUU believes that IPPIS will shut the doors against foreign scholars, contract officers and researchers needed to be poached from existing universities to stabilise the new ones.
Sadly, the strike has lingered, causing disruptions in the academic calendar, stagnation and frustration of the students. The impasse is even taking a more frightening dimension reminiscent of the 2020 face-off that lasted for nine months. The students and their parents/guardians are already bearing the brunt of the disruptions caused by the industrial dispute.
The importance of education in the development of the country cannot be over-emphasised. No country can achieve industrial and technological development when its public universities are neglected and under-funded. It is worth reminding the government that education is a right and not a privilege. The Federal Government should bear in mind that the work-to-rule principle should not apply to the striking lecturers, given that their work is not only restricted to teaching but also includes research and others. Therefore, the Federal Government must rise up now and rescue the public universities by quickly resolving the ASUU strike.
