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By Gabriel Dike, Lagos
The alleged plan by the federal government to proscribe the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is generating an uneasy calm among stakeholders in the education sector.
Aside from the proscription of the union, there are insinuations that the federal government may accord recognition to another break way body, the Congress of University Academics (CONUA), to break the grip of ASUU in the public universities.
In reactions to the purported move, ASUU officials told Daily Sun on Monday that it is not bothered about the federal government’s plan to outlaw the union.
ASUU Lagos Zone Coordinator Dr Adelaja Odukoya told Daily Sun that nothing is beyond a lawless government acting illegally, adding, “we have passed through that before. We shall overcome.”
Two former ASUU coordinators said although the government has not come out to debunk the news and both stated that the purported move would not yield any positive results rather it would make ASUU stronger.
The coordinators disclosed that there is no smoke without fire and that the plan would worsen the situation in public universities, noting that the Minister of Labour and Employment and his counterpart in the Ministry of Education will end up creating more problems. ASUU is not jittery about the plan.
On possible registration of CONUA to spite ASUU, Dr Odukoya said: “Whatever Ngige like let him do with CONUA. He is the godfather of these academic opportunists. It is a free world and our constitution allows for freedom of association.
“CONUA is no threat to ASUU. Even at OAU, where they are rooted, they have less than 25 per cent of academics as members. All the other universities where they claimed that they are rooted are nothing but fantastic delusions and exercises in self-deception. Academics are no fools. They know and will choose the union that can defend their interest.
Why did you think UNILORIN the progenitor of the CONUA model returned to ASUU? CONUA is an unnecessary diversion just like the IPPIS and Adamu’s “no work no pay”.
“The prosecution of our principled struggle for the soul of the nation’s universities is our focus and to that, we are unapologetically committed. Ngige, Adamu and Buhari will soon become history and we shall triumph.’’
In his reaction, the National Coordinator, Education Rights Campaign (ERC), Hassan Taiwo, considered the federal government’s threat to ban ASUU as a hypocritical, petty, unreasonable, and ill-thought measure that would only prolong and worsen the state of industrial disharmony and discord within the public university system.
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“Firstly, it is hypocritical and unreasonable because it amounts to sidestepping the legitimate concerns of ASUU especially its recent accusation that the government violated the principles of collective bargaining by rejecting the recommendation of Prof Nimi Briggs’s committee which it had initially set up to renegotiate the 2009 agreement.
“Secondly, this threat amounts to an attempt to browbeat ASUU into submission and into accepting an offer from the government that is neither proper nor satisfactory as far as the welfare of union members is concerned.
”The truth is that the Buhari government has not for once negotiated in good faith all through its engagements with ASUU and other university-based unions. All through this round of strike that began on February 14, 2022, the Buhari government has lied through its teeth, refused to own up to its responsibility for the disharmony in the university system, and has not shown any sincerity of purpose that would make ASUU and Nigerians at large to trust it.
”While SSANU and NASU may have reportedly suspended their strike actions, we need no soothsayer to tell us that they will soon be back to the barricade due to the habitual refusal of the government to stay loyal to agreements. This is why ASUU’s refusal to be browbeaten to accept an unsatisfactory offer has to be defended by the entirety of the labour movement and well-meaning Nigerians as a whole.”
Taiwo joined other Nigerians to implore the federal government not to take this belligerent course of action but if it insists, then it is only appropriate to ask the government to prepare for a long and serious resistance.
”At this stage, there is no reason why the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) should by now name a date for a 48-hour general strike and mass protest in response to the belligerence and provocation coming from the federal government. The need to escalate action into a general strike following the May 26 and 27 national protest is an existing position of the NLC,”
Taiwo stated.
The Deputy National President, Joint Action Committee (JAF), Mr Achike Achude, said he is not surprised and it is no longer an insinuation or a suspicion that the government has been trying to probe up a rival fraction of university of lecturers to try to destabilise ASUU.
According to him, ASUU over the years has shown uncommon resilience and commitment to the struggle to build a better university system, a more functioning university system and to improve the quality of education.
“The reality is that, if not for some of these strikes that ASUU has reluctantly embarked upon from time to time in this country the state of education would have been in a terrible state. I’m talking of the tertiary institution,” he stated.
“That is why the federal government feels that the only way to get out of this constant problem with ASUU as a result of their inability to properly fund education in this country is to set up a rival organisation rather than address in a fundamental way the problem of tertiary education in the country.
“I think that what it shows really is that this government has failed in everything it has touched. Contrary to the promises they made, they have failed in fighting corruption, [they have failed] the economy, they have failed in protecting Nigerians; the insecurity has gotten much worse.
“And again it is strange to hear that some years back principal officers of this government, especially the president was talking about it being the responsibility of the PDP, Jonathan lead government for allowing lecturers strike to endure and he said that what Jonathan government should do was to engage and should have found a lasting solution to the crisis of education.
“The Minister of Information also said that ASUU was right in whatever agitation they had against the government, that the government must honour the 2009 agreement. Same thing with the present Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, who also advised ASUU around 2012 and 2013 that they should be more resilient and dogged in their fight to better the university system in the country.”
Chude added: “The plan of the present government to proscribe ASUU will eventually fail. If ASUU the last body fighting for a good education in this country is destroyed, what will remain will be chaff and the education system will be ruined.”
The union was proscribed on 7 August 1988 and all its property seized. It was allowed to resume in 1990. Again, the government banned ASUU on 23 August 1992.
