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The time has really come for the Federal Government and the striking university teachers to reach a consensus on ending the seven-month industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over welfare and other contentious issues. Agreed that all Nigerian universities, private and public, are not adequately funded and their workers, like other workers in Nigeria, are also not well remunerated. Why is it so?
It is paradoxical that while political office holders are swimming in opulence, in terms of perks of office, other Nigerians are made to wallow in poverty and misery based on excuses of dwindling government revenue. If our politicians are among the highest paid in the world, our doctors and university teachers should be highly paid. Nigerians should have no pact with poverty if our system is working. Sadly, most of the universities are grappling with infrastructure decay and lack of equipment due to inadequate funding and poor maintenance culture. Some of their libraries are nothing to write home about. Their hostels are not suitable for human habitation. Many of the universities cannot boast of the requisite number of qualified teachers such as the required number of teachers with PhDs and required number of professors. The situation of poor staffing is worst in some private universities. This is why the government and the National Universities Commission (NUC) should put a moratorium on the establishment of new universities until the existing ones are adequately funded and equipped. If the existing ones are not adequately staffed and equipped, the rush to further establish new universities defies logic. The establishment of universities should not be turned into another business. Universities are not established to make money. They are established as centres of learning and training of manpower and carrying out problem-solving researches in the service of the town or the community, a meeting of the gown and the town. Unfortunately, the mad rush to establish universities in Nigeria is mainly for profit and not for advancement of knowledge.
It is sad that all attempts to settle the ongoing strike have ended in a deadlock. That is why prominent Nigerians and concerned parents have pleaded with both parties to the dispute to reach an agreement so that the varsity teachers can call off the strike. It is, therefore, encouraging that the Federal Government has swallowed its pride and agreed to offer ASUU the Olive branch of 35 percent and 23.5 percent salary increase for professors and other cadres, respectively.
It also promised to reconsider its hard-line posture on “no work no pay” policy. The government has set up a 14-man committee to look at the grey areas. According to the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, the government will provide N150 billion in the 2023 budget for the revitalization of federal universities, which will be paid in the first quarter of the year. The government will also provide N50 billion in next year’s budget to settle outstanding arrears of earned academic allowances of lecturers to be paid in the first quarter of next year. Members of the 14-man committee set up to look at the grey areas include Prof. Nimi Briggs, chairman, ASUU/Federal Government negotiation team; Prof. Olu Obafemi, chairman, governing council, Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna, Udo Udoma, former Minister of Budget and National Planning and others. Although the 2009 agreements and others with ASUU predate this change government, the government should be willing to accept its obligation to varsity teachers because government is a continuum. With the 14-man committee made up of eminent and patriotic Nigerians and world-class scholars, we hope that this strike that has lingered for so long will be finally called off forthwith. The government and the striking teachers must, of necessity, come to a consensus and save the public universities from imminent collapse. On its part, ASUU should accept what is on table and open the universities and wait for this government, which many ASUU members voted into power, to implement them next year. I don’t know why the government is pushing everything till next year that it will exit power.
Whatever promise the government is giving ASUU is hinged on next year’s budget. Since the government is banking on next year’s budget to settle all outstanding issues with ASUU, it has to generate more funds to be able to fulfill all its obligations. The nation’s economic outlook at present is not bright. It is rather bleak with most of our earnings going into debt servicing. While teachers in federal universities have the right to be on strike, it is baffling that teachers in state universities are part of this aluta continua.
It is an aberration that lecturers in state universities should be part of the strike when their salaries are being paid. What is their gain in ASUU strike? How will they benefit from the money the Federal Government will release to ASUU and its universities? Teachers in state universities, whose salaries are being paid, have no business in ASUU strike.
All the same, I urge the 14 wise men to patriotically mediate between ASUU and government. Instructively, some of them have been in the varsity system and know how it functions. They also know how things are done in foreign universities. They are experienced in settling industrial disputes. Let them handle the matter dispassionately and settle this issue once and for all. Moving forward, there is need for the government and other stakeholders to come up with modalities on realistic funding of the universities. The need for alternative funding for universities is the way forward since the government is finding it difficult to wholly fund the institutions. This calls for restoration of university autonomy, which will also affect staff recruitment and admission of students, without necessarily referring to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). Without sounding immodest, the universities can charge appropriate tuition fees and others that will enable them stand. Another point is that every university will pay its workers according to its ability. For instance, a professor in one university may not necessarily earn the same with a professor in another university.
Although this government has not been forthcoming with fulfilling promises and honouring agreements, ASUU should give it the benefit of doubt and see if it will renege this time around. I don’t know how those in government feel about the closure of the nation’s public universities for seven months. Are they so happy that these universities are still under lock and key for a matter that can be settled in one day?
Is it because their children don’t attend Nigerian universities? Those in government should show mercy on poor Nigerians whose children attend our universities and resolve this matter in a matter of days. It has lingered for so long and the universities are dying steadily. Those attending our public universities did not commit any crime. The government must stop punishing them because they are in Nigerian universities.
Beyond attending to the needs of the striking varsity teachers, the government should increase the national budget for education to 20 percent as recently enjoined by the United Nations (UN) Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Matthias Schmale. He says that without such a step, the country will not meet the global target of achieving universal inclusive equitable basic education for all school-age children by 2030.
Also, the government must be worried that the number of Nigeria’s out-of-school children is now 20 million, according to the latest data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It used to be 10.5 million or 13 million. Rising to 20 million is an indication that past efforts to solve the problem did not work. This calls for more funding of the education sector. If the government can fund education so well, it might be solving the problem of insecurity as well. Above all, let government and ASUU resolve the matter once and for all.
