As I write this piece, the additional 14-day ultimatum that began on Monday, 23rd September 2024, after the 21-day expiration, would end on Monday, 7th October 2024. This means that the government must urgently act to avoid ASUU’s declaration of trade dispute. In my article “#StopASUUStrike: Can the Nation Afford ASUU’s Strike?” published on Wednesday, 4th September 2024, I discussed the dire consequences of the ASUU strike to the nation. It will be an ill wind that blows nobody any good. The university system’s deterioration will exponentially escalate, the goodwill of Nigerians in the government that promised to address the rot in the educational system will be eroded, and ASUU members will feel the pinch of hardship due to the government’s sledge hammer of the obnoxious “no-work, no-pay” persecution, the students would have additional days at home and rushed, and educationally-watered semesters after the strike. Many of the best brains will leave the country from the strike, a significant loss to the nation.
ASUU members are fighting to salvage university education, only partially for an increase in their salary. Today, the salary of a chief lecturer in the Polytechnic and College of Education who might be a university postgraduate student is equivalent to or even higher than that of a professor. Why should we allow the ASUU to resume its suspended strike when we have options? Moreover, the ASUU, through its President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, announced in a television program that university lecturers are ready to negotiate moving forward and can do XYZ to salvage Nigerian university education. First, what issues are agitating the ASUU to embark on the strike?
The contentious issues at stake in the ASUU strike can be classified into financial and non-financial matters. The non-financial problems include:
- Concluding the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement.
- Implementing the reports of visitation panels to universities.
- Deploying the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as a replacement for IPPIS.
- Arresting the proliferation of universities by federal and state governments.
The financial matters are divided into two parts: those captured in the 2023 Federal Government Appropriation Act and the legitimate earned incomes denied to members and the union. The public university revitalization funds and payment of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) were captured in the 2023 Federal Government Budget, which was championed by the Speaker of the Ninth Assembly, Olufemi Hakeem Gbajabiamila, who was transmuted as the Chief of Staff of the government. The funds were supposedly included as part of the 2023 Appropriation Act, which, fortunately, the tenth Assembly enacted a law for its continuous implementation till the end of December 2024. Outstanding third-party check-off dues deductions and unpaid salaries of academic staff on sabbatical, part-time, and visiting scholars affected by the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) are the legitimate rights of academic staff and their union.
There are two viable options to prevent the ASUU from resuming its 2022 suspended strike. The first and most ideal option is for the government to sign the Nimi Briggs Committee agreement and commence early implementation. Then, a joint committee would be set up to monitor implementation and periodically report progress.
The option looks simple but is challenging for the government to accept as so many dark forces nurtured from the chaotic and deteriorating situation that serve their selfish interests. These guys will not let go, as their clandestine activities will continue to sabotage genuine efforts to resolve the issues. Why should we allow these disgruntled elements to feather their nests from the system’s deterioration and decadence?
The second option requires “give and take” from both sides, which needs to be facilitated by well-meaning Nigerians who should stop sitting on the fence, allowing the situation to degenerate into total withdrawal of services and closure of public universities nationwide. These Nigerians should prevail on the government to lend a listening ear to ASUU for the amicable resolution of the issues. The government can urgently direct the appropriate authorities to implement non-financial demands quickly:
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- The government should stop the bureaucratic bottlenecks and time-buying delays in the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement, implement the reports of visitation panels to universities, and deploy the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as a replacement for IPPIS.
- The earned academic allowances should be paid to the deserving members of ASUU for the work they have already done.
- Pay all salary arrears without further delay.
Three and half months of withheld salaries and revitalization funds captured in the 2023 budget should equally be paid. The government should come down from its high horse and hold an olive branch to the union for peace to rein on our university campuses. Nigerians are tired of delayed and truncated academic sessions in public universities. Such scenes create opportunities for private universities to churn out degrees like tissue papers, a gross abuse of university education.
On the part of ASUU, her “give and take” should include a further extension of the request of another 14 days to give the government time to reflect and imbibe one of the two options to strike. The injury sustained from the last strike is not completely healed. Members are still nursing their wounds; some have paid the supreme price. Is there any alternative to total strike action and indefinite university shutting down? Can ASUU pursue the government to own up to its responsibility to the university system and implement it without industrial action or fuse? As an intellectual crème de la crème, egg-heads of the society, it is high time to think of how to make government sensitive and responsive to university education without the habitual complete closure of the university campuses. ASUU must return to the drawing board and rethink to make Nigeria’s leadership do what is needed. A change in strategy to achieve the desired objectives is a strength, not a sign of weakness. Forward ever!
For the umpteenth time, at the risk of repeating myself severally, but for emphasis, University education is the foundation of societal growth. It serves as a moulding pot for tomorrow’s leaders. It is the hub for combining hypotheses and empirical conceptions, the intersection of theory and actual reality, and a haven for creativity and invention. The declining quality of the university system results in half-baked graduates. Engineers who do not know how to engineer, lawyers who are ignorant of laws, accountants who cannot differentiate subtraction from addition, and quack doctors acting as medical practitioners who specialize in sending their patients to their graves. The university system is intended to provide workforce development that addresses a nation’s developmental needs. As a result, all deserving Nigerians should be able to attend university so that the country can progress. For these reasons, the need to stop the resumption of the ASUU-suspended strike cannot be overemphasized, especially during this period of hardship. The atmosphere in Nigeria is pregnant with flammable air waiting for a minute spark to explode. ASUU’s resumption of the strike can provide the impetus for the explosion. The situation is highly avoidable; the government and well-meaning Nigerians should do everything to assuage the union to jettison strike action.
In conclusion, I must remind the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, to make a quadruple effort at the nick of time to save the situation. He is in the storm’s epicentre, and history is watching him. However, with dedication and a sense of duty, the minister’s name might be inscribed in gold while supporting the President in keeping his promise of an amicable resolution of ASUU’s perennial industrial actions. The time has arrived to revamp and strengthen the university system; the President and Minister have a golden opportunity. May the Almighty provide them the wisdom to act and prevent another cycle of systemic crisis.
