Another round of industrial action that is brewing in the nation’s universities is undesirable and should be averted. As an antidote, the Federal Government should quickly bring together the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other stakeholders to resolve all outstanding issues in the engagements between it and the university workers since 2009.
The truth is that the current peace in the university system is very fragile and constantly threatened by some unresolved issues between the government and the various categories of workers. After several industrial actions by the university workers, academic and non-academic, that brought avoidable agonies to the students and their parents, among others, in the recent past, it is worrisome that another one is brewing that may again lead to paralysis of teaching and non-teaching activities in the educational institutions in the country.
Already, ASUU has written an open letter to President Bola Tinubu to set machinery in motion for the resolution of some issues in the implementation of what the union termed the renegotiated Memoranda of Understanding /Action (MoUs /MoAs) that arose from the Federal Government/ ASUU Agreement of 2009. Also, the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) that recently gave the Federal Government two weeks to pay their withheld four months salaries, with a threat to shut down the universities if their demand is not met at the expiration of the ultimatum, has announced plan for industrial action to begin yesterday. This must not be allowed to happen again. The government should swing into action to preserve the peace and ensure that nothing disrupts the smooth operation of the universities. We must save the lecturers, students and parents the trauma of another crisis.
In their letter to Tinubu, the university teachers listed the unresolved issues as: the conclusion of the renegotiated FGN/ASUU agreement based on the Nimi Briggs Committee’s draft agreement of 2021; release of withheld three-and-half salaries on account of the 2022 strike by the union; release of salaries of staff on sabbatical, part-time and adjunct appointments due to the application of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS); release of outstanding third-party deductions such as check-off dues and cooperative contributions; funding for revitalisation of public universities said to be partly captured in the 2023 Federal Government budget; proliferation of universities by federal and state governments; implementation of the reports of visitation panels to universities; illegal dissolution of governing councils; and University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) in place of IPPIS.
ASUU is requesting President Tinubu to intervene in the matter, which it said was hampering smooth operations and stability of public universities, noting particularly that its members on campuses nationwide were becoming restive as the issues border on their welfare and survival of the university system. Similarly, NASU and SSANU, in their own joint letter, which was addressed to the Education Minister, Prof. Tahir Mamman, accused the Federal Government of neglect and insincerity, warming that they could no longer guarantee industrial harmony in the universities. In a circular signed by NASU general secretary, Peters Adeyemi, and SSANU president, Mohammed Ibrahim at the weekend, the unions said they had engaged with government officials, including the Minister of Education and his Labour and Employment counterpart and realised that the government was not committed to resolving their concerns. They directed their members to embark on a nationwide one-day protest on July 9 to draw attention to their plights. This is to be followed by a national protest in Abuja on July 18, after which the joint action committee will perfect plans for an indefinite strike.
The silence of the government on these issues is a recipe for crisis. If our leaders in the corridor of power enjoy the incessant strike by the universities, they must be told that it is traumatic, unpleasant and agonising to the majority of Nigerians who elected them into power. The federal and state governments must not run away from their financial obligations to the universities that they established. The situation has gotten to this shameful point because money is majorly involved. When you know you cannot adequately fund a university, why did you establish it, why the proliferation? The government must wake up to its responsibilities. It was learnt that ASUU is now seeking Tinubu’s intervention because, like NASU and SSANU, the engagements of the academic staff with agents of the government, including the Federal Ministry of Education and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment on the issues in the last one year have failed to yield any serious result.
It was the failure of former President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to do something on the matter that compelled ASUU to go on strike from February to October 2022, with dire consequences for the university system. Almost one year of no teaching, no learning in the universities in a country that claims to be striving for national development, the most populous black nation that prides itself as the giant of Africa? It is sad. Similarly, NASU and SSANU went on a one-week warning strike between March 18 and March 24, 2024, to protest the non-payment of the four months salaries, but despite letters written, engagements and assurances towards the payment, nothing has happened, compelling the current threat to shut down the universities.
We state that with the political will, none of the contentious issues should be too knotty for the government to resolve. It is a matter of the value placed on education by those governing the country at different periods of time. It is also a contest between the purpose of coming to power and national interest. Nigeria is abundantly blessed, human and natural resources wise, to make every of its citizen an envy of their counterparts across the world. The world knows this. But what we have now is a situation where the nation’s resources have become the ‘inheritance’ of a few of us, while the rest of the population has been thrown into seemingly perpetual poverty and anguish. No redemption song.
It is shameful and sickening that proper funding of the university system, including giving to the workers what is due to them, could become seemingly impossible in Nigeria where federal lawmakers are paid humongous amounts of money as salaries and allowances to the extent that some of them have become richer than their local governments; where, despite the secular status of the state, N90 billion was approved to support hajj pilgrims who were going for private religious activity in Saudi Arabia; where the president and governors parade unacceptably high number of aides; and where perpetration of high-level corruption is as free as buying food items in the market, even with some of the alleged thieves ignoring government anti-graft agencies’ invitation to answer questions concerning their perceived corrupt practices while in office.
Where is the national interest in all this spending, compared to the enhancement of education that plays a crucial role in national life, impacting various aspects such as economic growth, social progress, technological development, and human capital development that produces responsible leaders and so on? How much are the university workers asking for as their entitlement that the government cannot give them?
The government must reduce the cost of governance, fight corruption to a standstill, and stop wastage and unreasonable spending to free money to meet its financial obligations, including adequate funding of the universities and payment of what is due to the workers. The government must imbibe the culture of respecting agreements to earn the moral right to compel citizens to do the same. It must exhibit the capacity to resolve issues arising from its engagements with its workers and other stakeholders in all sectors. Another round of industrial crisis in the universities on account of the aforementioned issues will be deemed caused by act of irresponsibility on the part of the government. We must give priority to the education sector.
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