ASUU: Time to call off the strike

The protracted strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has lingered for over eight months unabated, without reasonable truce in sight, despite series of negotiations.

The National President of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, February, announced the commencement of the current strike in Lagos, accusing the Federal Government of breaches, namely: failing to implement the Memorandum of Understanding and Memorandum of Action signed between the union and the government; poor commitment to the payment of academic earned allowances; Continued use of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and of refusal to adopt the Universities Transparency and Accountability Solutions (UTAS); and of the proliferation of universities in the country.

Since ASUU’s first strike in 1988 in protest of the perceived infractions of General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime which led to the banning of the group on August 7, 1988, ASUU strikes in Nigeria have become a recurring decimal, occurring no fewer than 16 times. Eight months down the line, first beginning with a one-month warning strike on Monday, February 14, 2022, ASUU, the umbrella body of the teaching staff of Nigerian public universities has been protesting over promises broken at the point of execution, and of shattered hopes and lofty dreams of transformation they have nurtured but which have refused to come to pass. And of their desire for an improved teaching and learning conditions, including their legitimate earned allowances and improved salary structure which have been stifled.

Not listened to, the ASUU warning strike was extended by another eight weeks ending on May 9. Here we are after eight months of downing tools, the university gates have remained firmly shut, the screeching sounds of the negotiating table and the restless chairs have become deafening – both sides still talking tough, bombarding each other with rhetorical bombast.

And while these exchanges last, the classrooms have regrettably remained under lock and key. The feuding parties have forgotten that cobwebs have overtaken the laboratories, the books in the library are losing their structural integrity and relevance for lack of attention. Both the lecturers and the students have lost substantial curriculum and intellectual presence due to inactivity. The society is at the receiving end in the short term and the long term. We pray that the youthful physical energies of the redundant students are not exploited for antisocial ends.

Also, there is the increasing consequence of brain drain in our public universities, of lecturers bolting out in search of better working conditions in local private universities and oversea teaching jobs. This trend will definitely impact negatively on the quality of research and the intellectual capacity of university end products – the graduates. Besides, we are yet to provide convincing answers to the absence of Nigerian universities in the top ranking ivory towers in the world, although some will say that such rankings are arguably subjective, based on the motivations of the ranking agency.

The rich elite who occupy the political space may not feel the heat of the ASUU strike as much as the average Nigerians will do – They have the wherewithal to snub the recurring ASUU strike by sending their children abroad for uninterrupted education, irrespective of the rapidity of occurrence of such strike actions. The elite also have the option of sending their children to expensive private universities within the country where ASUU strike does not count much. The oversea countries benefit from the high tuition and other fees in hard currencies which Nigerian rich parents pay effortlessly for the education of their children. Those monies could have helped to raise the standard of our public universities.

And as the current protest lasts, the lecturers face the risk of losing their pay while on strike, except if the government rescinds the decision on the no-work-no-pay policy. Education Minister, Malam Adamu Adamu feels it is not practicable the claim by ASUU to work in arrears upon resumption to make up for lost curriculum. His appeal to ASUU:

“We must, together, continue to work to restore our public universities to where they were in the 60s and 70s. As the most important officers in our university system, Pro-Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors, must demonstrate more commitment to ending the ongoing strike.

“As Chairmen of Councils and Senates – the highest policy and academic bodies in the system – you must consider it your paramount duty to promote policies and actions that will discourage industrial disputes in our campuses. Government will continue to support the physical and academic development of its universities.

“Government will continue to reasonably enhance the working conditions of all university staff, academic and non-teaching.

“The main challenge, as you are fully aware, is dwindling resources available to address all the concerns of the citizenry….”

Adamu spoke at a meeting with vice-chancellors and pro-chancellors of federal universities at the National Universities Commission in Abuja last Tuesday.

Following negotiations in the last few weeks, the government offered to pay increases and promised to release N200 billion to revitalise federal universities. ASUU was not persuaded. A breakdown of the offer by Adamu to end the strike were a 23.5 per cent salary increase for all workers in federal universities, and 35 per cent for professors; N150 billion and N50 billion to be provided in Budget 2023 for release in first quarter for universities’ revitalisation, payment of outstanding earned allowances; and prompt payment of allowances, going forward, to all deserving staff. ASUU insisted it will only be satisfied by the full implementation of previous agreements.

ASUU is particularly kicking over the delay in the release of the outstanding N1.2 trillion agreed upon in the 2009 and 2012 agreements, and the unresolved issues on their preferred UTAS, which was locally developed, instead of the IPPIS which their payment system is currently based upon. The lecturers are against the IPPIS because they argued that some of them were underpaid while others were not paid at all under the discriminatory system which they said was borrowed erroneously from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

It beats my imagination why government will enter into an agreement willingly and refuse to honour them. It also beats my imagination why ASUU will always resort to strike action as a weapon to hold the government by the jugular in pursuit of their demands, not minding the huge consequences of their actions on the educational system. Truth, sincerity, transparency and patriotism seem to be in short supply here. Corruption of purpose is yet another suspect.

Despite the government’s slow response to issues raised by ASUU, its current proposal has demonstrated reasonable commitment to resolve the issues. It might not have addressed all the grievances of ASUU, but it surely paves the way for reduction of the grounds of the dispute and ought to be considered by the striking lecturers as starting point. However, prevent any likely strike in the future, the government should endeavour to implement its current offer to the letter, while constructive dialogue continues to make compromises and resolve the remaining grey areas. Dialogue, and continuous constructive dialogue for that matter, has proved to be a most effective mechanism for dispute resolution the world over. ASUU is hereby urged to accept the offer by the government and resume work, while dialogue continues. Enough of the strike, please!