Forestalling Future ASUU Strikes

At last, the three and half months long strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), has came to an end.

Thanks to the intervention of the Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, a veteran in labour matters, who brought the academicians and the Federal Government back to the negotiating table.  Thus, we now have in our hands another opportunity toward addressing the seemingly intractable disagreement between the university lecturers and their other colleagues on the one hand, and the Federal Government, on the other hand.

The problems facing our universities which include, lack of materials for teaching and research, poor remuneration for lecturers, vis-à-vis workers in other sectors have dominated national discourse for quite some time.

In fact the development had led to brain drain, a situation which has seen most eggheads leaving the shores of this country for work elsewhere, where the conditions are right, to the detriment of our youths.  Given the fact that the youths today would be leaders tomorrow, the need for sound education for them cannot be over-emphasised, if Nigeria must take its rightful place in the comity of nations as far as development of the arts, science and technology are concerned.

This is why The Tide uses this opportunity to, once again, call on the Federal Government to do all in it s power to ensure that disagreements between it and the lectures are no more allowed to simmer to the point of outright strikes which, no doubt, have very debilitating effects on the students, their parents and the economy of the country.

We take this position because we are worried that none of our universities are listed among the first 1,000 in the world, a position that should disturb all patriots of this great nation, because it means that even the products of our tertiary institutions are also very lowly rated internationally, and even locally, a situation which accounts for the high level of unemployment facing the youths.

Consequently, the Federal Government should now endeavour to upgrade the university system, both in terms of equipage and motivation for all levels of workers in that most crucial index of development, if the country would survive the global competition starring us in the face, in all spheres of human endeavours.

Granted that the Federal Government does not have a bottomless pit of resources to fund tertiary education, but it is high time it paid due consideration to the United Nations (UN) stipulation that 20 percent of any nation’s budget should be dedicated to the education sector.  This call is further underscored by the fact that even teachers at primary and secondary school levels also have axes to grind with the federal and state governments over the condition of government schools and the welfare of their operators.

However, we take solace in the understanding that the improvement of the education sector is one of the priorities of the Federal Government as enshrined in its seven-point agenda for development of the nation, by the President, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua.

The Tide therefore enjoins the Federal Government to be courageous in signing and implementing without further delay, all agreements reached with the ASUU and its sister unions, in order to put a final stop to the truncating of our academic calendar which adversely affects our children.

This way, the government may be preparing the ground for our tertiary institutions to churn out graduates who would be self employed, as a strategy toward checkmating the very disturbing high rate of unemployed graduates, who are expected to contribute to national development rather than being frustrated into lives of criminality due to unemployment.  Now is the time to act as delay may be dangerous for the giant of Africa.