Editorial
Respecting FG, ASUU Pact
The joy was great when Nigerians got the news that the Academic Staff Union of Universi
ties (ASUU) had called off its nine months strike. Recall that ASUU began an indefinite strike in March 2020 over the non-implementation of dissimilar issues, particularly its reservation about government’s avowal that it must bring members of the union under the Federal Government’s Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
Nine months after, ASUU decided at its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, December 22, 2020, to end the industrial action much to the relief of parents. We say this because ASUU members forfeited nothing while the strike lingered as they received their salaries for work not done. The decision entered in good faith between the government and the union imposes some commitments on both sides.
Before the suspension of the strike, both groups by common consent settled the seven controversial issues that had elongated the feud which included funding for revitalisation of public universities, earned academic allowances (EAA), salary shortfalls, state universities, visitation panel, reconstitution of the government renegotiating team and the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
While the strike was on, there was an astronomical increase in crime and depravity rates in the country. Many youths who wanted to explore saw the strike as an opportunity to become what they wanted to be, while others were pressured by peer groups into the consumption of drugs, smoking, and cultism, prostitution, etc while some ended up with unwanted pregnances, with some losing their lives to illegal procurement of abortions.
Following the lengthy period of the industrial action by the university teachers, government at all levels lost billions of naira in revenue, arising from paying lecturers for services not rendered and cost of maintaining utilities such as vehicles and generating sets in the university community. This amounts to wastage of resources for low productivity and production of poor quality students, among others.
Aside from this loss of revenue to the universities, there is also a depressing effect on the quality of graduates from the universities since time lost due to strikes that should be used for delivering the curriculum is not gained after the strike. This is a situation that accounts for the production of half-baked graduates.
Given those developments, we hope that the recent strike will be the last for the sake of the union’s integrity and the survival of tertiary education in the country. If the members were sensitive enough, they would have realised that strike was no longer fashionable as a compelling force to get government and its agencies to act in the desired path.
Even worse for ASUU is the fact that they have lost the goodwill and compassion they used to relish from parents and other stakeholders. The question is: is the new accord with the Federal Government different from the previous pacts that did not stand the test of time or is it the same as the ones that have been in contention?
Now that the dissent is over, the Federal Government and ASUU must ensure that they rigorously adhere to the terms and conditions that characterise this latest agreement. We note also that ASUU’s strike culture has entirely oxidised confidence in government-owned universities to the point that even the lecturers themselves now enrol their children in private universities in Nigeria or even abroad.
Alas, ASUU has reportedly issued a fresh threat to resume the industrial action it suspended recently. That is unacceptable. Again, we ask for restraint. Signing agreement is one thing, implementing it is another. We are hoping that all parties will keep their part to move education forward. The government must ensure that the contents of the agreement are implemented to the letter. This is in the best interest of the country.
It is time ASUU began to think outside the box to address labour-related complaints it has with the government without proceeding on strike. The frequency of the strikes has compelled many students to remain longer than required to finalise their academic programmes at a huge cost to parents, the students in question and the country at large.
Moreover, the strikes have never engendered the provision of facilities needed to enhance teaching, learning and research in the universities and thus should no longer be an option. The effect of the repeated closure of schools and academic programmes on students’ learning can better be imagined than described. It is a sad reality that graduates of Nigerian universities enter the labour market without the qualities expected of people who claimed to have gone through the system.
The importance of universities as producers of teachers, administrators and managers for other sectors of national development can never be over-emphasised. Nigerian universities should therefore not be an exception. But that goal will be unattainable if the sector is characterised by repeated industrial actions.
The vital lesson to learn from the sequence of events is that there is no substitute for dialogue. ASUU and the Federal Government should always respect agreements they have freely reached to avert a crisis of confidence such as the one that has led to this ugly situation. We need to have a seamless academic calendar in our university system.
There are moments in the life of a legislature when plain speaking becomes a public service. Senator Adams Oshiomhole provided such a moment on the floor of the Senate when he accused the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, of manifestly neglecting critical federal arteries in Edo and Delta States, and implored his colleagues to prevail on the Minister to adopt a more equitable and genuinely national approach to road infrastructure delivery. It was blunt, it was uncomfortable, and it was necessary.
The specifics of his complaint deserve restating. Drawing attention to the recent approval of some 20 new road projects despite the parlous state of existing ones, the former Edo State governor lamented that Nigerians cannot travel from Benin to Warri, Benin to Asaba, Benin to Auchi, or Auchi to Okene without encountering severe distress. He alleged a deliberate omission of these corridors from the national budget in the last three years, save for palliative interventions directed by President Bola Tinubu through tax credit arrangements. His question — “What have we done wrong?” — resonates far beyond the chambers of the National Assembly.
We lend our full and unequivocal support to that call. The Auchi-Benin Road, for instance, has been in a deplorable and near-impassable condition for several years, turning what should be a two-hour journey into an all-day ordeal of broken axles, extortionate fares, and despondent commuters. The media have, on multiple occasions, chronicled the suffering of motorists, traders, and students who ply that route. To describe it as a federal road today is to stretch the meaning of the term beyond recognition.
This pattern of sidelining is not confined to Edo or Delta. Even here in Rivers State, the disposition of the Federal Ministry of Works has left much to be desired, particularly along the Eleme axis of the East-West Road. That road, which ought to be a flagship of federal presence in the Niger Delta, has remained in a wretched state for long. Those who use it daily — workers at the Eleme Petrochemical Complex, the two refineries, Onne Port, and the countless ancillary industries — can attest to its deterioration. Work has proceeded in fits and starts without the sustained urgency such a strategic road demands.
The Eleme stretch is not a mere intra-state byway. It is the gateway to the nation’s economic jugular. According to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing’s 2023 Highway Condition Survey, only about 35 per cent of the country’s 36,000 kilometres of federal roads are rated as being in good or fair condition, with the remainder classified as poor or very poor. The East-West Road, conceived in the 1970s to bind the entire Niger Delta, remains unfinished in critical sections more than four decades after. If it had been treated as a priority, the perennial gridlock, carnage, and economic loss on the Eleme-Refinery junction would have long been consigned to history.
The irony is as painful as it is glaring. The Niger Delta remains the goose that lays the golden eggs. Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [NEITI 2023 Oil and Gas Audit] show that the region still accounts for over 78 per cent of Nigeria’s federally collected export earnings and about 65 per cent of total government revenue. The National Bureau of Statistics [NBS Foreign Trade Report Q4 2024] similarly confirms that crude oil continues to dominate export receipts. By every metric of equity and economic logic, a region that sustains the national purse deserves first-rate consideration in the allocation of infrastructure, not afterthoughts and tokenism.
Road infrastructure is not largesse to be dispensed by favour; it is the skeleton upon which commerce, cohesion, and citizenship hang. When contracts are concentrated in one geopolitical zone while other zones are left to contend with craters, it erodes trust in the federation itself. The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update [June 2023] estimated that poor transport connectivity inflates the cost of moving goods by up to 40 per cent and costs the Nigerian economy an estimated $1.5 billion annually in lost man-hours and vehicle maintenance. If we profess to be one country, then equity must be the compass that guides key institutions before any project is executed. Development must spread round, not pool in one place as though other regions do not matter.
There is also a grave security dimension that can no longer be ignored. The deplorable condition of federal roads has become a veritable enabler of criminality. The NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey reported over 2.5 million incidents of kidnapping-related occurrences nationally, with transport workers identifying bad road spots as prime ambush points. When vehicles are forced to crawl at 10 kilometres per hour through failed sections at Auchi, Sapele Road, or Eleme, they become sitting ducks for armed gangs. Fixing bad roads, therefore, is not merely about convenience; it is about safeguarding lives.
By his intervention, Senator Oshiomhole has hit the nail on the head and reminded Minister Umahi of a fundamental constitutional truth: public office is held in trust. The Ministry of Works is not a personal estate where contracts are awarded according to whim or political convenience. It is a national institution funded by the collective resources of Nigerians, including the oil and gas rents from the very communities whose roads are now neglected. The Minister must demonstrate balance, transparency, and a pan-Nigerian outlook in the distribution of projects that impact the daily existence of citizens. Selective neglect breeds suspicion, and suspicion is corrosive at a time when the nation is preaching unity, oneness, equity, and justice.
Consequently, the National Assembly must go beyond rhetoric and assert its oversight powers with vigour. Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution [as amended] empower the legislature to investigate and expose any maladministration in the execution of federal projects. If an office holder is not acting rightly, it is the duty of the Senate and the House of Representatives to call him to order. Oversight must not be reduced to budget approval ceremonies; it must translate to field verification, public hearings, and insistence that the Federal Character principle, as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the Constitution, reflects in road awards.
Let the Auchi-Okene, Benin-Warri, Benin-Asaba, and Eleme East-West gangways be restored to motorable dignity. Let priority be given to completing existing, economically vital roads before embarking on new ones. If those who, through their resources, sustain the federation are sidelined in the distribution of tangible dividends, it tells poorly of our nationhood. Bad roads must be fixed, and they must be fixed now, with fairness as the guiding standard.
