Lingering ASUU Strike And Way Forward

On February 14, 2022, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) commenced a one month national strike.The reason was to ensure full implementation of the 2009 agreement reached with the Federal Government.
The major issue at stake, apart from demands to review conditions of service of ASUU members, adoption of ASUU-designed University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) and payment of earned academic allowances,  is the Federal Government’s position that it has no money to fund university revitalisation which would cost about N1.1 trillion.
According to ASUU, the N1.1 trillion fund would enable universities to provide a conducive teaching and learning environment.
The revitalisation fund would also help to decongest the overcrowded lecture rooms, which  statisticaly are frightening.
In the last two decades, university teachers have gone on nationwide strikes 16 times covering a cumulative period of 51 months.
More so, local chapters of ASUU have also declared strikes in their respective institutions over local disputes, some of them dragging through several months.
While the problem persisted, many students who cannot afford to study abroad have resorted to skills acquisition and at worst roam about the streets aimlessly.
Following the recent ASUU strike, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, on Thursday, March 4, 2022, stressed that government has made it clear that it does not have the money to fund university revitalisation.
“In 2016/2017 the government said it did not have the money, but that it will find a way to fund the universities.
“So, a committee was set up with ASUU members. The committee recommended that stamp duty should be taken.
“There was also a proposal to get money from phone charges. Government made it clear that they do not have the 1.1 trillion that is remaining. The committee apparently could not find sustainable sources of funds to fulfil the financial commitment,” Ngige had said.
While some stakeholders joined in casting aspersions on ASUU over frequent strike actions, others were of the view that the crisis can be settled amicably.
“It is a clear understanding that the ASUU is primarily fighting for ordinary Nigerian students, whose parents have no means to pay for foreign education or private university,’’ a parent, Hikmat Abiodun said. She expressed sadness that government officials spent huge sums to have their children school abroad while abandoning Nigeria’s education system to rot.
Currently, there are more private universities in Nigeria than federal universities. Of the 205 Nigerian universities, 49 are owned by the federal government, 57 by state governments, while the remaining 99 are privately owned, mostly by religious organisations.
Consequently, the systemic low funding of public universities no doubt has given private universities an undue advantage.
“ASUU is agitating so that what happened to public primary and secondary schools will not be repeated at the university education level,’’ another parent, Nkemakolam Moses said. She regretted what she termed the nonchalant attitude of some Nigerian leaders towards national development, achievable via quality educational system.
“The union’s demand is not far-fetched. It is a memorandum that was signed since 2020, so why the delay in execution. Our leaders should treat this matter with the urgency it deserves before our children start losing interest in school.
“Our children are beginning to look for other options to proper education. Crime and internet fraud is the order of the day as these intelligent minds in schools are delayed further by the strike action,” she said.
On his part, a student of one of the government-owned universities, Victor Ogbonna, appealed to ASUU to stop the strike actions and seek other options to make their demands known to government. “Stop using students as a tool to force the hands of government,” he said.
According to him, ASUU should not continue to embark on strike actions and expect a positive response from government.
“ASUU is a union of intelligent minds who can brainstorm and devise other means of making demands apart from strikes. It is high time they created another way of drawing the government to the table of negotiation,” he said.
Another parent, who bemoaned the constant strike action which has become an annual affair in the country, Mrs Favour Ashiman, expressed dismay that students stayed away from school for a long period.
“Our children should no longer spend more time than they bargained for in the universities, as it can be tiring. ASSU should give peace a chance and dialogue with government and return to the classrooms,” Ashiman said.
Nevertheless, it is expected that the seven-man committee inaugurated by the Federal Government on March 7 with the responsibility of renegotiating the 2009 agreement it reached with ASUU would indeed be the way forward.
The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, at the inauguration of the committee in Abuja, gave the committee three months to conclude the renegotiation of the agreement with the union.
According to the minister, the committee chaired by the Pro-Chancellor, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Emeritus Prof. Nimi Briggs, is expected to review the draft proposed Federal Government/ASUU agreement.
Adamu said that the committee should liaise and consult with relevant stakeholders to finalise the position of the Federal Government on the issues in the draft proposed FGN/ASUU Renegotiated Agreement.
He said the committee would also renegotiate in realistic and workable terms, the 2009 agreements with other university-based unions.
The minister further urged the committee to negotiate and recommend any other issue it deemed relevant to reposition the Nigerian University System (NUS) for global competitiveness.
“You would recall that the re-negotiation of the 2009 agreement between the Federal Government and the University-Based Staff Unions (ASUU, SSANU, NAAT and NASU) commenced on Monday, February 13, 2017.
“However, due to a number of unforeseen circumstances, including but not limited to the COVID-19 pandemic, the exercise has, unfortunately, dragged on till now.
“There is no gain saying the fact that the earnest desire of every stakeholder in the Nigerian University System (NUS) and, indeed, the nation at large is to conclude this re-negotiation within the shortest possible period.
“Therefore, I wish to specially appeal to this committee to double its effort towards concluding the assignment and produce a realistic and workable draft agreement that would tackle the challenges confronting the NUS and reposition it,” the minister had said.
Strike action is an ill wind that blows no one any good. Its adverse effects on students, parents, and the society are better said than imagined. If would be better if ASUU and government can find a common ground and settle the impasse once and for all.

BY:  Calista Ezeaku