Since the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on strike on July 1, this year, there are many who are still not convinced about the altruistic explanations given by university lecturers on the necessity of the action. Yes, ASUU has been telling everyone who cares to listen that the strike is not about their own selfish interests but predicated on the need to revitalise the universities as truly centres of excellence in learning and research.
They have specifically accused the government of breaching earlier agreement with them in 2009, which required Government to inject annually N400 billion for three years into the universities, for the upgrade of facilities and infrastructure in our various campuses. Even more important to ASUU is the demand for “Earned Allowances” which they put at a whopping N90 billion!
It is not these demands or even the fact that university teachers embarked on the strike in the first place that is infuriating the Nigerian people. Many of our citizens are justifiably annoyed with ASUU because of the manner in which they have carried on in their negotiations with government.
Now, who can blame those who have concluded that ASUU or at least its leadership has moved from trade union issues to the realm of partisan politics? In fact, there are not a few of our people who can bet that ASUU leaders are now dancing to the drumbeats played by opposition politicians in APC.
Yes, since the strike action was called by university teachers, the government has been doing its best to get the teachers back to work willingly following laid down processes of dispute resolution. First, it was the governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, who led the government’s team to the roundtable with university teachers and it was agreed that N100 billion would be released to universities as Needs Assessment Intervention Fund with the promise of injecting another N100 billion annually for the next three years.
Furthermore, Government also released N30 billion for the “Earned Allowances” although this so-called earned allowances are supposed to be paid from internally generated revenue of respective universities. Even then, there is still a moral burden on ASUU leadership to justify the payment of this allowance to all lecturers when in truth, not all of them have actually earned this allowance. Sadly, when it appeared that there was a silver lining in the sky, ASUU leadership pulled the plugs on negotiations by insisting on going on with the strike and even went ahead to discredit the Government Team led by Governor Suswam as incompetent.
Then, entered the Vice President, Namadi Sambo! Sambo had to take-over the government negotiating team and in-between, the Senate President, David Mark, invited ASUU and intervened and literally begged ASUU while promising to provide any needed legislative support that will help in breaking the deadlock and get the Nigerian students back to school.
At this point, the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, a former ASUU member himself, did what no Nigerian President has done in the past by climbing down to talk directly with the teachers themselves. This was done on the presumption that ASUU leaders would recognise his good faith as the President and as former colleague. The President met with the leadership of ASUU for nothing less than thirteen hours.
The report of the meeting from ASUU members themselves underlined the frankness of the President and his commitment not just in ending this strike but also in preventing any other strike in the future and thus bringing stability to our tertiary education system. Who can blame the Nigerian youth who were already celebrating the end of the strike and making the necessary preparations to go back to their various schools?
The ASUU meeting with the President produced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) wherein all sides stated their commitment to ending the strike. ASUU left the meeting with satisfaction and could have even called-off the strike there and then but had to follow to the letters its constitutional procedures for ending such actions by going back to their individual Chapters for briefing.
In a show of good faith, Government has since lodged into a dedicated account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) N200 billion to be disbursed to the universities as demanded by ASUU leadership at the meeting with President Jonathan. Dr. Doyin Okupe, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, has confirmed the payment. However, from what is playing out now and ASUU’s volte face, there is suspicion that ASUU leadership has been infiltrated by opposition politicians as only these two groups appear to be on the same page on the current strike situation.
Whereas about 60% of the ASUU chapters have voted to end the strike, their leaders appear hell bent on completing the assignment it began on July I, aimed at subverting this administration. Parents, students, and the general public are now convinced that ASUU has over-reached itself and probably has ulterior motives in continuing the strike. Or, how else can anybody justify the re-emergence of ASUU altogether with new set of conditions and demands on the Government?
ASUU is now reneging on its promise to call off the strike once its individual chapters agree to the offers of the government; yet, the same ASUU is accusing government of serially breaching agreements. The same ASUU is clobbering Government and accusing it of using dictatorial methods when the very language on their new demands is commanding the Government on how to do its business by insisting that the attorney general signs a new agreement with the Government. This is even more military-like than the Government’s directive that universities should be reopened.
For ASUU to now demand clarifications for areas it termed “certain uncertainties” from its meeting with the President worries Nigerians gravely. First, many people are worried that those teaching their children might have cognitive problems if they cannot listen through a meeting effectively. Second, it seems that ASUU does not have enough respect for the office of the President of Nigeria and these are the people shaping the minds of the next generation of our leaders!
It is really sad and very reprehensible that rather than choose the path of honour and patriotism, ASUU has elected to dash the hopes of students in public universities and further mortgage the future of our country. It is true that Professor Festus Iyayi died on his way to an ASUU meeting scheduled for Kano in a car crash. Yet, it is unfair to the soul of the late former ASUU leader to use his death to prolong the strike as some of his colleagues are doing now.
Of course, there were insinuations by ASUU people that they would not call-off the strike until they have buried their leader. Again, has ASUU asked itself the simple question: is this what Iyayi would have wanted-to have his persona deployed in death as an instrument of political blackmail? I hope some leaders of ASUU had not taken a sub-contract from the opposition to the party of the ruling Federal Government. Certainly, there is more to this strike than ASUU is telling us.
Mr Ojo, a public policy analyst, writes from Alapere, Ketu in Lagos State.