Ebierelayefa Okosu
This disquisition has arisen from the unending questions that now surround
the controversial indefinite strike being embarked upon by the lecturers of
the Niger Delta University (NDU). Now in its fourth month, the strike
action, which has done irreparable damage to the academic calendar of the
institution, is losing sympathy and support in many quarters, within and
outside Bayelsa State, because it seems to have lost its shock-value and
has dragged on for too long than necessary.
It is apparent that the NDU lecturers’ strike has also lost the popularity
it initially enjoyed, seeing that some facts that were recondite as at when
the strike commenced have come to the open. To start with, it is now an
open secret that the Bayelsa State Government had been faithfully
committing close to a eighth (1/8) part of the entire monthly wage bill of
the state to pay faculty and non-academic staff of the NDU until the
present economic downturn set in.
As one would expect under any administration, the economic downturn had
precipitated a fiscal structural adjustment (apologies to IBB), whereby
meeting up recurrent obligations like the salaries of the lecturers and
other workers at the NDU, became an uphill task since January. However,
this picture doesn’t hold true for only the NDU lecturers; it holds true,
and of course, cuts across all the MDAs of the Bayelsa State Government.
It is for this reason the Bayelsa State chapters of the Nigerian Labour
Congress (NLC), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) constructively
negotiated with government and arrived at a modus vivendi to receive full
salaries for January, and subsequently, receive 50 percent of their
salaries until there is remarkable improvement in revenue to the state.
It will be recalled that being a responsible institution, the Bayelsa State
Government opened its doors of negotiation to the striking lecturers no
sooner than they began the industrial action on April 23. During the
negotiations with government, the lecturers under the aegis of the Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), NDU chapter, made a battery of demands,
chief among which, the immediate setting up of a Development Plan for the
university. The lecturers also demanded the payment of promotion arrears to
their members.
Other demands were the payment of three months’ outstanding salaries then,
as well as the payment of graduate assistants teaching in the varsity, as
conditions for ending the strike.
The Bayelsa State Government on its part offered to make full payment of
January salaries to all cadres of staff at the NDU, and 50 percent payment
of salaries for subsequent months. (The January salaries have since been
paid as agreed by government). The State Government also accepted the
proposal for setting up the Niger Delta University Development Plan.
Investigations showed that the plan has already been set up, while the
modalities for its implementation are being worked out by government.
Furthermore, to demonstrate government’s desire to keep the NDU afloat as
Bayelsa’s flagship academic institution, the State Government did not only
accept to pay the graduate assistants as requested, but also gave approval
for the payment all promotion arrears to faculty and non-academic staff
without any ado.
Given these concrete, substantial steps taken so far to meet the demands of
the NDU lecturers in the face of daunting economic challenges amidst an
excruciating financial climate, one would have expected the lecturers to
soft-pedal and by now, opt for the classroom while negotiations for a
better deal continue. The public perception the lecturers are labouring
hard to create at the expense of the educational development of Bayelsa
State, that government is not doing enough for their well being even at
this time, is absurd and uncalled for. It is way off the realities on the
ground.
The pertinent questions then are these: If medical doctors, nurses,
pharmacists and other health personnel in government’s employ, who are as
important as lecturers are to society, can accept the temporary 50 percent
salary arrangement, why can’t the NDU lecturers do the same thing? If
judges, magistrates, court registrars and other important judiciary staff
in Bayelsa State can accept the 50 percent salary offered by government
having appreciated the difficult times the nation is passing through, why
can’t the NDU lecturers emulate them, call off their strike and save the
educational future of our children studying at the NDU? Moreover, if every
worker on the payroll of the State Government has seen the need to make
some sacrifice by accepting the half salary option, with the belief that
the remnant 50 percent would be paid once the economy improves, why can’t
the NDU lecturers make the same sacrifice as learned ‘patriotic’ citizens
of the state?
The lecturers need do the needful even as negotiations go on, with a view
to work out an amicable resolution of the contentious issues involved in
the present financial quagmire.
It needs to be emphasized that by no stretch of imagination is the Bayelsa
State Government planning to shirk its responsibility to the NDU. Although
it has expressed some reservations on the N500 million salary expenditure
to pay workers alone at the NDU, scrapping the NDU or starving it of
funding is definitely not on the cards. The half-a-billion monthly salary
bill is on the high side when it is carefully considered that it represents
nothing short of 12.5 percent of the state’s entire recurrent spending
every month.
However, findings from impeccable sources indicate strongly that the NDU
generates about N1.5 billion annually. This amount is unaccounted for, yet
it is solely, independently managed by the Management of the institution.
While this had been the unhealthy practice over the years, the economic
situation in the state and country today demands a radical paradigm shift –
the internally generated revenue of the NDU should henceforth be properly
accounted for by the Management. Records of such past spendings in the last
couple of years should be audited. The State Government should be properly
briefed and furnished of the school’s financial dealings at the close of
every session. After all, he who pays the piper also calls the tune.
The NDU lecturers can only be fair to the state if they immediately call
off their prolonged strike since government has met three key items on
their four-point menu of demands. It bears repetition to stress that the
half salary payment option, which is informed by the sharp drop in
statutory earnings, affects all strata of workers in the Bayelsa State
Civil Service. It is not offered to the NDU lecturers alone as the local
branch of the ASUU and the opposition media lapdogs in the state want the
world to believe. In fact, the lecturers’ continued non-compromising stance
is not only preposterously unreasonable but completely detrimental to the
educational development of Bayelsa State.
The Ijaws have an old saying that if a fisherman gets angry at a leaking
canoe he himself is inside in the middle of the river and allows it to
leak, he ends up going down with it. One prays that this should not be the
lot of the striking NDU lecturers.