When I watched the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, on television last week denying the existence of any signed agreement between the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), I knew that our public universities could slip into another round of crisis anytime. Not even the clarification which came 24 hours later that it wasn’t the well-known 2009 document that he was referring to could quench my fears. For decades, these institutions have gone through different conflicts, many of them bordering on employer-employee disaffections.
Now, the country has real reasons to be apprehensive. On Tuesday last week, protests were staged on many campuses across the federation by lecturers to draw the attention of the government and whoever cared to listen to the effect that they were tired of holding onto the short end of the stick. Whether those marches have been taken seriously by the authorities is yet to be determined. Several statements are being issued by ASUU and its branches. Benin Zone’s reaction is particularly blunt: Nigerians should be prepared to hold the government responsible in the event of shutdowns.
As its coordinator, Monday Igbafen, put it, “It (government) is yet to sign the draft renegotiated 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement which our union views as a significant milestone in the resolution of the issues at hand. At the moment, the federal government is still unwilling to pay up years of arrears of promotion entitlements, still pays lip service to the duty of adequately funding education and continues to be reluctant to release our withheld three and a half months’ salaries and third-party deductions. It is unimaginable that, in the face of the daily exponential increases in the cost of basic services and goods in Nigeria, university lecturers have been abandoned to grapple with the harsh realities of an abysmally poor salary structure they have had to endure for 16 agonising years. Nigerians should be aware that this is a critical moment in the history of university education in the country, as it is currently on the precipice.”
Yes, the system is at the cliff’s edge, living dangerously and putting at avoidable risk the destinies of millions of Nigerian youths and, ultimately, the nation’s present and future. Today, the remunerations and welfare of the teachers are among the most miserable in the country. Nothing to blame only this government for but something to worry about that the end of this cycle of industrial disequilibrium and disenchantment may just not be in sight. My personal justification is that in the last three years alone, I’ve written on this subject six times, including this one. First published in THISDAY and also in other newspapers, they all reinforce the feeling that lasting solutions may still be far away. I’m compelled to reproduce some paragraphs here.
“Pick Your Fights, ASUU Members” was published on July 21, 2022 in the heat of the last nationwide strike. It read thus: “Not too many people are aware that the bulk of the monies in contention is for the revitalisation of the various institutions, which means that individual lecturers will not gain directly from them. What concern can be more noble than that? But for the struggles embarked upon by the past generations of dons, a large percentage of the amenities in our institutions would not have been.”
“Nigerian Public Universities’ Limbo Moment” was also out on September 01, 2022 as that strike action lingered: “The union’s weakest point in this protracted and painful drama is its public communication strategies. If well-conceived methods exist within the organisation at all, they are clearly ineffective. No matter how brilliant any goal for the general good is, adequately communicating it to the relevant publics should be paramount in the chart of priorities.”
“ASUU and Two Super Ministers” came out in November, 2022: “What will go into history is that (Chris) Ngige and (Adamu) Adamu, two federal cabinet members most relevant to the industrial atmosphere in our public university system, are mishandling the conflicts that seek to tear down this aspect of tertiary education. I have argued repeatedly that ASUU cannot completely exonerate itself. The arguments and weapons of yesterday which the union seems stuck with won’t work today. Its glorious years were largely in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s when the country was run mostly under unitary, military governments and most of the universities were owned by the federal government.” Ngige gladly midwifed the Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA) to checkmate ASUU.
On August 22, 2024, “Before the Next ASUU Strike” warned about the repercussions of a looming industrial action then: “Truth is, some ASUU leaders, activists and members have given themselves away as people with doubtful, less than exemplary interest in the overall wellness of education at the peak. There’re many stories of anti-social behaviours amongst them which validate this worrying image. But then, to casually dismiss the agitations of the dons would be simplistic, diversionary and defeatist. To ignore the insincerity, nonchalance, and outright irresponsibility of successive governments in the issues that have bedevilled our campuses for too long would even be more destructive.”
And, finally on October 17 last year, I put out a poser, “Who Will Save Our Public Universities Now?” which read in part: “It is bad enough that allowing the climate on our campuses to degenerate to needless frequent down-tooling has taken some shine off the noble profession of lecturing. We’re now faced with the reality of the worsening of this discomfiting situation. No government worth its name should have as a goal a deliberate design to subdue or conquer the spirit of workers, least of all, people entrusted with the tasks of the moulding of minds and impartation of knowledge.”
One can only hope that fatigue hasn’t set in. Like some of the administrations before it, the government of President Bola Tinubu is yet to exhibit sincerity of purpose in this regard. Time has come for the lecturers to prioritise their own personal concerns and stop acting like godfathers of the citadels of learning. At a time when the very survival of ASUU members is in jeopardy, doing otherwise would be senseless.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Ekpe, PhD, is a member of THISDAY Editorial Board
