The industrial peace in the nation’s universities will soon be disrupted if the recent threat to embark on a fresh strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is anything to go by. The varsity union has warned that its members would embark on strike if the Federal Government failed to address their grievances, which border mainly on non-implementation of agreements by the government.
It is likely that the industrial action will take place after its forthcoming National Executive Council (NEC) meeting next month. ASUU has recently decried the non-payment of arrears of Earned Academic Allowance and the issue of Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), which the union opposed, as well as the selective payment of salaries by those ASUU referred to as “government contractors.”
ASUU has also alleged that some of their members have not been paid their salaries for between 14 and 16 months in some universities. With what ASUU described as “amputated salary” no lecturer knows what he will receive as salary each month. The resort to strike by university teachers over welfare issues has become a recurring decimal in the nation’s varsity system. Apart from other pertinent issues affecting the universities, disruption of academic calendar on account of strike has more than any other thing contributed to the poor quality of Nigerian graduates in recent times. Since 1999, successive Nigerian governments have struggled to grapple with the incessant strikes by ASUU. But, it appears that no government has adequately addressed the demands of varsity teachers, especially in relation to staff welfare and funding of universities. Unfortunately, parents and students have had to bear the brunt of the face-off between ASUU and the Federal Government. It has become so bad that the varsity calendar is unpredictable. Students enrolled for a four-year programme may end up spending up to six or more years because of incessant industrial actions in the nation’s universities. Consequently, the instability in the system has tacitly encouraged unbridled education tourism. While our political leaders send their children to universities in United Kingdom (UK) and United States (US), other Nigerians who could not afford them send their children to Ghana, Republic of Benin and other countries. Notwithstanding their exorbitant fees, some parents now send their children to private universities. But the majority of Nigerian university students are forced to live with the unstable university calendar because their parents cannot afford varsity education abroad or in the private varsities.
We call on the Federal Government to address the grievances of ASUU and forestall the impending strike in the nation’s public universities. The government should honour all agreements it duly entered with ASUU. It must stop paying lip service to funding of the varsities. State governments should also fund their varsities adequately and ensure the welfare of their teachers. The dilapidated condition of most state varsities is deplorable. Nigeria cannot develop scientifically and technologically with the current state of our varsities. There is need for a law to bar children of politicians from attending foreign universities. Such a law may force those in government to pay serious attention to varsity funding. Frequent industrial actions are deleterious to quality varsity education. The products of our universities are no longer highly rated by some foreign universities and employers of labour. Another strike by the teachers will worsen the situation.
Having lost more than a year to the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation’s universities cannot afford to lose more time for whatever reasons. Another strike now will definitely put the future of the students in jeopardy. Each time they are on strike, the nation witnesses an upsurge in crimes. Therefore, the government must respect all agreements it freely entered into with ASUU. Agreements are supposed to be sacrosanct and in all circumstances should not be observed in the breach. All grey areas in the agreements with ASUU that constantly breed conflicts must be revisited immediately in the interest of industrial peace in the varsities. We call on both parties to return to the negotiation table and iron out their differences. With increasing insecurity, the government cannot allow strike in the universities to compound the nation’s woes. On its part, ASUU should lessen its hard stance and allow a win-win situation to prevail. Sacrifice by each party will go a long way in bringing a lasting peace in the nation’s universities. Let influential Nigerians and other stakeholders in the education sector intervene to abort the impending strike. The Nigerian education sector has been poorly funded over the years, falling below the recommendation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recommendation. UNESCO recommends 15 per cent to 20 per cent of annual budgets for education. Sadly, Nigeria has not met the target. The highest budgetary allocation to the education sector was 10.7 per cent in 2015. The 5.6 per cent in the 2021 budget is the lowest percentage allocation in recent times. Let government prioritise varsity education through enhanced funding.