By Oladele Oladipupo
University is said to be the citadel of learning. It is an institution where knowledge is acquired. The mandate of any university include but not limited to the following: human capital development, conducting research and development, supervising students’ projects and proffering solutions to socio-economic challenges facing the nation. All over the world people go on strike because they want better pay or working conditions. It was on this premise that the Academic staff union of public universities in February 2022 went on warning strike to press home their demands which include but not limited to the following: adequate funding for revitalization of public universities, payment of earned academic allowances, university transparency accountability solution, promotion arrears, renegotiation of 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement and the integrated payroll and personnel information system payment.
Moreover, ASUU wants the Federal Government to sign the renegotiated agreement, implement it, roll out UTAS, pay unpaid earned Academic allowances and commit more funds into the revitalization of universities. Their demands can succinctly be summed up into four critical areas namely: increase in salary and welfare packages; improve on infrastructure facilities; Adequate funding of public universities and university autonomy. It is quite unfortunate that our wards have to stay at home when they are supposed to be in the classroom receiving lectures.
We all know that when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. In this case, the students are the ones that are bearing the brunt. In Nigeria, there is no year that ASUU does not go on strike. It is always a strategy that they employ in order to ensure that their demands are met not only that but it is also the language which the Federal Government understands. Obviously, the economic and social consequences of the strikes are enormous. For instance, a programme that is supposed to last for 4 years might last for 5 – 6 years. In addition, the industrial actions by university lecturers over the years had negatively affected tertiary education system, including the global ranking of Nigerian universities. Come to think of it, the lecturers are not asking for too much.
To be candid, our university lecturers are highly dedicated and patriotic. The writer of this article was part of the Academic system before joining the civil service. I am quite aware of some of the challenges most of the lecturers are facing in the university. For instance, the infrastructural facilities in most of our public universities are generally poor. The power supply is erratic, one cannot perform any meaningful job mostly when you are conducting serious academic research. In most cases, water is not readily available and at times one gets frustrated.
Again most of the research laboratories are not well equipped with modern analytical equipment such as Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS), Gas Chromatography (GC), Mass Spectrophotometer (MS) and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) etc. As regards the salary and welfare packages, it is quite unfortunate that majority of the lecturers have been on the same salary for more than 13 years without increment. The lecture theatres and hostels in most of these universities are nothing to write home about. The lecture halls are always jamb-packed. In some cases the number of students outnumbered the available seats and this has made learning not to be conducive.
Most of the problems that we are having in our public universities are due mainly to lack of proper planning and foresight. The time when these universities were established some years ago, the Federal Government did not take into cognizance certain factors such as lecturer to students ratio, population dynamics. Most of the infrastructural facilities in our public universities are over-stretched due to over population and this has resulted in infrastructural decay.
Another major challenge that our universities are facing is inadequate funding. Education all over the world is capital intensive. The amount of money that is allocated to education sector is too small. According to UNESCO, 26% of our annual budget is supposed to be allocated for education. I think something drastic needs to be done in the area of funding. In a nutshell, we cannot blame the university lecturers for embarking on strike, in fact they are fighting for the entire country. They do care for this country and they want the best for the country. They want our children to be well groomed and trained so that they can compete favorably with their peers in any part of the globe.
We the stakeholders in the education sector, should not fold our arms. It is our collective responsibility to impress on the Federal Government to see that they do the needful and make sure that this strike is called off immediately so that the students can go back to classrooms. As part of my contribution, I have highlighted six areas that the Federal Government can look into in order to ensure that ASUU strike is halted. The following are my suggestions/recommendations:
First and foremost, there is a need for us as a nation to get our priority right if we really want to develop technologically. Over the years, the budgetary allocation for education sector is so paltry that one could hardly achieve anything. It is against this backdrop that I am recommending that henceforth, the education sector should be allocated the lion share of our annual budget. The Federal Government should try to implement the 26% recommended by UNESCO.
Education is capital intensive, therefore the Federal Government cannot do it alone. It is suggested that all-well meaning Nigerians should also support the public universities in the area of infrastructural development through the provision of adequate potable water, regular power supply, world-class lecture theatres, hostels and functional laboratories;
There is need for us to develop a kind of structure whereby Alumni Associations will support and offer endowments as it is done in other climes;
It is imperative that salaries and welfare packages of university lecturers should be reviewed from time to time. A situation whereby lecturers are on the same salary for 13 years without increment does not augur well. Finally, public universities in Nigeria should be made autonomous.
Oladipupo writes from Lagos