The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) recently threatened to disrupt party primaries of the major political parties in Abuja and other parts of the country except the lingering industrial dispute in the nation’s public universities is quickly resolved. NANS President, Sunday Asefon, who issued the threat last week, accused Nigerian leaders of ignoring the plight of Nigerian students who are at the receiving end of the ongoing avoidable strike. He vowed that NANS would disrupt the forthcoming primary elections of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), if the industrial action is not called off forthwith.

The threat by the students’ body came on the heels of the two leading political parties pegging their presidential nomination fees at N40 million for PDP and N100million for APC. Senior government officials, including the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige; Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, and the Minister of State (Education), Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, are among key members of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration who have indicated interest for the presidential contest.

The students maintained that the Federal Government should either resolve the strike or get ready to give direct orders to the security operatives to shoot them on sight during party conventions to select their presidential candidates. The NANS’ threat must not be treated with levity. The aftermath of the October 2020 EndSARS protests by Nigerian youths cannot be forgotten in a hurry. To avoid the unpleasant consequences of the looming NANS’ protests, the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are enjoined to quickly commence a productive dialogue aimed at resolving all outstanding issues. If the youths are allowed to disrupt the forthcoming party primaries, it is going to have serious implications for the 2023 elections and our democracy. Therefore, everything should be done to avert the protests.

The current ASUU strike began on February 14 following the failure of the Federal Government to renegotiate the agreement it signed with ASUU in 2009, as well as the failure of the government to replace the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), with the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), as the payment platform in the university sector, among other reasons.

The lecturers are of the view that the IPPIS has never been implemented in any university system anywhere in the world. Apart from its many drawbacks, ASUU still maintains that IPPIS will shut the door against foreign scholars, contract staff and researchers needed to be poached from existing universities to mentor and stabilise the newly established ones.  However, the Federal Government points out that the new payment system is for transparency and neither intended to trample upon university autonomy nor designed to subsume the university into the civil service. Regardless of which payment system is the best for the nation’s public universities, the fact still remains that the universities cannot continue to be under lock and key indefinitely.

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The strike is unfortunate and does not speak well of the country’s tertiary education system. A country that has closed down its universities for over six months does not mean well for the future of its children, the so-called leaders of tomorrow. We sympathise with the students and their parents that are bearing the brunt of the lingering strike. This is one industrial action too many. Apart from ASUU, other Workers’ Unions like Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASUU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), are also on strike.

It is an irony that while the universities remain closed, officials of the government are engaging in profligate spending. While we urge the government to honour its agreement with the lecturers, we call on ASUU to embrace dialogue in resolving all outstanding matters. ASUU is getting to the point of being seen as the constant aggressor by its regular resort to strike. Incessant adoption of the measure does not augur well for research, teaching and learning in the universities. Strike should be the last option when other approaches have been fully exhausted.

We implore the lecturers and the government to see reason to end the industrial action. It is unfortunate that the current crisis is coming up barely a year after a similar impasse in 2021. Nigerians have had enough of the closure of the nation’s universities. We urge the government to put an end to the menace. The strikes in the universities are having telling effects on standard of our varsity education. They account for poor global ranking of Nigerian universities. There should be alternative arrangement to manage our universities if the government has been overwhelmed.

The threat by NANS is an indication that their patience has snapped. The best the government can do is to ensure that the students do not embark on the planned protests. Let it commence negotiation with ASUU in the bid to ensure industrial peace in the varsities.  We hope that the extension of the strike by 12 weeks will enable the government and university teachers resolve the matter amicably.