By Darlington Anule
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige and his education counterpart, Adamu Adamu are the most discussed members of the Federal Executive Council for months. Public universities have just re-opened after a debilitating 8 months strike, only broken by the National Industrial Court, whose interlocutory injunction directing lecturers to call off strike, was affirmed by the Appeal Court. Suddenly, the bellowing smoke of ASUU firepower has calmed at the House of Representatives, where the Speaker has not in any way offered new options than what the Minister of labour had given ASUU eight months ago! It was a clever soft-landing at the green chambers in the face of contempt charge . “We are resuming because of the Industrial Court interlocutory injunction and the judgement of the Appeal Court.
We are law abiding union,” ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke said in an Arise Television interview. But it was more out of fear of contempt charge than fidelity to the rule of law, otherwise ASUU should have called off action since February 22 , 2022 in line with section 18 of the Trade Disputes Acts that compels unions to suspend action once the Minister of Labour apprehends it . It is therefore absurd for anyone to argue that ASUU whichturned down pleas by the President, turned down the tripartite-plus intervention by the NIREC, eminent Nigerians and National Labour Advisory Councilwould suddenly bow to the intervention by the Speaker withoutan agreement .
However, this judicial intervention is far from hanging a tale on the bedridden public universities. It has neither arrested the festering decay of learning infrastructures nor restored smiles on faces contorted by poor wages. Unfortunately, theprorated October salary that delivered half pay, has added salt to the injury of forced resumption, pushing the academic agitators to dig in the more. The news of conspiracy being hatched for another strike does not only sicken but breaksthe heart. Labour watchers are agreed that recourseto the industrial court by the Minister in line with section 43 of the Trade Disputes Act is a card rarely played especially with academics . It may force the classroom open but not resolve the dispute, themajor reason Ngige never resorted toitsince 2017. Social dialogue pays better, but the current ASUU leadership is intransigent.
The imbroglio drags on but it has elicited mea-culpa from the Education Minister who admitted failure in manning this critical sector in nearly eight years . While many have argued his admission of failure without consequential resignation is vain, others view his move as an antithesis to the Labour counterpart. Indeed, editorial in Vanguard newspaper had lately called out the two, accusing them of lack of clue to ending the strike but for the intervention of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, arguing President Buhari should have sacked them. The trajectory of the strike is vastly reported that disregarding such factsquestionsthe integrity and professionalism of such editorial. Whether it is out of ignorance or mischief or score settling, none is forgivable. The industrial Court interlocutory injunction is the reason ASUU called off action.
In spite, Adamu has his reasons. The failure of negotiation at his Ministry is the reason for the ASUU strike. Even when on July 20 2022 he controversially requested at the Federal Executive Council that the matter be returned to him for resolution in matter of weeks, he couldn’t succeed in three months. It degenerated to an open altercation with ASUU, once adarling in a backyard politics that erroneously made Ngige villain and foil. In love, ASUU went as far telling Adamu they wereonce askedby Ngige to picket him. Till now, the result of the visitation panel meant tounveil those whose proboscis are deep in corrupt practices is still gathering dust somewhere. The Briggs Committee was to conclude assignment in six weeks but the laxity in Education Ministry elongated it to three months. In fact , the current Permanent Secretary of theMinistry had before the press, at the opening session of February 2022 negotiation, tenderedapology over the lackadaisical attitude of his predecessor. Adamu and Ngige certainly have different cases.
The undeniable truth however is that lecturers unionized under ASUU cannot be faulted in matters of this agitation though exception can be taken to their approach. Have you been to anypublic universities lately? At some of the universities, students rather resort to nearby bushes than visit the toilet end of the crumbling hostels. Yet, here lies the future of the nation! ASUU members are no doubt intellectuals in the league of philosophers whom Plato had designated as perfect guarantor of maximum happiness for all citizens. Here unfortunately, the philosophers are in chains, taken hostage by a narrow column of incompetent rulers, delivering pervasive poverty, insecurity, frustration and death. How will ASUU standakimbo, quieted in the face of longitudinal corruption eating out the soul of the nation? In spite, its aggressive inflexibility is its heels of Achilles. At times , I feel the immediate past ASUU president, Prof. Ogunyemi would have led better at this time.
Ngige though has his flaws, has given ASUU’s cause every support . When the issue of UTAS as an alternative to IPPIS came in 2019, it was he who convinced the President to give the platform a chance. In another meeting covered by press on March 23, 2020 with the Senate President presiding, Ngige insisted the Federal government that enunciated the Executive Order 3 & 5 on the primacy of local content and backward integration of intellectualism is bound by patriotism to accept UTAS if proven better than IPPIS.
When UTAS eventually failed integrity and vulnerability tests, it was still the same Ngige who suggested another test with an inclusion of impartial professionals. He persuaded ASUU to accept a handshake between IPPIS and UTAS, a situation where all the peculiarities of UTAS will be accommodated in IPPIS. But ASUU insisted on “ UTAS or nothing.” In fact , ASUU at a point in March 2022, averred Ngige must use his position to commandUTAS into use! Ironically, the same handshake ASUU rejected in March , it has accepted today. Similarly, the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement modified in 2020 has been work in progress.
At the peak of controversy over the recommendations of the Briggs Committee, thepress variously quoted Ngigeas pushing for an integratedsolution, involving all tertiary institutions, where a professor would earn about a Million Naira. He further appealed to ASUU to return to work while the groundwork is quietly done. TherecalcitrantASUU hasended up with less than N600, 000 for professors after it was deceived that all it needed was to corner Briggs Committee. So far,government has paid N92b from the 2021 budget including N40 billion in February 2021 for Earned Academic Allowances/Earned Allowances, N30 billion for revitalization in April 2021, N22.72 billion inAugust 2021 and N43b for consequential adjustment in May 2022.
Reconciling this, Ngige in July appealed to ASUU to resume work and allow the remaining funding be mainstreamed into the 2023 budget. ASUU rejected this but has turnedtoaccept same after 8 months at home . The No Work No Pay is not new as the same hammer hitherto fell on JOHESU in 2018 and ASUU in 2020. However , while ASUU called off strike in December 2020, Ngige quietly convincedthe President to bend backwards.ASUU was subsequently paid. Many didn’t expected anything different in the present circumstance.
Similarly, the birth ofCONUA and NAMDA is part of the egalitarian culture of conversation and association which isnot foreign to the university systemwith over 40, 000 lecturers. It is in line with the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, the universal declaration human rights as well as conventions 87 & 97 of the ILO on full democratization of trade unions , a crusade Ngige has championed as lead spokesperson of African Ministers in the Governing Body of the ILO foryears.
However,he must dial back on seeming personality clash with ASUU. He onceaccused the union of being a political wreck ball in the hands of the opposition butthat to me, is false. ASUU is fighting a just cause thoughwith a flawed strategy. Itspresident is bombastic, tempestuous , impatient and unbending . He is aggressive but Ngige is not known for takingprisoners once right. The irony is that with the manner he has made multiple enemies working hard anddefending Buhariregime, he was not nominated for the excellent public service ward recently conferred by the President. It is a paradox he might not after be appreciated by the cabal that determines the fate of Nigeria . Lookingto the road ahead isto reinvent his proven soft negotiationfinesse whichhas won him accolades from all unions including ASUU itself. Time is hereto deploy the compassionate side of the Presidentover the 8 months salaries hinged by no work , no pay. A student of UNIABUJA sent me a video of his lecturer who came to show the studentsthe skeleton that remains of him after eight months without pay. The clip is pathetic.
• Anule, a labour reporter and activist writes from Abuja.