Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) commenced what it called a comprehensive, total and indefinite strike on Monday 14th August, 2017 to press home its demands that the government implements a series of agreements between both parties over the last few years. The strike action has led to paralysis across the nation's public universities, as reports suggest near-total compliance. Expectedly, the general public, especially parents and students, are agitated, given the possibility of a long shutdown and its attendant effects.
Government on its part has made efforts to assure the public the strike would be short, as ministers of Labour and Education have commenced dialogue with the university teachers. The minister of Education indeed went as far as acknowledging government's failure to keep its side of previous bargains with ASUU, thereby raising hope that a resolution might be in the offing soon.
While the minister's attitude is a commendable departure from government's initial grandstanding attitude of the past, we at New Independence Group (NIG) are of the view that the current strike was avoidable if government had been more responsive. The minister, while admitting culpability on the part of the government had berated ASUU for embarking on the strike without due notice. The facts however, are clearly to the contrary.
Early in the third quarter of 2016, ASUU began what it called an awareness campaign aimed at calling the government and the public's attention to issues capable of bringing about industrial dispute in the university system, with several of its Zones (made up of a cluster of local branches) addressing the media. The lack of response was what led to the one week warning strike late in 2016. Shortly afterwards, the association of polytechnic teachers, ASUP embarked on a similar action, with the federal government setting up the Wale Babalakin Committee to meet and dialogue with the various unions in tertiary institutions.
In observing these trends, NIG sometime in February 2017 called the attention of the government and the general public to the impending crisis through a widely publicised release, wherein it noted the strikes by teaching and non-teaching workers in the universities and polytechnics. The release noted that:
“While the strike has finally compelled the government to constitute a negotiating team, there are fears that events may play out the way they have done in the past, during which sundry agreements were not addressed until full-blown strikes paralyzed the sector. The threat of industrial actions in the tertiary sector definitely portends serious harm to a sector already endangered as a result of government negligence, dearth of qualified hands and decreasing output quality.”
The current strike therefore, puts a lie to the minister's claim that the government had insufficient notice, and confirmed our fears at the NIG that the committee set up by government, judging from antecedents, is not likely to achieve much. ASUU has on the basis of facts countered the claim that the current dispute was sudden, and it is evident that little or no progress has been made by the Babalakin committee, which ought to have averted the current strike. In the build up to the strike, there were reports of botched meetings, some on account of excuses as spurious as the unwillingness of some members of the governments team to fly to Kaduna en route Abuja while the Abuja Airport was under renovation. When meetings held, no substantial progress could be reported. The minister therefore, if he got his brief right, ought to have foreseen the present industrial action and proactively nipped it in the bud.
On account of the foregoing, we at NIG fear that the minister's conciliatory pitches may be a tactic aimed more towards deflecting public criticism than addressing the contentious issues fundamentally. If this happens, and we hope not, it will put a serious question mark on the current government's promise to revive the comatose education sector, with its attendant negative implications. No nation can progress beyond the state of development of its knowledge factory, of which tertiary institutions represent an indispensable part. To this end, the NIG feel obligated to refer the government and other stakeholders to its earlier position, where it averred amongst others that:
“....the present situation appears most appropriate for the development of a new framework of engagement that signals a fundamental departure from the old, ineffective ways that only bring a moment of respite for the tussling parties ahead of the next showdown. As part of the measures to finding a lasting solution, the Federal Government is advised to place a moratorium on the licensing of universities and polytechnics, as recommended by Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka decades ago, when the decay in the education system was still nascent; until a governing framework and a guiding philosophy for tertiary education is fashioned out by the relevant stakeholders.
The solutions to be proffered must necessarily include how to ensure that government continues to play its supportive role as a critical stakeholder in the educational sector without impinging on the autonomy needed by the institutions if they must function unfettered as true industries of research, learning and knowledge generation; sustainable capacity development, and the increasing need to make the institutions relevant to national challenges. Of equal importance is the need to reconceptualise access and quality, especially at a time when millions miss out on tertiary education annually owing to limited spaces in the universities and polytechnics. Hitherto, the approach has been to embark on the licensing of private institutions, owned by government officials in and out of service, faith-based organizations and private entrepreneurs. This has only provided limited access to the elite in the upper middle class unable to afford foreign education for their wards. It has equally been matched by gradual decrease in government’s support for public institutions; even as available data shows that many are still being left out.
New Independence Group (NIG) wishes to note further that the jettisoning of qualitative vocational training is partly responsible for the pressure on the universities and polytechnics. Vocational training colleges ought to be the incubation points for the development of cottage industries that generate decent jobs for thousands without the fear of inferiority that the lack of university degree generates.
What the above points at is the need for a complete overhaul of the arch of post-primary education in the country, in a bid to develop a knowledge-driven, self-reliant economy. This need, therefore, reinforces the call for a moratorium, as well as a possible shutdown of the system for a period in order to reboot it on a strong footing.
Of equal importance is the need to build trust on the part of government, academics and institutions’ administrations as well as mechanisms for managing conflicts without recourse to strikes and shutdowns as is presently the case. And this cannot be achieved by government resort to threats on the career of union members and issuance of prohibitive laws, through which the Federal Government may wish to arm-twist unions and coerce striking staff to submission in the course of breakdown in negotiations. The most functional and result-oriented approach in industrial dispute is to ensure that all sides remain seated at negotiation table to iron out grey areas of contention.
The progress of any nation in the 21st century is dependent significantly on how well it positions its educational sector to respond, mitigate, as well as anticipate challenges, in addition to creatively generating ideas for further growth and development. For as long as Nigeria runs its educational system in fits and starts, its socio-economic development will only continue to stutter.
We at NIG urge the Federal Government to demonstrate, for once, a sincere commitment to the reformation of the education sector, especially at the tertiary level, as it commences negotiations with the unions.”
Akinyemi Onigbinde,
Convener, for and on behalf NIG
