When the Academic Staff Union of Universities,
ASUU, embarked on a national strike on July 1,
2013 due to the refusal of Federal Government to
implement the 2009 agreement it signed with the
union which had several components, including
adequate funding of education sector, Nigerians feared another long winter for their children
forced to return home. Strike by lecturers in public universities has
become a normal trend every two years. The
nation is accustomed to disrupted academic
sessions that at times linger on for about six
months. To have an uninterrupted academic calendar in
the university system is abnormal. So the strike
factor is usually built into the calendar. An
academic programme scheduled for three or four
years, could last for seven years. The blame for this can rightly be placed at the
door step of the Federal Government, fond of
breaching negotiated agreements reached with
ASUU. There is the question of failed leadership,
corruption, show of insincerity and lack of
commitment to agreements; knowing that any breach would lead to shutting down of the
universities by a frustrated union which feels
government is unwilling to develop education in
the country. The government is yet to understand
that any refusal to honour agreement freely
signed without duress tantamounts to a breach of contract, actionable in law. Already, the public university system is in
decadence in all ramifications. Most of the over 30
Federal and 36 State universities are in bad
condition. Physical infrastructure for teaching and
learning are grossly inadequate, dilapidated and
over stretched. The laboratories and workshops are obsolete, poor furnishings, poor power and
water supply, outdated equipment, crowded
hostels and unhygienic living conditions. Many of the universities don’t have video
conferencing facility, only a fraction have or use
interactive white boards. Many are without public
address systems in their lecture rooms, while
none of the universities had fully automated
library resources.
Education Minister, Prof. Ruqayattu Ahmed and
ASUU President, Nasir Issa-Fagee
Apart from all these inadequacies, it has been
found in a Federal Ministry of Education Report,
that many of the universities are grossly
understaffed, relying mainly on part-time and
visiting lecturers, with several under-qualified
academic staff, lacking effective staff development programmes. Recently, the National
Universities Commission (NUC) came out with a
directive that all university lecturers must possess
Ph. D degrees within a given time or lose their
appointments. Only about 43% of academic staff
in the university system have doctorate degrees, the remaining 57% don’t. According to the report, there are 37,504 lecturers
in public universities, but only 28,128 (about 75%
) are engaged on full time basis, the rest 25% are
either part-time, visiting, on sabbatical or on
contract. Against this sordid scenario, one can understand
the struggle of ASUU to reform and transform
public universities to meet with the standards
obtainable in other climes. Our leaders are not ready to embark of this
transformation because they are not committed
to proper and adequate funding of education of
which UNESCO recommended 26% of national
budget. But Nigeria allocates less than 10% of her
budget to education which is even among the lowest in Africa. Yet this nation can do better. People in government and politicians are quick to
send their children to UK, USA, Canada, Australia,
Ukrain, Russia, and even nearby Ghana, Togo,
Benin for university education. Because of their ill-
gotten wealth, they can patronise expensive
private institutions, rather than increase funding to upgrade public schools at home. Dr. Nasir Fagge, ASUU National President, had
explained that the strike was not just to reposition
the education sector, particularly the university
system, but to salvage our country. He said ASUU
was determined to prosecute the strike to its
logical conclusion, and that the implementation of the agreement was a cardinal issue that must
be accomplished by the union as this would
transform the country’s university system.
Government offered a paltry N100 billion for
infrastructure, and N30 billion for earned
allowances, a far cry from N87 billion demanded. On accepting the offer of N30 billion and going
back to class while reaching agreement on when
the next installments will be paid, Fagge rejected
this, saying, “We had made that mistake before
whereby only the salary component of the
agreement was singled out and so we can not afford to make such a mistake again. Until the
whole agreement is fully implemented, we are
not going to call off this strike.” Over N500 billion is needed for infrastructure
upgrade. President Goodluck Jonathan and other eminent
Nigerians had appealed to ASUU to take the N30
billion offer by government and return to
classroom. The union had demanded for N87 billion (not
N92 billion) in extra allowances translated as
excess work load, high carriage of students per
lecturer, responsibility allowance which included
supervision of academic projects for final-year
students, Masters, Ph.D theses, course advice, administrative duties as heads of departments,
deans of faculties, hall masters, etc.
Because of inadequate staffing, the work load
had been heavy with one lecturer to 200, or even
300 students. Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in
stating the government position had said the
money – N92 billion according to her, which ASUU
was demanding (but refuted by the union to be
actually N87bn) was not only unrealistic, but also
not within the reach of the Federal Government. Her words at a 2-day conference of
Commissioners of Finance and Accountants-
General of States Ministries of Finance held in
Minna, Niger State. “At present, ASUU wants the
government to pay N92 billion in extra allowances
when resources are not there and when we are working to integrate past increases in pensions.
We need to make choices in this country as we
are getting to the stage where recurrent
expenditures take the bulk of our resources and
people get paid but can do no work.” Series of deadlock had characterised meetings
between ASUU leaders and the Federal
Government Team lead by Governor Suswam of
Benue State to resolve the crisis and pave way for
lecturers to return back to work. Mr. James Bidemi, a Senior Management staff in a
public university, commended the ASUU action
which seemed good and appropriate, but
cautioned if the dispute is not resolved, it could
destroy university education in the country. He
called for state of emergency on education. “Government should meet at least 50% to 60% of
ASUU demand, and people will support
government in the appeal for the strike to be
called off. It’s about an agreement which
government was bound to implement and also
endeavour to tackle the decaying infrastructure in the university system.” A university teacher, in his
reaction, wondered why the Minister of Education
failed to capture these earned allowances owed
to lecturers by the 2009 agreement in the 2013
budget. If they were legislators, the funds will be
available. Meanwhile, the strike is biting hard as students
have been roaming the streets, lured into
criminality and social vices like prostitution, drug
trafficking, kidnapping and political thuggery. Chief Joshua Nwosu, a businessman with three
children in the university now at home blamed
bad and insensitive leaders for the horrible
condition of the education system.“The
government just refused to allocate sufficient
fund to education despite the abundant financial resources available. Millions of our youths are
jobless, yet government is not willing to provide
adequate money for educational development.
Something drastic must be done to save our
education from total collapse. President Jonathan
should act fast and be patriotic.”
ASUU, embarked on a national strike on July 1,
2013 due to the refusal of Federal Government to
implement the 2009 agreement it signed with the
union which had several components, including
adequate funding of education sector, Nigerians feared another long winter for their children
forced to return home. Strike by lecturers in public universities has
become a normal trend every two years. The
nation is accustomed to disrupted academic
sessions that at times linger on for about six
months. To have an uninterrupted academic calendar in
the university system is abnormal. So the strike
factor is usually built into the calendar. An
academic programme scheduled for three or four
years, could last for seven years. The blame for this can rightly be placed at the
door step of the Federal Government, fond of
breaching negotiated agreements reached with
ASUU. There is the question of failed leadership,
corruption, show of insincerity and lack of
commitment to agreements; knowing that any breach would lead to shutting down of the
universities by a frustrated union which feels
government is unwilling to develop education in
the country. The government is yet to understand
that any refusal to honour agreement freely
signed without duress tantamounts to a breach of contract, actionable in law. Already, the public university system is in
decadence in all ramifications. Most of the over 30
Federal and 36 State universities are in bad
condition. Physical infrastructure for teaching and
learning are grossly inadequate, dilapidated and
over stretched. The laboratories and workshops are obsolete, poor furnishings, poor power and
water supply, outdated equipment, crowded
hostels and unhygienic living conditions. Many of the universities don’t have video
conferencing facility, only a fraction have or use
interactive white boards. Many are without public
address systems in their lecture rooms, while
none of the universities had fully automated
library resources.
Education Minister, Prof. Ruqayattu Ahmed and
ASUU President, Nasir Issa-Fagee
Apart from all these inadequacies, it has been
found in a Federal Ministry of Education Report,
that many of the universities are grossly
understaffed, relying mainly on part-time and
visiting lecturers, with several under-qualified
academic staff, lacking effective staff development programmes. Recently, the National
Universities Commission (NUC) came out with a
directive that all university lecturers must possess
Ph. D degrees within a given time or lose their
appointments. Only about 43% of academic staff
in the university system have doctorate degrees, the remaining 57% don’t. According to the report, there are 37,504 lecturers
in public universities, but only 28,128 (about 75%
) are engaged on full time basis, the rest 25% are
either part-time, visiting, on sabbatical or on
contract. Against this sordid scenario, one can understand
the struggle of ASUU to reform and transform
public universities to meet with the standards
obtainable in other climes. Our leaders are not ready to embark of this
transformation because they are not committed
to proper and adequate funding of education of
which UNESCO recommended 26% of national
budget. But Nigeria allocates less than 10% of her
budget to education which is even among the lowest in Africa. Yet this nation can do better. People in government and politicians are quick to
send their children to UK, USA, Canada, Australia,
Ukrain, Russia, and even nearby Ghana, Togo,
Benin for university education. Because of their ill-
gotten wealth, they can patronise expensive
private institutions, rather than increase funding to upgrade public schools at home. Dr. Nasir Fagge, ASUU National President, had
explained that the strike was not just to reposition
the education sector, particularly the university
system, but to salvage our country. He said ASUU
was determined to prosecute the strike to its
logical conclusion, and that the implementation of the agreement was a cardinal issue that must
be accomplished by the union as this would
transform the country’s university system.
Government offered a paltry N100 billion for
infrastructure, and N30 billion for earned
allowances, a far cry from N87 billion demanded. On accepting the offer of N30 billion and going
back to class while reaching agreement on when
the next installments will be paid, Fagge rejected
this, saying, “We had made that mistake before
whereby only the salary component of the
agreement was singled out and so we can not afford to make such a mistake again. Until the
whole agreement is fully implemented, we are
not going to call off this strike.” Over N500 billion is needed for infrastructure
upgrade. President Goodluck Jonathan and other eminent
Nigerians had appealed to ASUU to take the N30
billion offer by government and return to
classroom. The union had demanded for N87 billion (not
N92 billion) in extra allowances translated as
excess work load, high carriage of students per
lecturer, responsibility allowance which included
supervision of academic projects for final-year
students, Masters, Ph.D theses, course advice, administrative duties as heads of departments,
deans of faculties, hall masters, etc.
Because of inadequate staffing, the work load
had been heavy with one lecturer to 200, or even
300 students. Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in
stating the government position had said the
money – N92 billion according to her, which ASUU
was demanding (but refuted by the union to be
actually N87bn) was not only unrealistic, but also
not within the reach of the Federal Government. Her words at a 2-day conference of
Commissioners of Finance and Accountants-
General of States Ministries of Finance held in
Minna, Niger State. “At present, ASUU wants the
government to pay N92 billion in extra allowances
when resources are not there and when we are working to integrate past increases in pensions.
We need to make choices in this country as we
are getting to the stage where recurrent
expenditures take the bulk of our resources and
people get paid but can do no work.” Series of deadlock had characterised meetings
between ASUU leaders and the Federal
Government Team lead by Governor Suswam of
Benue State to resolve the crisis and pave way for
lecturers to return back to work. Mr. James Bidemi, a Senior Management staff in a
public university, commended the ASUU action
which seemed good and appropriate, but
cautioned if the dispute is not resolved, it could
destroy university education in the country. He
called for state of emergency on education. “Government should meet at least 50% to 60% of
ASUU demand, and people will support
government in the appeal for the strike to be
called off. It’s about an agreement which
government was bound to implement and also
endeavour to tackle the decaying infrastructure in the university system.” A university teacher, in his
reaction, wondered why the Minister of Education
failed to capture these earned allowances owed
to lecturers by the 2009 agreement in the 2013
budget. If they were legislators, the funds will be
available. Meanwhile, the strike is biting hard as students
have been roaming the streets, lured into
criminality and social vices like prostitution, drug
trafficking, kidnapping and political thuggery. Chief Joshua Nwosu, a businessman with three
children in the university now at home blamed
bad and insensitive leaders for the horrible
condition of the education system.“The
government just refused to allocate sufficient
fund to education despite the abundant financial resources available. Millions of our youths are
jobless, yet government is not willing to provide
adequate money for educational development.
Something drastic must be done to save our
education from total collapse. President Jonathan
should act fast and be patriotic.”
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