Saturday 26 October 2013

ASUU STRIKE: Counting the Costs



As the strike embarked
upon by the Academic Staff
Union of Universities
(ASUU) continues to bite
hard, Damilola Oyedele and
Adebiyi Adedapo examine the implications for
students and other
stakeholders, with focus on University of Abuja Adejumoke Oluwalope has finished her final year
second semester examination at the University of
Abuja. But like many of her fellow students, she
has not been mobilized to participate in the
National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). The marking
of their papers are being delayed by the ongoing strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASUU). She gained admission into the Faculty of
Agricultural Science in 2007, and has now spent
six years for a supposedly five year programme. If
the strike is called off this year, she may be
mobilized in 2014 but by then, she would have
spent seven years in the university. Ibrahim Iliyasu’s story is the same and his future
is being affected by the industrial action. This is
because, coming from a military family
background, he had hoped to join in the Short
Service programme of the National Defence
Academy (NDA). But at 29, unless he is ready to falsify his birth certificate, he is likely to have
exceeded the age limit by the time he finally
concluded the NYSC which he has also missed this
year. “I came to the University of Abuja because by the
time I started school, NDA was not yet a
university, if not I would have gone to NDA. Now I
am already 29 years. For Short Service, one must
not exceed 30. That means by the time I serve
next year (hopefully) I cannot be accepted into the SS program because I would be almost 31 or
already 31. I cannot engage in birth certificate
falsification,” he told THISDAY. THISDAY investigations revealed that the second
semester results of these and other students have
not been sent by their lecturers to the Senate of
the university for approval. An official of the
university who spoke off record said only students
who had carried over courses in the first semester were mobilized for the NYSC. “It also effectively means students who had
second semester carry overs cannot also be
mobilized. This is almost two years of their lives
wasted,” she said. The national strike started on July 1, 2013 after
series of warning strikes by the members of ASUU
over the non-implementation of the 2009 FGN/
ASUU agreement. Their demands, amidst other
demands, are the rehabilitation and provision of
infrastructure in the nation’s universities and the payment of earned allowances. THISDAY gathered that N57 billion out of the N92
billion being canvassed for by the union as
earned allowances actually belongs to the Non-
Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU). While
the government has handed over N30 billion to
be disbursed as earned allowances, the lecturers are insisting on N92 billion. The Chairman of the NEEDS Assessment
Implementation Committee, Governor Gabriel
Suswan, during a meeting with executives of the
National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS),
had explained that the government handed over
N30 billion for disbursement in the first instance after the calculation of the duly earned
allowances.
The government also provided N100 for
infrastructure in the universities. The criteria for
the disbursement, was drawn up in collaboration
with ASUU, Suswan said. “What we said is that after calculations of earned
allowances, if the N30 billion is not enough, we
would give more,” he said.
An official, who spoke with THISDAY on condition
of anonymity, said it was not right for the striking
lecturers to insist that all N92 billion must be handed over to them. “Earned allowances are earned; part of it is hazard
allowance, so a lecturer who does not work in a
hazard prone environment, for instance, a
laboratory, cannot benefit from this one. Some
receive allowances for the uniforms of special
gear they wear for work. So it differs. For the lecturers to insist that government must give
them all N92 billion, it’s like they want a windfall
they can just share among themselves, deserving
or not,” he lamented. But the National President of ASUU, Dr. Nasir
Fagge, said the N100 billion being disbursed to
the universities was not part of the 2009
Agreement or the 2012 Memorandum of
Understanding. He described the release of the
money as employing half hearted measures to the problems of the education system in the
country. He explained that the 2009 agreement stipulates
that within three years, the government would
make available the sum of N1.5 trillion to federal
universities amounting to about N500 billion per
annum. In the 2012 MoU, it was negotiated that the
government would make available N1.3 trillion in
four years for federal and state universities after
the government said it was having difficulties
implementing the earlier agreement, Fagge
clarified, adding that ASUU reluctantly accepted the MoU. “So this N100billion, which aspect of all these
dialogue and issues which were documented is
being implemented? Is it the agreement, the MoU,
or the NEEDS assessment report? That is what we
should be asking. We are asking them to
implement the agreement, and they are doing something else which is not in it.” he queried. Several interventions by neutral parties have
failed. The unions shunned the pleadings of the
Catholic Bishops of Nigeria and the Sultan of
Sokoto to meet the government halfway. Several
groups have also protested the prolonged strike.
NANS raised the alarm that crime rate and prostitution levels have increased with the
lingering strike due to the level of idleness among
students. Several chapters of the student body
have protested in various parts of the country.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Non
Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) however blamed the government for the spate of
strike in the tertiary education sector. Speaking with THISDAY, the Acting General
Secretary of the NLC, Comrade Chris Uyot, blamed
the spate of strikes by ASUU and other unions in
the tertiary education sector on the failure of the
government to honour its agreements.
“The essence of negotiations for collective bargaining to bring about an agreement is to
ensure that there is peace and harmony in the
workplace, to bring about better understanding
between employers and employees. So if we
decide to manipulate agreements, agreements
that have come through mutual negotiations, we are distorting the very concept of industrial
relations which is the foundation of peace and
harmony and stability in the workplace. It means
we are trying to distort our own laws that guide
these things,” he said in a telephone
conversation. The Secretary General of NASU, Comrade Peters
Adeyemi, shared the same view. But the biggest
indictment of the Federal Government came from
a former Executive Secretary of the National
Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Muzanli Jibril,
for the incessant strikes embarked on by ASUU. Jibril said successive governments had ignored a
document of funding by the NUC stating that the
universities only get 34 per cent of what they
need and are therefore ‘chronically underfunded’.
Jibril, who was ES between 1996 and 2001, said
ASUU had been able to link significant improvement in funding to strikes translating to
“one ASUU strike, one major increment”. “The success of every ASUU President is measured
by the amount of increment he gets out of the
Federal Government. So what are you telling
ASUU: if you want more money, go on strike. The
union does not just embark on strike, they give
notice, and they embark on warning strikes. Once an ASUU strike is on, you cannot easily get them
to call off,” he said. Government, he said, does not listen to its own
agencies as the NUC had appeared before several
committees on the need for proper funding of the
universities adding that government enters into
negotiations with ASUU unprepared by not
engaging former academicians who hold or have held positions in government to better
understand ASUU strike and its strategies.
Meanwhile as this impasse lingers, students
continue to suffer. Many would not forget the crises that
accompanied the quest for accreditation for the
Medical College and Engineering Faculty of the
University of Abuja. Several times in the past
years, the affected students shut done the
institution. Late last year, the affected students again barred their counterparts in other faculties
from sitting for their second semester
examinations resulting in a shut-down that lasted
almost four months.
In June 2013, the Medical College finally secured
the approval and accreditation of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN). The students
were overjoyed, but their joy was short-lived as
the ASUU strike commenced. Abdul Oloruntoba is a 300 level medical student
at UniAbuja. Now he and others cannot take their
Medical Board (MB) exams organised by the MDCN
because some of their lecturers are part of the
examiners who prepare the questions and mark
the answers. “Our fate is the most painful, because after the
long struggle, we were finally accredited by MDCN.
The accreditation is here and now we are facing
another stumbling block. If the strike was not on,
the first and the second set would probably have
written their MB examination, I would also have been preparing for mine. This school in particular
has lost a year. Remember we had this issue of
internal ASUU strike for about four months and
just as we resumed, this national ASUU strike
started again, so it is like a year gone by in our
lives” he lamented. The lost time on the academic calendar is not his
only loss. Toba like many others reside in private
hostels and accommodation off campus. He pays
a rent of N100, 000 per annum. Their annual rent
continues to run whether or not school is in
session. Students are not the only victims bearing the
brunt of this industrial action. Campus businesses
have severely been affected by the strike. When
THISDAY visited the normally bubbling and lively
SUG area at the Mini campus of UniAbuja, it was a
picture of quiet and despair. A restaurateur, Mrs. Akin George, lamented that
sales had drastically dropped with the continued
shutdown of institutions by the union. When
THISDAY visited, she was seen sitting with a
neighbour and just chatting. There was no
customer during the duration of the visit. “This strike has really affected us; we just pray
that the Federal Government will do something
about it, because our businesses depend on
students. I am here alone with my neighbour,
there are no customers, and everywhere is just
dry. We do not even make three-quarter of our regular sales, we only make sales of about N2000
daily as against the over N15,000 regular sales
when the students were around, and I do not
have any other business elsewhere,” she said. Another shop owner, Mr. Onah Emeka, who sells
soft drinks, snacks and provision, did not even
bother to open his own store. “My shop is locked because the students are not
around, they are my major customers. Opening
the shop without them is just a waste of time. I
have been running the shop since 2005, if
students were to be around, I make sales of over
N20,000 daily. But at the moment, I hardly make sales of N1000. That is why I had to close the
shop, and that is why most of the shops are
locked.”

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