Reports that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may soon suspend its strike should come as a relief for the nation. Briefing journalists after an eight-hour meeting between ASUU and federal government representatives ended on an amicable note, Labor and Employment Minister, Dr. Chris Ngige, explained that several issues were discussed, including salary shortfall, the payment system for lecturers and revitalization of universities; adding that the dialogue was fruitful. ASUU’s president, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi agreed with the Minister’s remarks, saying the government has made a proposal which ASUU will take back to their executives and declined further comment. Now, the disenchanted army of university students that had been forced to eight months of painful idleness, and parents, who had borne the brunt of needless anxiety can breathe better. Though a definite recompense for the morale-boosting tenacity of ASUU; the planned suspension of the strike also offers some hard lessons for the government, the university community and the general public about the future prospect of university education in Nigeria.
Friday’s breakthrough came one week after the Federal Government accepted the demand by ASUU that they be exempted from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) pending the approval of their proposed payment system, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution. The government also pledged to pay N40 billion as the Earned Allowance and N30 billion for the revitalization of the university system bringing the total payment to N70 billion. The FG further agreed to settle the arrears of salaries of the lecturers before December 31. ASUU is expected to report the agreement to its organs and then communicate their decision to the government after which a date for the calling off of the strike would be announced.
However, that the Federal Government, prior to this development, withdrew the ultimatum given to university lecturers to call off the strike or be sacked, should not be viewed as a demonstration of magnanimity or a gallant surrender to superior logic in the negotiation process by this administration. Rather, what is obvious from government’s back-pedaling to ASUU’s demands is the disorganization, disorientation and apparent lack of co-ordination of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administrative machinery when it comes to crisis management.
No event captured this better than the error observed in the government’s response to ASUU’s defiance. In public statements threatening ASUU to end the strike, the Federal Government, through Ngige scored several own-goals with its recalcitrant and hardline posturing. Apart from the minister’s crude, rude, demeaning and counter-productive utterance, Ngige, who repeatedly threatened ASUU members with summary dismissals, demonstrated a very abysmal understanding of labor laws and the modus operandi of the university system.
One of the lessons of history is that people do not learn from history. The action displayed by the Federal Government is a notorious attitude that finds credence in history. In 1973, when the National Association of University Teachers (NAUT), the ancestor of today’s ASUU, staged its first strike over the excessive inflation affecting workers, the military government of General Yakubu Gowon conjured this same go-back-to-work or-be-sacked threat to no avail. Between 1992 and 1996, when ASUU attained its militant maturity and carried out sporadic actions over re-negotiations of its famed “agreement of imperfect obligation”, the military junta of Gen. Sani Abacha also unsuccessfully employed the draconian tactics of sacking and intimidation of ASUU officials and teachers. About 20 years after, the democratically-elected government of President Buhari had to play out this script as its own response to the university teachers’ strike shame.
For a government that prides itself as a champion of dialogue and change, this style of addressing industrial crises in the educational sector, especially in the university, is demeaning and outlandish. It displays an ignorance of history and the lessons derivable therefrom. It is unfortunate and worrisome that the government adopted the failed crisis control mechanism of a junta and expected it to work in this time and age, especially in a democracy.
Another fallout of the ASUU strike is its interrogation of the magisterial capacity of the nation’s leaders. If Nigerians were likely to pardon government’s gaffes on the inexperience of Ngige and his immaturity in managing labor disputes, how then should they react to the failed intervention of the President, who, prior to Ngige’s irreverent salvo at university teachers, had spent grueling months since March, refusing to engage with ASUU officials to resolve this issue? Elsewhere, when a crisis gets to a head, the buck stops at Mr. President’s desk. And whenever a president intervenes on any issue, there is a discernable end in sight. That President Buhari would not personally intervene on the ASUU crisis and allowed it to drag on for almost a whole academic year, is a tell-tale sign of how the leadership of the country has been undermined.
Regrettably, this has been the trend in other issues, including the handling of Boko Haram crisis, the corruption in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the killings in southern Kaduna, the internal crisis in the ruling APC, the rising insecurity from kidnappers and marauding Fulani herdsmen and the Zamfara gold controversy that threatens the unity of Nigeria. In each of these matters, the President has failed to intervene or intervened to no avail. This speaks volume about the quality of President Buhari’s “Situation Room”, raising questions about the character of the women and men he employed as advisers and the value of ideas that emanate from his think tank. It is, therefore, most unfortunate that the government which has failed to properly address industrial disputes would continue to hold on to officials who constantly expose its inadequacies.
As ASUU returns to work, this is also the time for its members to match words with action by working hard to turn the educational fortunes of the nation around. Lectures should commence immediately, and the lost time regained judiciously. University teachers should also begin to turn the searchlight on themselves and demonstrate commitment to the objectives of their long strike. Rather than merely produce graduates, Nigerian universities should begin to compete to be the best in the supply of well-qualified and well-educated workforce and citizenry, out of which the country draws the capital for its well-being. ASUU’s actions should begin to attune Nigerians to the fact that no nation can develop beyond its universities.
