Despite over N6 trillion being spent on education in the last eight years of former President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, the sector still battles inadequate funding, deplorable infrastructure, low remuneration of teachers, and the non-implementation of N30,000 minimum wage in some states, among others.
 
The nation’s education system is bedeviled by all sorts of problems, a situation that has pitched the Federal Government against the various workers’ unions in the institutions. Agreements have been made; promises have been broken, and university education has been left to haemorrhage.
  
Each time the union goes on strike, Nigeria’s tertiary education suffers in the areas of human development, research, science, and technology. President Bola Tinubu had, during his campaigns, promised to prioritise education if elected and ensure that there are no disruptions in the academic calendar. He said his administration would review the education curriculum at all levels “to suit emerging global best practices and current socio-economic realities.
 
Specifically, Tinubu said the curricula would be reviewed to ensure that Nigerian graduates become conversant with global trends in different fields and sectors where they can contribute productively to the country’s economy.
  
As laudable as the plans are, the Tinubu administration still has to contend with many unresolved issues confronting the sector, which the immediate past government failed to address. 

ASUU’s Grievances
THE Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had in 2022, shut down public universities across the country for over eight months over the failure of the Federal Government to meet its demands. Earlier in 2020, schools were shut for about nine months. Among many other issues, the union is demanding funding for revitalisation of tertiary institutions. 
 
The Federal Government had in 2009 and 2013, agreed to inject a total of N1.3 trillion into public universities, both state and federal, in six tranches, starting in 2013, following the union’s complaint regarding the deplorable state of Nigerian universities.
 
According to the agreement, the government was to release N200 billion in 2013, and N220 billion for the five subsequent years. After releasing the first tranche, the government stopped releasing the subsequent funds, leading to a fresh face-off. In 2017, the Federal Government released N20 billion, while it promised N25 billion in 2020.
  
The union, however, rejected the offer, insisting on N110 billion, which is 50 per cent of a tranche of N220 billion that it had demanded. The government declined citing a paucity of funds.
 
In a move to put the issues to rest, the FG asked ASUU to suggest other sources of funding. Another issue is the payment of outstanding Earned Academic Allowances (EAA). The Federal Government had in 2009 agreed to pay lecturers EAA but failed to implement the agreement as the issue lingered for years.

However, the government agreed to pay the first tranche of the backlog of allowances in November 2019, and the second installment by August 2020, but still failed to fulfill its promises. ASUU also demanded mainstreaming payments of EAA into the annual budgets, beginning from the 2019 budget. In 2020, the Federal Government agreed to pay N40 billion. The government, however, said it had released N22.127 billion earned allowances of both academic and non-academic workers to 38 universities.
  
Successive governments have, however, failed to address the problem of increased budgetary allocation to the sector. University teachers had, in their previous struggles, demanded that 26 per cent of the country’s annual budget be allocated to education, and half of that allocation should be directed to universities.

Implementation of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) payment system
ASUU had rejected the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), a payment platform introduced by the FG to pay university workers.
The union had argued that the system would make university operations difficult and inefficient, stating that universities operate a flexible payroll system that allows the recruitment of lectures and attract scholars from across the world.
 
This prompted the introduction of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) by ASUU, with the claim that it passed the integrity test by the Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
 
Other shades of challenges that the Nigeria University System (NUS) is grappling with include the non-payment of retirement benefits to outgone members; neglect and poor funding of state universities; failure to honour and implement the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Memorandum of Action (MoA) signed between ASUU and the government in 2020 – an agreement that was reached at the end the nine-month long strike by ASUU in 2020.
  
According to the Chairman of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke said the union plans to interact with the new administration, hoping that the Tinubu government will prioritise education, unlike its predecessors.
 
“When you check the allocation of about N1.2 billion to universities and others, you’ll find out that the total for all the institutions amounted to about N186 billion out of N320 billion, leaving a balance of N132 billion, yet to be accounted for. What are we using the N132 billion, which is 41 per cent of the total amount for? Is it for bureaucracy or what?

“I think we need a redistribution of this fund to ensure that it accounts for 90 per cent of what has been approved to go to universities, polytechnic and not kept as bureaucracy,” he said.

Unmet Demands of Non-Academic Staff Unions 
FOR other unions, including the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU), and Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), issues bordering on FGN/NASU and SSANU 2009 agreements; usurpation of the headship of non-teaching units by teaching staff in clear violation of conditions of service and established procedures, controversy on the salary payment platform, among others, issue the Tinubu administration need to address.
  
Others include neglect and poor funding of state universities as well as non-payment of retirement benefits to outgoing members of the unions.
While ASUU opted for UTAS as its preferred payment platform, SSANU and NASU proposed the U3PS, which the Federal Government rejected, preferring its current payment platform of IPPIS. 
  
SSANU President, Mr. Ibrahim Mohammed, lamented that following the Joint Action Committee’s (JAC) strike last year, a memorandum of understanding was signed with government representatives on eight issues and none of those issues had been actualised. 
 
“Salary increment, Earned Academic Allowance of over four years has not been paid. We have given the Federal Government opportunity to do the needful but nothing has been done. To further compound matters, using its overreaching powers, the government stopped the salaries of our members for four months despite its culpability in allowing the strike to proceed because of its non-implementation of previous collective bargaining agreements,” Mohammed said.
  
The National Vice President of SSANU, Abdussobur Salaam, said apart from the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, university vice-chancellors have continued to defy a court order declaring that teachers of universities’ staff schools are integral members of the university community and should be treated as such. He added that the government has only paid less than N8 billion of the N30 billion it agreed upon.
“The memorandum of understanding we had was that the renegotiation would be concluded within six weeks and that was as far back as February 2021. But two years after, nothing has been done,” Salaam said. 

Polytechnics Want Disparity Removed 
SOME grievances of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) with the government include the non-release of revitalisation funds for the sector, non-release of arrears of new minimum wage, and non-release of reviewed nomination instruments for institutions and management.
  
The National President of the union, Mr. Anderson Ezeibe, said several states had refused to implement the new minimum wage Act in their respective institutions since 2019 and non-appointment of the board of directors.
 
Ezeibe identified other issues in contention as the non-release of approved revitalisation fund totaling N15 billion, non-release of arrears of new minimum wage, non-compliance with approved retirement age, non-deployment of approved salary structures, poor governance structure as well as other issues affecting standards, particularly in state-owned polytechnics.
  
Ezeibe, while reviewing the sub-sector, lamented that the Nigerian polytechnic system is not doing well. He noted that the enrollment figure is on a free fall as the sector is no longer appealing to young Nigerians seeking tertiary education. 
  
Besides, the ASUP chief said most of the polytechnics are suffering from a shortage of qualified academic staff while existing ones are operating at low morale, as they are poorly motivated.
  
The union lamented that the allocations are not enough, while capital appropriations from the budget, which are nothing to write home about, are released in bits. 

The association added that state-owned institutions are worse off, as polytechnics are allegedly being established to primarily satisfy political considerations and not to train professionals in the areas of technical and vocational education.  

“The poor position of the nation’s currency and inflation has only made the situation even worse. The polytechnics almost entirely rely on intervention from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) for any form of infrastructural development”  
  
Ezeibe said: “The institutions are poorly funded; infrastructure, equipment, and instructional materials across polytechnics are dilapidated and insufficient. The polytechnics owned by state governments are even worse off with unimaginable levels of abuse going on unchecked. Academic staffs are on a consistent flight out of the country in search of the proverbial Golden Fleece. The rest are looking for the slightest opportunity to join sister sectors.
  
“The consequence of the above is that the polytechnic system has failed to impact significantly on the nation’s socio-economic space. It can hardly compete on the global stage,” Ezeibe noted.