Unless the Federal Government takes immediate steps to address the lingering contentious issues with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the nation’s public universities may experience another round of strike soon, IYABO LAWAL reports.

Failed agreements, claims and counter-claims by university teachers and the Federal Government, incessant strikes, and lately, threats of industrial action, form the odious sequence that has characterised the nation’s public university system for several years.

Sadly, going by feelers from the ivory towers, this scenario that has disrupted academic calendars, putting destinies of many Nigerian youths in tatters, may be replayed anytime soon.

Despite last week’s payment of four out of the seven-and-a-half months withheld salaries of university teachers, ASUU is gearing up for another confrontation with the Federal Government over issues bordering on members’ welfare and working conditions.

They also expressed disappointment with President Bola Tinubu for failing to implement the N35,000 wage award and upward salary review announced for the union in September 2023 and backdated to January 2023.

Tinubu had on assumption of office, sought the cooperation of university unions to ensure a steady academic calendar, while promising to tackle all challenges confronting the sector and reposition it to meet global standards.

He said the government would establish synergy with all the academic unions and exhaust all avenues for dialogue before any strike, while enjoining them to cooperate with the government in order to deliver the needed development by ensuring an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity on campuses.

However, nine months after Tinubu came on board, the union has continued to lament the unyielding response of the government to the plight of its members.
ASUU said it was regrettable that despite the agreement between the union and the Federal Government, it has failed to meet its demands.

It highlighted some of those unresolved issues to include non-injection of revitalisation funds as agreed and also appropriated for in the 2023 budget, and in line with the Needs Assessment Report into the system; proliferation of both federal and state universities without financial support, the prolonged delay in renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, and the continuous use of ‘deceptive’ Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as an emolument payment platform.

Others are the continuous delay in the payment of Earned Academic Allowances, continuous use of Treasury Single Account (TSA) for university operations and failure to pay their withheld salaries in full.

The national president of the union, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said ASUU is tired of dwelling on the same issue every year, negotiating and renegotiating, with mutual agreements reached and signed on each occasion, and government consistently reneging on its own terms.

Although the Federal Government announced the exclusion of ASUU and other unions in the nation’s tertiary institutions from IPPIS, the university teachers said they were still being paid based on the flawed platform.

Osodeke accused the government of insensitivity, wondering why they were not paid all outstanding salaries having covered up for the lost time during the 2022 strike.

He said members of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the union are currently in a nationwide consultation with the branches to decide on the next line of action during their meeting later this month.

The ASUU leader stated that the association would present all the suggestions gathered during its nationwide consultations at the NEC meeting before taking the necessary action to press home their demands.

“That is why we are seeking the views of members about the next line of action, which we are taking to our NEC meeting this month. And at the NEC meeting, we are going to take a decision. If we decide to embark on another strike, they would not say we have not given them enough time.”

“Our president promised that if elected, he would stop strikes in the universities. Very soon, he would experience one.”

The ASUU chief lamented that all the issues that emanated from the last strike were yet to be addressed.

In the same vein, the national president, Congress of University Academics (CONUA), Niyi Sunmonu, said while the union appreciated the payment of four months’ salaries, they deserve to have their full pay because they were never on strike.

Sunmonu urged the government to address other pending issues that would make life easier for university teachers, and by extension, the students.

Apart from implementing the 35 per cent wage increase, Sunmonu appealed to the government to reopen negotiation with the union and also review salaries of university teachers, which he said, have remained stagnant since 2009.

Besides, Sunmonu enjoined the government to look into the payment of EAA and promotion arrears, which he said, were haphazardly paid since the advent of IPPIS.

“In fact, at a meeting with the minister convened by the National Universities Commission (NUC) in January this year, part of our submission was that the liabilities incurred with the use of the payment platform should be transferred to any other platform with which salaries of academics are going to be paid, so that no one is denied his or her dues,” Sunmonu added.

With the latest development, university campuses are becoming restive across the nation, as academics are threatening to shut down schools again as a result of government’s failure to meet its part of the bargain.

Underfunding of the education sector, over the years, has had collateral effect on the country. Universities, hitherto exemplary centres of excellence that attracted academics from far and near, have become grotesque carcasses of their former selves.

The deplorable education system has forced privileged Nigerians to send their wards out of the shores of the country for studies. A report released last year put the figure of what Nigeria loose to overseas studies at N1.9 trillion per annum. It could be higher.

Embarrassingly, countries like Ghana, Uganda and Benin Republic, that were hitherto considered far below Nigeria in all respect, have now turned to be our saving graces to educate our people.

Ghana alone is estimated to be benefitting about N160 billion from hundreds of Nigerians, while those who should act to better the system of education send off their children to choice universities around the world, the result at home is a further nose-diving of what remains of quality in the universities.

A committee headed by a former Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), which conducted a need assessment of universities, came up with a report that unearthed the odious rot in the system.

The report, which was commissioned by the government itself, bared it all on the appalling condition of the universities, both in human and infrastructural terms. While the teacher-student ratio stands on the average at the embarrassing figure of 1:100, basic teaching tools in laboratories, workshops and libraries were discovered to be either grossly inadequate or non-existent.

In most, if not all, universities students have no adequate hostel facilities, while some defecate in the open, due to absence or inadequacy of toilet facilities.

These same students, according to the report, take lectures in jam- packed lecture halls and theatres. The consequence of this neglect of the education system is the soaring number of half-baked graduates coming out from these institutions.

Though the teachers could not be absolved of blame in this, it is, however, only fair to expect a good result when the condition for good performance is set.

In the midst of this grim scenario, ASUU has spent a total number 1,740days on strike since the return to democracy in 1999, findings by The Guardian has shown.

The breakdown of the striking days by the union suggests that about 19.5 per cent of every academic year in the country is spent on strike.

The timelines of past industrial actions by the union are listed thus: 1999: After the end of the military era in 1999, Nigerians ushered in democracy and a government that promised to be people oriented. But it didn’t take long for Nigerian students to experience a disruption in their academic pursuit. Few months after the Obasanjo-Atiku administration was sworn-in, ASUU embarked on a nationwide strike and it lasted for five months

2001: In 2001, ASUU declared another strike over the reinstatement of 49 lecturers sacked at the University of Ilorin. The industrial action was aggravated when the then President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo described Nigerian university lecturers as “a bunch of lazy and ungrateful people” The strike was called off after three months.

2002: Having had an agreement with the Federal Government during the previous strike, the union was forced to embark on another industrial action on Sunday, December 29, 2002, after the Obasanjo administration failed to implement the agreement. The strike lasted for only two weeks.

2003: In 2003, Nigerian university undergraduates had to stay at home again for six months as ASUU embarked on another industrial action due to the non-implementation of previous agreements, which covers poor university funding and disparity in salary and retirement age.

2005: Nigerian university students again experienced another disruption in their academic calendars as universities lecturers went on another industrial action. The lecturers went on strike for just two weeks.

2006: In April 2006, academic activities were paralysed in all public universities across the country when ASUU declared a three-day warning strike. It eventually lasted for one week.

2007: The 2006 industrial action was followed by another on March 26, 2007. The strike lasted for three months. The reasons for the strike was pretty much the same reasons for the previous strike.

2008: In a bid to press home its demands, ASUU went on strike for one week in 2008. The demands included an improved salary scheme and reinstatement of 49 lecturers who were dismissed at the University of Ilorin.

2009: In 2009, lecturers in public universities across the country embarked on an industrial action that lasted for four months. The strike which started in June was called off in October. Before the strike was called off, the Federal Government and the union had an agreement. The 2009 ASUU/FG agreement would later become the reason for subsequent industrial action.

2010: The year 2010 also saw another setback for Nigerian undergraduates as ASUU embarked on another indefinite strike that lasted for over five months.

2011: Since the FG failed to honour its 2009 agreement to adequately fund universities in the country and implement the 70-year retirement age limit for ASUU members, the union again paralysed academic activities nationwide in December 2011. The strike lasted for 59 days and was called off in 2012.

2013: Again, the government’s failure to review retirement age for professors from 65 to 70; approve funding to revitalise the university system; increase budgetary allocations to the education sector by 26 per cent among other demands, led to another industrial action. The strike was embarked upon on July 1, 2013, called off on Tuesday, December 17, 2013. It lasted for five months, 15 days.

2017: On August 17, 2017, ASUU again declared an indefinite strike over unresolved and contentious issues with the Federal Government. The strike was called off in September.

2018: Again, due to the Federal Government’s failure to meet its demands, ASUU declared an indefinite nationwide strike. The union announced the strike on Sunday, November 4, 2018, after their National Executive Council meeting held at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State.

2020: On March 23, 2020, ASUU embarked on an indefinite strike, the same week the then President Muhammadu Buhari, imposed a lockdown to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The strike lasted for nine months.

2022: The union declared strike on February 14, 2022 and didn’t suspend it until October 2022, following the intervention of then Speaker of House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila.

Stakeholders have appealed to the government to resolve the lingering issues once and for all to save the country from further embarrassment.