On impending strikes in our varsities

If the news or information reaching us is to be taken seriously and very seriously indeed then we must get set for another round of strikes in our public universities. How necessary or how wise will any impending strike be to all the parties: the universities and working unions attending to the needs of the workers, academic and non-academic; the students and their union attending to their concerns; parents and professionals who detest all forms of restlessness in our universities; and of course this central government that forbids itself from responding favourably to jointly agreed positions and agreements reached with different parties on issues? I will keep the simple answer or answers to the question in abeyance.

But why am I giving attention to this subject of on-coming strikes that will sooner or later or sooner than later threaten the current peace and smooth running of our public universities?

Not long ago, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) alerted its members and us all that an attempt is being made to compel academic members of staff that are yet to enroll on the IPPIS, that is, Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, to do so. ASUU, rightly, on the basis of the agreement it reached with the central government before it suspended its last prolonged strike, has asked its members not to accede to the federal government’s request or directive. ASUU stated bluntly in a recent statement to its members as follows: “[The Union] wishes to remind all academic staff that in the MoA of 22nd December 2020 between ASUU and the Federal Government it was agreed that members of the Union will continue to receive their salaries on a separate platform (not IPPIS) while the process of conducting the integrity tests and migrating us to UTAS lasts.” By the way, as a reminder, UTAS which ASUU originated means University Transparency and Accountability Solution. From all indications, as evidenced from initial tests conducted so far, IPPIS, as against UTAS, is corruption-prone in every verifiable index. Indeed, series of complaints even from organisations and establishments that initially welcomed and accepted IPPIS are pointers to what IPPIS is and is not. Clearly, as ASUU and other groups have asserted, IPPIS is index-linked to monumental fraud – allegedly so.

That the Federal Government insists that the members of ASUU “enroll onto IPPIS through the back-door in violation of the terms of the [aforesaid] December 2020 MoA” is not only diabolical, but it is also a worrisome foreshadowing of another brewing strike in our public universities. All those who black-mailed the Union to suspend its last long strike should prevail on the central government to respect every inch, ounce and principle and conception of the MoA the Union is rightly making capital out of. As a matter of fact, they should equally now rightly blackmail all the black legs in the central government’s negotiating team to toe the path of consistent responsibility and profitable arguments derived from collective standpoints that form the bases of just outcomes of deliberations of all parties.

Readers of this column should be informed that many ASUU members who did not enroll and are not enrolling – onto IPPIS – in accordance with their Union’s directive are yet to be paid their withheld salaries since February 2020.

The central government’s action in this wise is a violation of the affected members’ social values – “liberty and opportunity, income and wealth, and the social bases of self-respect” which are to be enjoyed by all in a decent society and country. But, as everybody, every fellow, knows, your country my country our country is not at all a decent place. It is a country where injustice prevails and governs – injustice as distributed by the government in power and authority. The government’s injustice, to put it as I must put it here, “is simply inequalities that are not to the benefit of all.” ASUU has continued to reject this and is still rejecting this. Thus I can see, I can smell, I can feel, I can hear the greatly and soundly patriotic and patriotically great and sound Union going to the trenches again sooner than later. But all of us can avoid this scenario if the central government makes possible a prevailing choice of justice that is justice. No government, however strong and powerful, can conquer academics and intellectuals whose will, determination and ingenuity will always allow them to fight for distributive justice. Scholars will always retreat when there is the need for them to retreat to return in accordance with past history that always “plays a crucial role in determining entitlements.”

In the above connection’s line of thought I will summarily make a reference to newspapers’ reports that SSANU (Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities) is ready to embark on a new strike “Over plan to remove staff workers in 2022 budget” (See Vanguard of Monday, June 21, 2021, page 9 and The Guardian of Monday, June 21, 2021, page 5). I definitely will address this issue fully at a later date. But for now let me state that I support fully without any inhibition SSANU’s position on its transparently principled stand. Mallam Mohammed Ibrahim, the president of SSANU, spoke brilliantly and convincingly well when he rejected the ”alleged circular from the Budget Office directing that teachers should be removed from the Consolidated Salary Scale, CONTIS Salary table.” The SSANU president is right because the central government’s stance is a “negation” of the “union’s agreement with the government.” As a matter of fact, the matter went to the Industrial Court in line with our labour laws. SSANU floored the government there so what is the central government up to with its recent circular that is a clear violation of the order of a competent court? Was/is the court’s order not vivid enough?

So long as our universities’ unions do not embark on strikes of blame, this column will always express its un-arbitrary support for them from a profound moral perspective. Our country’s social space and world is not and cannot always be to the advantage of the central government’s social position that is patently unjust and anti-the-people of your country my country our country. At last I have tried to answer the question I posed today when I began the column. Or, have I, or, have I not?

Before I am fully done now let me tell SSANU to take with a pinch of salt the statement attributed to the Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige, who obviously was speaking from both sides of the mouth in the quotation the Vanguard newspaper under reference attributed to him. By now every fellow in our universities and the labour market knows who the minister surely and truly is. I will not say more than this for now. Let me be done for now. But I am not really done. The matter shall be re-visited.

Afejuku can be reached via 08055213059.