ASUU and its perennial strikes
Strike. The one word and action that tends to get the attention of the Nigerian government. It may sometimes seem radical, but without an iota of doubt, it is the most favorable course of action to take when all chips are down. Since its inception in 1978, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has […]
Strike. The one word and action that tends to get the attention of the Nigerian government. It may sometimes seem radical, but without an iota of doubt, it is the most favorable course of action to take when all chips are down.
Since its inception in 1978, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has gone on a number of strikes. This leads one to begin to wonder how a union, whose members are saddled with the responsibility of moving the Nigerian education system forward, would carry out actions that are almost, if not completely detrimental to our education.
As a student, I feel the effects of this strike the most. Notwithstanding, I am rational enough to understand that the union’s decision to undertake one is not entirely without reason, especially if one takes his or her time (my current lack of lectures affords me that luxury) to go on a fact-finding mission to see why the union has taken such a stance.
Back in 2009 when the federal government and ASUU struck a memorandum of agreement (MOA), most people thought that the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel has finally been reached, that a new dawn had set forth for the massively depreciating standards of education to rise. Sadly, this has not been the case six years later. And if all the stories floating the media are even remotely true, then the federal government is the sole part to be blamed in all this.
Over the years, the federal government’s support for education has only been dwindling and this is evident in its inability to implement the agreement it had with ASUU in the past, combined with the disturbing fluctuations of budget percentages allotted to the educational sector.
It is appalling that the country’s most important sector has been getting meager budget allocations well below the benchmark of 26% of the total budget as recommended by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for developing countries; A benchmark that countries like Ivory Coast, South Africa, Ghana and Uganda have all met and gone beyond.
The Education sector is currently under-funded; getting just 8 percent of the 2016 budget allocation, a significant drop from 11.13 percent allocated 16 years ago in 1999. That is obviously not an improvement. Couple that with the government’s failure to fully implement the 2009 agreement and 2013 memorandum of understanding as pointed out by ASUU’s president, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, and you would be hard pressed to understand why the union is using the weapon it deems perfect to fight the federal government: Industrial strike!
The federal government’s attitude towards education has been, is, and if all necessary steps are not taken, will continue to be lackadaisical to say the least. The former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Prof. Peter Okebukola, in his interview with The Guardian’s Ujunwa Atueyi in January last year advised that the budget proposal for education be raised to at least 30 percent if the issues facing the sector are to be solved.
The federal government needs to do more by accepting its responsibilities, quit stalling and follow through on its agreement. As the Latin phrase goes “pacta sunt servanda” meaning every agreement must be honoured.
Also, the federal government should avoid making promises it cannot fulfill. The promises have almost become veritable cavalcades of enthusiastic incompetence, that when not fulfilled, the union is then expected to be, as Prof. Wole Soyinka would say, a glutton for tranquility. It will never work that way.
After all, hell hath no fury like a union scorned. That’s how the cliché goes, right?
Isah Suleiman Kandi, Dept. of Mass Communications, IBBU, Lapai, Niger State.