On ASUU and FG’s ultimatum

The supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, stated this while briefing journalists in Abuja. This may not be unconnected to the frustration that the union has put the government through in a bid to end the strike. I think to some extent, members of ASUU are not considerate about students’ plight as they fight the […]

The supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, stated this while briefing journalists in Abuja. This may not be unconnected to the frustration that the union has put the government through in a bid to end the strike. I think to some extent, members of ASUU are not considerate about students’ plight as they fight the government. They are already losing sympathy of average Nigerians who believed they had a genuine cause because of their latest demands on salary.
The government has virtually met most of the union’s demands, but the ASUU members are bent on collecting immediate payment of the four-month wages in arrears.  Simply put, ASUU wants to receive salaries for the four months they refused to work. I will allow my readers to judge that.
Before this development, Nigerians had been kept on suspense on the resumption day of the affected universities, thinking the union may call off the industrial action.
ASUU embarked on an indefinite strike on 1st July, following the failure of the federal government to implement part of the 2009 agreement reached by the two parties. The union’s demands include the upward review of the retirement age for professors from 65 to 70, adequate funding to revitalise the university system, progressive increase of budgetary allocations to the education sector by 26 per cent, transfer of federal government property to universities, setting up of research and development units by companies, payment of earned allowances, and renegotiation of the signed agreement. After a couple of meetings between ASUU and government delegations, including President Goodluck Jonathan, it seems the nagging issue still hasn’t gotten headway.
As a matter of fact, in the course of negotiation and shuttling from locations for executive meetings, the union lost one of its stalwarts, Professor Festus Iyayi, who was former ASUU president and a lecturer in the University of Benin.  Despite dying on one of Nigerian deathtraps called roads and due to the reckless driving of a governor’s convoy, there was still no element of effort to end the strike, as a way to eulogise the innocent man. Instead, both ASUU and the government continued to dilly-dally with the future of innocent university students. Both sides continued to accuse each other of insincerity. To be candid, both sides have not done enough to see to the end of strikes in the universities.
For example, among the demands of the union, according to University of Lagos branch chairman, Dr Karo Ogbinaka,   is the payment of earned allowances which included excess workload, administrative responsibilities and postgraduate supervisory allowances, among others. He further said that a professor who supervises postgraduate theses is supposed to be paid N15,000 per student, adding, “The federal government has not paid any lecturer the theses supervisory allowance. Logically, this demand is uncalled for. If the student who spend a lot of money on projects materials, researches and all that is not demanding for project grant, I don’t think a professor that only sits down in his office or anywhere convenient to supervise the same project should go on strike because he wants to be paid for supervision. As a matter of fact, many lecturers only lecture for few hours in a week and many times miss their classes. This does not affect their wages in anyway. Thus I don’t think the same people should demand for extra allowances for perceived excess workload.   
The union is already divided, as couples of universities are already threatening to end the strike. As a matter of fact, Adekunle Ajasin University is already recruiting lecturers to replace the striking ones. This goes a long way toward extrapolating the insincerity of the struggle itself. Despite all the efforts and promises by government, the union remains adamant on its own outrageous demands. Thus the government, which is being saddled with too many responsibilities, has no choice than to force the union back to work.
The new directive by the government (the employers of ASUU) only demonstrates how much the union has frustrated its effort to end the strike.  There are more issues to duel on, rather than spend a lifetime to settle the demands of the academic union.
Moshood Isah, Sapele Street, Garki II, [email protected]