We can’t tolerate employment imbalances in our universities – Suleiman

Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been on strike for more than two months now, and from the look of things, negotiations have failed so far. What is your committee doing, and are you not worried that it has persisted?I don’t want to agree with you that negotiations have broken down, because you have […]

Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been on strike for more than two months now, and from the look of things, negotiations have failed so far. What is your committee doing, and are you not worried that it has persisted?
I don’t want to agree with you that negotiations have broken down, because you have to base your conclusions on the basis of the disagreeing line between government and ASUU and to look at the level of progress so far reached.
The strike action of ASUU was a consequence of the failure of the 2009 agreement, which encapsulated about 10-point demands. Part of which include university autonomy, retirement age of academicians in the universities, the earn allowances of the lecturers, development of infrastructure in the universities, concession of all federal government landed properties within the universities, establishment of a staff pension scheme specific to universities and a host of few others.
I will tell Nigerians that it was at the prompting of this committee alongside Senate committee on education that for the first time both ASUU and government met face to face. Before that, it was a war correspondence between ASUU and government. ASUU was insisting that its demands have not been met, while government was saying it has met over 90 per cent of ASUU’s demands.
At that point, we insisted that war correspondences were not enough. We summoned the leadership of ASUU and the executive arm of government. The minister of labour came along side the minister of education. Both sides reviewed the position, and when it became apparent that the delegation of federal government lacked much mandate to advance the meeting beyond the rhetoric, we asked that the Secretary of the Government of the Federation should join.
That set pace for the discussion, and once the ball was set rolling, we allowed government and ASUU to continue because under normal circumstance, we are supposed to be an unbiased umpire. However, we nominated a member each from the Senate and the House to be part of that committee.
When we persuaded government and alongside ASUU, government agreed to pay a 100 billion for the development of infrastructure; N30b too was provided to address the issue of earned allowance. It was at that junction ASUU said it was pulling out from that negotiation committee because ASUU had observed that government was not sincere about fulfilling the agreement reached.
Just last week, the Federal Government fully took over the issue by mandating Vice President Namadi Sambo to spearhead negotiations with ASUU, apparently after the Suswam committee failed; how do you see this development?
No, this does not signify failure of collective bargaining at all. Government could be represented at whatever level. I am from labour union; sometimes we insist on dealing with the principal so that when he makes a commitment, he will not say that commitment was made without his consultation.
ASUU is trying to ensure high level of commitment by making sure that even if the agreement was respected, they will hold government responsible for failure or success of the agreement.
As someone who used to be part of the labour union, will you say that ASUU’s demands are justified?
All employees in whatever sector believe in the efficiency of what the system provides, and that is the genesis of having an organisation to advance the course of their welfare.
Therefore, I have not seen anything ridiculous in the demands of ASUU. I will only appeal to ASUU to make concessions in view of the fact that it is our own children and their own children that suffer at the end of the day, but none of the demands ASUU made is not justifiable.
Perhaps it might be too cumbersome at this moment for government to say that we address them, because as employees sometimes we get worried when we see some activities that could just be described as jamboree where government squandered billions and millions.
With due respect to artists, we find no justification with government pumping billions to promote the Nollywood industry – this may be my personal view – when government is foot-dragging in putting similar amount in education.
When we see government building mansions for first ladies, who have no recognition in our constitution, providing N10, N15 billion for the provision of that, we begin to get worried. If government has so much money to spend at this jamboree, then our condition of service needed to be looked in objectively. So the demands are justifiable.
How soon do you think this ASUU problem will be resolved?
I have the feeling that we will soon see light at the end of this dark tunnel. Feelers from both ASUU and government suggest that there is an understanding. I don’t want to jump the gun by going public, but I will advise that our children should start preparing to resume school.
What is your committee doing to address the imbalances in our universities in terms of employment, allocation and other issues?
Human beings by our nature, once we are allowed, all of us, including yours sincerely, have the tendency to ensure more patronage to where we come from. It is a general phenomenon.
In the course of our oversight, we observed the dominance of the hosting states in most instances, and we have encouraged the heads to realise that those are federal agencies and the need to respect the provision of the federal character becomes highly imperative.
As a matter of advice and as a matter of norms, we have insisted that the matter of the federal character must apply. This is in areas where we discovered that the institutions are personalized for and limited only to the hosting states or communities.
Each state of the federation has a stake in the federal institution, and therefore it is wrong for the entire staffing of such an institution to be the property for the state and the people of that state.
The purpose for establishing federal institution, even though it is to cater for the immediate environment, some level of federal character must be respected.
However, in some other places, we met scenarios, where even the hosting states are being discriminated. Again, we rose to the occasion. We observed imbalances and have given out instructions that imbalances are not tolerable. They’re supposed to be corrected and we have given timeline within which we expect compliance. At the end of the day, we have course to ask questions whether our instructions are adhered to.
What is your general assessment of the education sector in Nigeria?
This is a very macro question. But if you allow me, I will say although much needs to be done, but I am always quick to say that the people need to appreciate that people themselves get the positions they deserve.
First, on the part of the operators, we need to do more, because  the education sector in particular and not only in Nigerian, everywhere in the world, is critical to human beings. Therefore, as government and individuals, we need to do more.