As part of efforts to compel the Federal Government to meet the demands of striking university-based unions, including the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its affiliate unions, said it would embark on a two-day national solidarity protest tomorrow and Wednesday.
Labour’s threat follows the lack of progress in the negotiations with the leadership of the ASUU, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT). The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, had directed all affiliate unions to comply with the directives on the planned protest at the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the Congress.
It is sad that universities in the country have been shut down for five months following strike by the various unions over the alleged failure of the Federal Government to meet their demands. Given the protracted nature of the strike, President Muhammadu Buhari, last week, directed the Ministers of Education, Adamu Adamu; and Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige; to resolve the lingering strike by ASUU and report back to him within two weeks.
ASUU had embarked on a warning strike on February 14, 2022, which clandestinely metamorphosed into an indefinite industrial action, leading to the suspension of all academic activities in federal universities. Some state universities also joined in sympathy. Since then, efforts by the authorities and other stakeholders to resolve the impasse have failed.
At the centre of the strike are the alleged government’s failure to honour the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) it signed with the union, the government’s poor commitment to the payment of Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) and release of revitalisation funds, inadequate funding of the universities, the continued use of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and refusal to adopt the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), and proliferation of public universities in the country.
For its part, the Federal Government stated that it had implemented most of the contents of the agreements with the union. It said that substantial amounts have been released for EAA and revitalisation of the institutions while UTAS, according to the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has “passed acceptability test but failed integrity test and credibility test, which formed the bulwark against hacking”. The government, therefore, set up a seven-man Prof Nemi Briggs-led committee to renegotiate the 2009 pact. The committee is said to have submitted its report to the government for implementation.
This is not the first time organised labour has intervened in labour disputes in the nation’s Ivory Tower. In 2013, NLC mediated in an ASUU strike by writing to the Presidency to devise modalities to resolve the industrial action. In 2021, it again, played vital role to resolve the standoff between the Federal Government and ASUU for university students. The NLC has been making failed efforts to end the current strike. However, the propriety of this intervention remains questionable, particularly as it affects Rivers State.
We condemn the penchant for strikes, which has done incalculable damage to the educational development of the country. Since the return of democracy in 1999, ASUU has spent, at least, 1,500 days on strike. The quick resort to strikes by ASUU members is irrational since the union can as well adopt other proactive and constructive alternatives. We are worried that for a country with over 40 million out-of-school children, prolonged stay out of tertiary institutions by youths will fill the growing crime pool. ASUU has to realise this fact and quickly suspend the strike.
Labour’s planned solidarity protest must be taken seriously because if carried out, may shut down businesses and stoke anarchy, thereby compounding the nation’s feeble economy. Nothing can justify this! We implore labour to immediately rescind its decision, and allow government implement the committee’s report.
We say so for a number of reasons. First, it is not in all universities that ASUU and other unions are on strike, especially state and private institutions. In these institutions, including those in Rivers State, workers’ entitlements are paid as at when due and enabling environment created for seamless teaching and learning. Therefore, it is wrong to direct workers in those states, including Rivers State, to embark on any solidarity strike.
Besides, the NLC in some states, particularly Rivers State, has become political partisans, and their officials constituting themselves as opposition elements to destabilise the government. Allowing NLC in Rivers State to call out workers on strike obviously amounts to arming critical opposition to undermine the government, especially at a time when all eyes are exploring winning strategies for the 2023 elections. There are ample examples of efforts of the NLC in Rivers State to destabilize the state. Now that the Chairperson of NLC in the State is also doubling as the governorship candidate of Labour party, and the same person is calling out workers in the state to embark on strike even when all the state-owned tertiary institutions are fully functional, it is obvious that this is another means to subvert the efforts of the state government at maintaining an uninterrupted academic calendar.
Besides, hoodlums have many a time hijacked supposedly peaceful strikes to advance their nefarious activities. Shops have been looted and the economy subverted. Many innocent people have also lost their lives these circumstances. There is also the likelihood that opposition politicians may hide under the cloak of labour to unleash violence on the people and jeopardize the peace that is currently prevailing in Rivers State. This is why it will be suicidal for workers in Rivers State to be used to fight government at this time.
Again, while we blame the Federal Government for the poor funding of universities, we boldly caution that it is not the mandate of ASUU, an assemblage of employees to dictate for its employers how and when to fund their own institutions. If they are not satisfied with their conditions of service, they should resign and seek better opportunities elsewhere rather than crippling the nation in order to satisfy their desires.
Nigeria cannot keep establishing universities when it has failed to maintain the existing ones. During President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, 12 universities were established. Today, all are struggling owing to paucity of funds. Despite this challenge, eight bills are currently being debated at the National Assembly for the establishment of more universities. This is proliferation without growth. Yes, it is unacceptable but it does not require any industrial action to resolve.
The Education 2030 Framework for Action proposed two benchmarks as ‘crucial reference points’: allocate, at least, four to six per cent of GDP to education or apportion between 15 and 20 per cent of public expenditure to education. Government at all levels needs to meet these projections.
Even so, rather than enter into unworkable pacts with the unions, governments need to review the funding patterns of the universities. It is unthinkable that they alone can finance the institutions. In the United States, revenue from federal and state sources made up 34 per cent of total revenue at public colleges and universities in 2017, with other funding coming from tuition and fees, private gifts, self-supporting operations, and other sources. Nigeria can adopt this model to end the unending strikes.