ASUU strike: Still on the matter; Iyayi's death

Unfortunately, the on-going indefinite ASUU strike now in its 4th month has claimed the life of one of ASUU’s former President, Prof. Festus Iyayi. The erudite scholar died in an auto crash on Tuesday on Abuja-Lokoja Road in Kogi State, while on his way to Kano for an ASUU Congress meeting.


CURIOUSLY, penultimate Monday, the nation ernestly expected the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to end its indefinite strike action following President Goodluck Jonathan’s 13-hour meeting with its officials. But that was not to be. However, at the end of the meeting, Nigerians were offered hope of a possible early call-off by ASUU officials.


FOR almost four months running, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been prosecuting an indefinite strike action to press home their demand for the implementation of a 2009 agreement reached with the Federal Government and a Memorandum of Understanding entered into with the same government based on the 2009 agreement and how best to implement.
FROM our understanding, the crux of the matter is the Federal Government’s irresponsibility as it enters into agreement with the striking teachers only to renege on implementation. We consider the action of government as irresponsible and we condemn such official rascality, given the fact that ASUU in 2011 also dislocated the nation’s public universities for the same grievances.


WE are deeply concerned with the severe impact of strike actions on our public Universities across the country, which has led in the past to even loss of academic calendar and incalculable losses as it pertains to dislocation of learning process by affected university students.


STRIKE actions have also contributed significantly to the decline in the quality of graduates of our public universities as students are hurried with lectures as soon as such strike actions are called off. Also, as a result of hurried academic calendars, little attention in most cases is paid to research, which is an important component of academic pursuits.


THE on-going ASUU strike undoubtedly has disrupted examinations in a number of public universities and paralysed academic activities in all others. This is unacceptable and we urge both parties to the dispute to always consider the future of the students first, above all other considerations.


IN the light of the forgoing, while we believe that the university lecturers will from time to time have legitimate grounds to be angry with their employers, the frequent resort to the strike option is also unacceptable.


WE are, however, disappointed at the poor handling of the dispute between it and the University teachers by the Federal Government as evident in the empty claims of the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufai who merely tells the teachers to call of strike action after some poor coordinated meetings of some officials.


WE urge the Federal Government of Nigeria to be a responsible corporate citizen who respects agreements with other parties and institutions. Government disputes with university teachers lately have been largely due to broken promises and unfilled agreements, very often on the part of government.


WE expect ASUU to equally resort to alternative dispute resolution mechanisms used by organized labour in other parts of the world to safeguard our public University system, which is the only option available to children of the poor who would not be able to afford private university education.


ON funding, ASUU must understand that Government (Federal or State) alone cannot fund university education in Nigeria. It is important for ASUU and university authorities to begin to look inwards for internal revenue generation. Elsewhere, public Universities’ research and business activities operated by the universities generate substantial amount of income for funding teaching and learning. A situation where public universities depend almost one hundred percent on government is deplorable.


IT is on this score we want to call on the federal government to immediately revisit the issue of university autonomy with a view to divesting its grip on the nation’s universities and provide a policy framework for responsible internal revenue generation and transparent as well as accountable and judicious use of such revues for the overall development of each of the public universities.


ALSO, we call on the Federal Government to take immediate steps to respect its 2009 agreement with ASUU and implement all provisions to the letter.


LASTLY, we want the federal government to carry out a comprehensive review of all conditions of service of all government workers whether academic, non-academic, hazardous or non-hazardous with a view to harmonizing all wages/salaries, allowances and entitlements across its workforce and eliminate all disparities that tend to fuel all kinds of chain agitations from various trade unions and professional associations with an ultimate goal of ending the resort to strike actions once and for all.
Source: Nigerian Observers

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