Activities in most Nigerian public universities have been paralysed for more than nine weeks and there appears to be no letup in the lingering dispute between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government.
The union of university lecturers had embarked on what it tagged ‘comprehensive, total and indefinite strike’ on November 4, 2018. Students of the public tertiary institutions have since that day been on forced holidays. Several meetings between the Federal Government and ASUU to discuss the contentious issues of poor funding of universities and staff welfare ended in deadlock.
ASUU had insisted on full implementation of all outstanding issues contained in the Memorandum of Action (MoA) signed with the current government in 2017 and a conclusion of renegotiation of the 2009 agreement reached with the last administration.
The MoA included provision of a balance of N1.1 trillion for the revitalisation of universities, payment of earned academic allowances and salary shortfalls; the issues of government funding of staff schools; exemption from the Treasury Single Account, TSA; pension matters as well as state universities.
The Federal Government cited paucity of funds as reason for its inability to fulfill the terms of the agreement.
We are deeply concerned about the lingering strike and the failure of the parties -Federal Government and ASUU- to reach a common ground on the contentious issues.
University learning must be continuous to be beneficial and meaningful. Students of nearly all public universities in Nigeria have not had the benefit of hitch-free academic programmes in decades.
No nation that places a high premium on its future growth and development can afford to toy with the education of her youths, as has been witnessed in our nation over the years.
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We are worried, and all well-meaning citizens of our country, should also be troubled about the possibility of the compromise of the future of these students, as a consequence of the perennial strikes in our public higher institutions.
It is important to provide the basic minimum funding to guarantee effective teaching, learning and research.
Poor funding, inadequate facilities and the disruption of academic activities have been wreaking havoc on the nation’s education system with the universities releasing into the already saturated labour market, half-baked unemployable graduates.
Ironically, our political leaders, many of whom had the privilege of attending the first generation of Nigerian universities in the good old days now choose to send their children to foreign universities and gleefully share photographs of joyful moments in the social media upon their graduation. The ready-made excuse by successive administrations for the inadequate funding of public tertiary institutions is lean revenue and budgetary limitations.
While acknowledging these limitations, we strongly feel that the future of Nigerian youths must not be mortgaged on the altar of poor governance. Surely, there must be realistic means of providing sustainable funding for the universities and other tertiary institutions.
The Federal Government must go beyond giving the excuse of lack of funds to devising ingenious sustainable ways of funding infrastructural facilities and providing for staff welfare in the universities.
The ongoing ASUU strike must be immediately called off. We implore the academic union officials to return to the negotiating table and work out with the government, more realistic means of resolving this embarrassing dispute.
