TUNBOSUN OGUNDARE in this report X-rays the implications of the repeated strike actions by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) against the backdrop of the current threat to embark on a fresh indefinite strike if the Federal Government fails by next week to attend to its cry of many years.
IT is no more news that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarks on industrial actions whenever it has unresolved issues with the Federal Government. It does so repeatedly just like many other trade unions within and outside the academic system in the country.
In the last 26 years – from 1999 to date -, for example, hardly would a year pass without ASUU going on strike that lasted several weeks.
In 2020 alone, the union went on strike for nine months – which happened to be the longest in the recent history of ASUU strike. Just two years later, the union also went again for another round of eight months. These were during the administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari, which also witnessed three months strike in 2018.
Every time, ASUU’s claim has always been that it declared strike after exhausting all other legal means of getting government to address its concerns.
Ironically, ASUU’s concerns over the years are almost the same. It has been about pushing government to inject more money to develop infrastructure in the public universities, to increase staff salaries and allowances, improve their working conditions and so forth.
The union always accuses government of underfunding universities and underpaying workers, claiming the condition has led to gross depreciation in the standard of public universities and their products.
At a time in 2009, an agreement was reached between the Federal Government and ASUU on the best way to fix the gap. This effort resulted in drafting of the popular 2009 Agreement and the subsequent memorandum of actions.
Now, 26 years down the line, most of the critical issues in the original agreement are still unattended to by the government, except for those that required little or no fund to implement, such as the recent imposition of ban on the establishment of new universities and a few others.
On this, the union is consistently pushing pressure on government to attend to them else it would order members to stay off work indefinitely.
For the current administration of President Bola Tinubu, the union has equally on several occasions issued warning strikes, staged several protests on campuses and also engaged the media all with a view to reminding the government about pending issues between them. But till date, there has been no convincing response.
A fresh threat was issued on Monday September 29, giving government a 14-day ultimatum to address those issues, failure of which will compel the union to declare an indefinite strike.
On the current threat, ASUU’s National President, Prof Christopher Piwuna, expressed strong determination and readiness of the union to proceed this time on indefinite strike if government remains adamant on the matter.
He said the union has been patient enough with the current government and now has been pushed to the wall and needs to react.
But to the stakeholders, while ASUU is right in its demands and also has the right to use strike actions to pursue its course, students, parents, the country’s education cause the general economy are always the ones who suffer major consequences of such actions.
According to them, the repeated disruptions caused by strke affect academic progression, delay graduation, push up parents spending, and also create long-term effects on career prospects and students’ personal growth.
Faruk Olateju, for example, has just finished his undergraduate Law degree programme at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka. He got admitted to the university in 2018 for the five years course. By calculation, he is supposed to have done with his studies in 2023.
Though, the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought the whole world to its knees for some months, prolonged Faruk’s stay on campus, the major cause of his additional two years was ASUU strike.
In 2020 alone, ASUU went on strike for nine months- the longest in the recent history of ASUU strike- and two years later, it went again for another eight months, totaling one year and five months.
Faruk, who had earlier in 2018 wasted another three months because of strike by the same ASUU, told Sunday Tribune in an interview that he would never wish that ASUU should go on strike again in the country.
According to him, whenever ASUU downs tools, the students bear the greatest impacts, because academic calendars are disrupted, graduation timelines are extended and many students lose opportunities, especially internships, scholarships or postgraduate studies abroad that are tied to strict timelines.
‘These are some of the opportunities that students tend to lose in the event of strike,’ Faruk stressed.
He also observed that ‘For the university system generally, the repeated industrial actions create uncertainty and weaken the global competitiveness of Nigerian graduates.
‘We also know that parents lose confidence in public education and this indirectly pushes people towards seeking alternative in expensive private universities or foreign institutions that many can’t afford, widening socio-economic inequality.’
Faruk emphasised that even though he may not be directly affected if ASUU should embark on a fresh strike as being threatened, he would wish such a strike is averted by all means.
According to him, it is difficult to be completely at ease when the future of thousands of students is at stake.
According to him, ‘The current strike notice reminds me of the uncertainty that always comes with every strike notice- the anxiety, the disrupted plans and the emotional torture that accompany such notices.
‘The 2020 and 2022 ASUU strikes really had a real impact on my academic journey as they extended my expected graduation timeline and disrupted my rhythm of learning, always having to pause on my reading or my learning every now and then.
‘So, the reading, the learning is not flowing as IT should and that alone HAS negative consequences.
‘Beyond the academics, strikes also affected the social impacts aspect of my students’ life, plans for law internships, professional programmes and even personal goals had to be rescheduled. However, that period taught me resilience, but it also reinforces how much instability can damage students’ morale.
‘Honestly, the repeated threat creates a climate of uncertainty. As a student, your mind won’t be at rest. You will be thinking that you will now be forced to go home again.
‘So, such instances become mentally draining because you cannot plan your life with confidence. Even when the strike doesn’t happen, the constant threats hang over students like a cloud. It reflects a deeper problem in the system.
‘While I recognize that ASUU has legitimate grievances about their concerns, I still believe that strike should not always be the weapon of choice.
‘We need more creative solutions, perhaps legal frameworks that enforce agreements, independent mediators with government and the union and more importantly demonstration of accountability on both sides. Students should not be the collateral damage in this struggle.
‘So, I hope both the government and ASUU can prioritize uninterrupted education for Nigerian citizens,’ he concluded.
Sharing the same view, the National Assistant Secretary of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Adetunji Olatunji Emmanuel, said no matter what, this proposed strike must not become a reality.
According to him, it is obvious that strike actions only inflict pains and suffering on the children of the ordinary Nigerians- the masses- who struggle day and night to send their children to school.
He argued that the politicians and government officials whose failures created the protracted imbroglio are actually not affected as their children are comfortably schooling abroad or in expensive private universities locally.
‘If their children were in our public institutions, he said, this protracted issue would have been resolved long ago.
‘That is why all Nigerian students demand that the Federal Government should, without further delay meet its obligations to ASUU and resolve all the outstanding issues.
‘We say enough of endless promises, excuses, and insincerity as we are tired of being victims of leadership irresponsibility.
‘On the part of ASUU, we also call its leadership to reconsider the weaponization of strike as the only tool of engagement moving forward.
Just like Faruk had observed, Adetunji said, ‘Every strike destroys our academic calendar, elongates our years in school, and diminishes the quality of our education.
‘The lecturers must understand that their struggle, no matter how just, should not become a weapon against the same students they claim to fight for.’
He declared that should the proposed strike become a reality, NANS as an umbrella body of all Nigerian students would have no option BUT to mobilize themselves for massive protests that would shut down the major highways, airports, government offices, and critical infrastructure across the country.
He said Nigerian students and their poor parents cannot BE faced with economic hardship, high inflation, all form of taxes in the face of low incomes and still have to suffer again just because of attenging public schools.
According to him, enough of government and ASUU wasting their future
For the National President of Parent-Teacher Association of Nigeria (NPTAN) Alhaji Haruna Dajuma, his thought and perspective on the ASUUFG face off is becoming too embarrassing for the country.
He noted that parents have always been saying say no to ASUU strike as no parent is comfortable having their children at home when they supposed to be in school learning.
He, just like others, equally observed that the negative effects of strike actions outweigh the positive, with students bear the major brunt.
‘So, we cannot afford any strike again in Nigeria’s public universities,’ he emphasized, urging both government and ASUU to resolve their differences without disrupting academic calendar.