- Graveyard silence in ivory towers
Students in Nigerian government-owned universities have been on forced recess for more than eight weeks now. The reason is obvious: the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, is on strike. As ASUU continues its epic battle with the Federal Government, the grass under the feet of the two elephants are suffering...groaning.On 1 July, 2013 the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, again called out its members on an industrial action. Once again, classrooms and lecture theatres in the country's numerous ivory towers became empty and devoid of teachers while students had no choice but to vacate the campuses. And now, more than eight weeks after, the nation, nay the world, is still counting.
For students of history and watchers of events in the land, members of different trade unions in the nation's tertiary institutions going on strikes has practically become a recurring decimal which unsavoury effects are being forced down the throats of all Nigerians, rich and poor, old and young. The current strike, like all others after 2009, is to seek the implementation of the 2009 agreement the union had with the Federal Government.
The 2009 agreement among other things provides a 70-year-old retirement age for professors as against 65, it also stipulated a N400 yearly intervention fund from 2009 to 2011, progressive increase of budgetary allocations to education by 26 per cent, transfer of Federal Government property to universities, setting up of research and development units by companies, payment of earned allowances. Now ASUU not only demands the implementation of these it still wants a renegotiation of the signed agreement.
A lot of intrigues have, however, dogged the current strikes with both the Federal Government and ASUU trading blames and calling one another names. Attempts had also been made by both parties to disparage the other especially in public glare. Once, the Federal Government accused ASUU of making outrageous demands. An allegation which the union tried to rebuff and deny but which certainly turned some parts of the public against it. However, the government has released some funds as demanded by ASUU.
The union still has refused to call off its strike or suspend it. This move also has not gone down well with many members of the public who hold that the union could on the basis of the development call its members back to the classrooms. Where two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. So it is with Nigerian students who have been direct victims of the incessant faceoff between the teachers and the Federal Government.
The students, however, now seem bent on not allowing their history to be charted for them anymore on uncharted or rough courses. Here and there and the country, there are now pockets of demonstrations and protests by the students body, the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS and its splinter groups.
A couple of weeks ago, the students took to the streets in Ikeja, Lagos. This was followed by another one in Benin City, the capital of Edo State and yet another one in Ekiti State while one is slated for today in Ilesha, Osun State. Why? Wolimoh Oladeji of the office of the NANS President told Saturday Mirror that this was born out of the desire to put their fate in their own hands and not watch some people play politics with it. According to Wolimoh, ASUU is not fighting for the Nigerian student.
Rather it is fighting majorly for the welfare of its members while using the students as pawn. THE National Universities Commission (NUC) has declared that the N92 billion allowances contained in the 2009 agreement reached with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) by the Federal Government was for both academic and non-academic staff. In a letter dated August 26, 2013 signed by the NUC Executive Secretary, Professor Julius Okojie and addressed to the Pro-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, the NUC boss directed the governing council to provide necessary oversight in the administration of the released earned allowances payment to 'deserving academic and non-academic staff '. The NUC in the letter titled "Payment of earned allowances" read in part, "the Federal Government has approved the sum of N30 billion for the payment of earned allowances to deserving staff, (academic and non-academic) in the federal universities. I have been directed to inform the councils of federal universities of the prorated amount due to each federal university for the payment of these allowances. The university of Ibadan has been allocated N2,144,069,600.00 only for this purpose. This amount is being transferred to the relevant account of each university. Consequently, it is the responsibility of respective governing councils to provide the necessary oversight in the administration of these funds based on the prescribed rates." In his reaction, the Chairman, University of Ibadan (UI) Chapter of ASUU, Dr. Segun Ajiboye, said the union has finally been vindicated by the campaign of calumny by the Federal Government to the effect that the earned allowances was for only academic staff. Ajiboye described the initial claims by government representatives that ASUU was demanding N92 billion earned allowances for her members as a blackmail which has 'now fallen like a pack of card'. "Nigerians should by now see that our government is a government of deceit. The government that told Nigerians some weeks ago that ASUU was demanding N92 billion as allowances for its members has now written a letter that the amount is for both academic and non-academic staff in the nation's federal universities," he stated. The students who took to the streets of Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital also threatened to shut down activities in the private universities in the country should the crisis continue. The students who displayed several placards with various inscriptions, lambasted the Federal Government for its failure to honour the 2009 agreement with ASUU. Asafon Sunday, Director of Action and Mobilisation NANS, South–West, claimed that between 2000 and 2011 the Nigerian government earned about N48.48 trillion from the sale of oil alone, against N3.10 trillion earned between 1979 and 1999 He said the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, in 2012 financial year alone generated N5.12 trillion from tax paid by the masses. "With this tremendous upswing in the revenue at the disposal of the Nigerian government, one would have expected such to translate to commensurate improvement in the quality of Nigeria's public education as well as other social services," he added. He condemned the refusal of Federal Government to budget a reasonable amount of money to education sector as recommended by UNESCO which is 26 per cent of the country's total budget. Sunday noted that some countries with smaller Gross Domestic Product, GDP, like Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Morocco and Botswana had budgetary allocations to education sector as follow, 31 per cent, 20 per cent, 23 per cent,17.7 per cent and 19 per cent respectively to 8.5 per cent that Nigeria government had budgeted for education in 2013. Also speaking, Steven Adara, a student leader from Ekiti State University, EKSU , lamented that government officials and prominent Nigerians were not bothered about the crisis in the public universities because their children were in private schools overseas. According to him: "We will mobilise and disrupt academic activities in the private universities because it is the sons and daughters of the rich that are in these schools." Also, placard-carrying groups in Benin City, including Concerned Nigerian Students, Coalition of Edo Youths Organisation, Edo Youth Congress, Edo State Students, Comrade Across the Nation, South-South Youth League and Edo Youth for Good Government, described the Federal Government's seeming refusal to meet the demands of ASUU as wicked, just as they backed ASUU for sticking to their guns in their demand. The International Coordinator of Concerned Human Rights Nigeria, Declan Ihekaire described the strike by ASUU as a "conspiracy theory of the Federal Government against the Nigerian masses," adding that the lapses in the education sector of the country are an intentional move to advance the cause of privately owned tertiary institutions. "You find out that gradually they are killing the public educational sector while they are energising the privately owned institution," he said during an interview in a television programme. NANS also threatened to storm the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, to press home their demands. While lamenting that they are tired of staying at home, the visibly angry students blasted President Goodluck Jonathan over its failure to honour the agreement it had with ASUU.
National Mirror