BY Guest Writer
BY MACK OGBAMOSA
At last, the federal government has woken up from its slumber. The minister of education, Adamu Adamu, has agreed to be actively involved in the negotiations with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to end the lingering strike. He also promised to get a result within two weeks.
According to media reports, Adamu gave this indication last week Tuesday during a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari by relevant government ministries, departments and agencies. The president was said to have been updated on the current face-off with ASUU, which is now in its 6th month. Adamu is to be joined in negotiations by the minister of labour and employment, Dr Chris Ngige, and the secretary to the government of the federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, who would both act as observers.
This is encouraging. Since the beginning of the strike about six months ago, this is the first time we are seeing serious efforts on the part of the federal government to resolve the issue. Ngige, who has been discussing with ASUU representatives, did not appear to enjoy the confidence of ASUU. They believe he is a biased conciliator, who does not mean well for the union.
Instead of joining the negotiations from the beginning, the minister of education did not bother. He claimed that the issue was for the labour minister to resolve. Is it any wonder that nothing concrete has been achieved since the discussions began?
Other unions threatening to strike
Meanwhile, many other labour unions have since vowed to join the strike in solidarity with ASUU. They include the Nigeria Labour Congress( NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), the Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP), National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria, National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers.
Students of federal universities are also preparing for protests if the lingering strike continues.
The grievances of ASUU
Most of the grievances of the university lecturers revolve around the funding of the institutions, university autonomy and their welfare. They are asking both the federal and state governments to fund public universities. It is a shame that most of our universities today have no functional libraries and laboratories.
They are asking for discontinuance of the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), which they say negates the autonomy of the universities. Instead, they are asking for the immediate deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS ), which was developed by universities themselves to replace IPPIS.
They are asking for the release of the visitation panels to federal universities. They are asking for earned academic allowances, an adjustment in their salaries and payment of promotion arrears.
16 strikes in 23 years
It is regrettable that most of these issues have been on the table for many years without resolution. ASUU started going on strike in 1988 during the military regime of President Ibrahim Babangida. The usual solution then was to proscribe the union while most of the issues that generated the strikes remained unresolved.
Since the return of civilian government in 1999, university lecturers have gone on strike on about 16 occasions. In 1999, the strike lasted for five months. three months in 2001, it lasted for two weeks. in 2002, six months in 2003, two weeks in 2005, one week in 2006, three months in 2007, one week in 2008, four months in 2009, five months in 2010, two months in 2011, six months in 2013, one month in 2017, three months in 2018 and nine months in 2020. The current one is already going into the sixth month.
Implications for the education sector
How to end the strikes
To end these lingering and recurring strikes in the universities, some people have called for the banning of ASUU but as we observed during the military regime, this is not the solution. As I have said in a previous write-up, drastic challenges require drastic solutions.
Conclusion
The crises in our education sector require urgent and drastic solutions. This can only be addressed through good governance.
Until we have sensitive, responsible and accountable leaders, these challenges will continue to live with us.
Ogbamosa, a legal practitioner/communications consultant, writes via mack_ogbamosa@yahoo.com
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