(Opinion) Way Out Of Newest Pandemic Called ASUU Strike Ravaging Nigeria

The ASUU strike is fast assuming a bigger threat and an impending disaster to the economic growth of Nigeria just as the terrible Covid-19 pandemic that crippled the Nation and entire re world in 2020; an industrial crisis that has thrown a spoke in the wheel of the progress of Nigerian youth and the nation at large.

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The unions are demanding better welfare packages, more funds to run the universities, a stop to the indiscriminate setting up of new universities, the discontinuation of the use of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System, IPPIS, as the payment platform in the university system among others. Though a series of meetings have held between the government and the unions, so far, nothing tangible has come out of those meetings.

ASUU embarked on strike on 14 February, demanding among other things, the deployment of University Transparency and Accountability Solution, UTAS, to replace IPPIS and the implementation of the 2009 renegotiated agreement which contains its members’ conditions of service.

The failure to reach an agreement with the government has led the union to continue to extend the initial four week strike. The strike has now lasted almost six months.

Zonal chapters have held their respective congresses to decide on a way forward after the expiration of the last extension on August 1, 2022.

Equally, the last meeting between ASUU and the government representatives was deadlocked. Mr Osodeke said the government “did not bring anything new to the negotiation table.”

“They (Nimi Briggs committee) came with nothing. What they came with is from the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission which does not represent anything,” said the ASUU President.

Mr Osedeke also reiterated his comments that come 2023, Nigerians should only vote for leaders who will place priority on the country’s education sector and fund the universities.

“Anybody who in his campaign did not show they will revive the university system, they should vote them out. Anybody who you believe cannot take care of your interest, whose children are busy schooling abroad, do not vote for them. And I want to repeat it, you don’t need to vote for them,” he said.

From the look of things, President Muhammadu Buhari’s sudden ultimatum to the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, to resolve the strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, within two weeks, was a mere delay tactic.

The president gave the ultimatum on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. It expired on Tuesday, August 2, 2022. During that period, there was no noticeable indication that any meaningful interaction with ASUU and other striking university workers’ unions took place. If they did, the Minister has not, till now, told the nation what transpired and progress being made.

Rather, what we saw was Adamu’s rather childish effort to shift the blame for his failure to handle this crisis in his Ministry to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige. Adamu said he left the negotiations to Ngige because the latter insisted that the International Labour Organisation, ILO, statute mandated the Labour Minister to lead the negotiations.

In giving the ultimatum, the president placed the responsibility squarely on Adamu’s shoulder. Ngige was glad to be taken out of the picture. The coast was clear for Adamu to wave his magic wand which he had withheld in the previous five months of the strike due to Ngige’s involvement. What came out was not even a whimper, let alone a bang. Seeing that nothing was forthcoming on the presidential ultimatum, ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, announced a further four weeks extension of the strike on Monday, August 1, 2022.

Nigerians are left to wonder what is going on between Buhari and Adamu. Why is Buhari keeping Adamu on an important portfolio like Education when clearly, he has repeatedly failed to perform? Under his watch, the number of out-of-school children skyrocketed from 10.5 million to over 18 million currently. Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world.

Here was a minister who promised that the Federal Government would declare a “state of emergency” on education in April 2018. That date came and went, and nothing of the sort happened. If Adamu stays in office till the expiry of the Buhari government in May 2023, he would have spent eight years on the job. He would be the longest serving Education Minister. What justification can he possibly give for his unprecedented long period in that office, except perhaps, his touted personal relationship with President Buhari?

Given that the nation since independent, in 1960 has produced fifty-one (51) Ministers of Education and Ministers of State for Education, twenty-three (23) of whom were teachers at various levels prior to their appointment, fifteen (15) studied educational courses in universities and colleges of education, and eleven (11) have been seasoned educational administrators or university Professors or senior lecturers, it baffles the mind at the spate of lackadaisical attitude and unwillingness to invest their mind into utilizing the nations resources to better the education sector that produced them.