ASUU, enough is indeed enough!

NIGERIANS and especially the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have heard the order from the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria: “Enough is enough!” The union is not deaf. It couldn’t be. ASUU has never been. Its teeming members are not dumb. They shouldn’t be, because they are teachers in universities. As a group populated by mostly people educated to PhD, its members should know President Muhammadu Buhari was serious and meant it when he charged them to dust their mossy lecture files and return to the classroom. ASUU should realise that our dear president is now worried about how a simple trade dispute has been made intractable by its members’ obstinacy. President Buhari is deeply concerned that public university students in Nigeria are beginning to rust at home. We must have missed the point or failed to listen when President Buhari started to court and beg ASUU – since February – when the strike began. Enough is enough.

On March 12, 2022, this column listed ASUU strike as one of those things – along with electricity supply/billing and petroleum supply/pricing – that are currently stressing and disheveling Nigerians the most. The column had asked ordinary Nigerians to choose their stress from the trio. It also noted that stressful life of Nigerians is not evenly spread among all categories of the citizens of the country unlike in engineering where “stress distribution should be across the bar.” However, the contention is that stress levels are not the same in any given economy, considering that the more luxury you can afford, the less your life of stress. To counter this is the fact that nearly all basic necessities of life which are taken for granted in many economies are luxury in Nigeria. Electricity, water, passable roads in localities and a strike-free university education system are some examples of these. This fact heightens Nigeria’s own problems and, by extension, the life of pressure the citizens lead. Perhaps, the order given by the president to ASUU might have emanated from the nerve-racking effects of the strike on President Buhari. The ASUU strike is stressful to him, so enough is enough.

The president has spoken. It is therefore not for ASUU to explain or stand its ground trying to analyse what the president said and the propriety or otherwise of his speech. He hasn’t asked for too much, he only demanded that ASUU should rein-in the hands of the child on their back… He merely wants ASUU to end the strike so that students can go back to school. As far as the president is concerned, it should be that simple. He noted that the future of the country depends on the quality of educational institutions and education. on strike is taking toll on students and parents. That’s why he said “We hope that ASUU will sympathise with the people on the prolonged strike. Truly, enough is enough for keeping students at home. Don’t hurt the next generation for goodness’ sake.” That is a father who cares talking at a very crucial and timely period in the life of the strike. ASUU, enough is enough!

Surely, a parent like Professor Peter Olamakinde Olapegba of the University of Ibadan must also be praying for a resolution of the impasse. But he cannot dish out orders like President Buhari did. He too would be pleading with President Buhari for a solution, a genuine resolution of the issues. Olapegba would also be looking at the strike from the prism of a parent, whose children are at home due to the strike in which he is involved. Again, he will also be contemplating what he could do from the angle of a university professor who wants his children to be properly educated while he gets properly remunerated as well for the job he does. To him too, enough is enough of all the shenanigans he would say he had seen and heard about the entire strike episode. We have all forgotten that ASUU didn’t just plunge into a strike action. There were warnings, calls and appeals. There were also warning strikes before the strike rolled into a marathon.

ASUU is about the most popular and enduring trade union in Nigeria. Perhaps, the university lecturers can pass as the best organised team or association in the country today. It has come a long way and has remained almost the same since people like us got to know about its activities in the days of (then) Dr Attahiru Jega of the military era. This accolade used to be that of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). The NLC has gone south, relegated so far below that Nigerians no longer remember vividly if there is such a trade union. Bank workers had their own too: NUBIFIE and ASSBIFIE. NUPENG and PENGASSAN were popular too and did their bits as we travelled to this spot. However, ASUU has remained enduing in the quest to make demands and stand by their principles. There was Nigeria Labour Congress.

Trust this ASUU to respond to the emotional appeal by President Buhari. It said the strike should not have lasted more than one week if the government took public education seriously. There have been MoUs, MoAs and reports, including one of the latest done by Professor Nimi Dimkpa Briggs. The Minister of Education and the Minister of Labour must know about these. But the issues seem to overwhelm the powers that be. But the president’s audience clapped when he advised ASUU to call of the strike or suspend it. ASUU should not stress our president. The association should just order its members to go back to the classroom because the president has spoken!