ASUU strike and varsities feeding-bottle system

A friend posted on Facebook recently that his five-year-old son inquired from him the meaning of ASUU and he mischievously responded that it was the name of a festival being held in Nigeria every five years!

Who, in all honesty, would blame my friend for his disingenuous disinformation to his son since we all know that strikes by university teachers in Nigeria, who operate under the name – Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) – are truly a five yearly affair!

It is in fact a relay race featuring ASUU, senior non- academic workers, their junior counterparts as well as anything – and everything – that goes by the name of workers unions, not only in Nigerian universities, but also polytechnics and colleges of education.

The sad reality is that Nigeria is yet to articulate what it wants from education and how it hopes to achieve its target in that sector. Some years back, ASUU published pictorial reports of how decrepit university campuses had become. What was seen broke the hearts of many: dilapidated chairs and tables, libraries with dated books, non-existent reagents in laboratories, hostel facilities that would be declared unfit for prisoners. It was, indeed, a tale of woes.

ASUU has for many years been in the trenches against governments, both military and civilian, to force attention to the disheartening environment in which they work, and the poor pay of its members, both of which have led to brain drain. But it seems that the more the government gives, the less it is able to meet the demands of the teachers. In other words, government intervention is never enough, and may never be enough. So, why not think of a way out?

The weapon of choice for lecturers so far seems to be strikes, long and debilitating strikes, after which each government accedes to their demands and enters into agreements which will mostly be breached by the government, and the lecturers will embark on another round of strikes three or four years down the line, most certainly within the five-year mark that my friend told his five-year-old kid. Quite poetic.

This sad cycle must not be allowed to continue. So, what do we do? The federal and state governments should hands off the running of universities. Simple. Minister of State for Labour, former activist Festus Keyamo SAN drew the ire of many during his recent television interview when he said that the government could not meet the financial demands of ASUU. According to him, the financial implication of the university lecturers’ demand is an injection of about N1.2 trillion into university education, a sum he believes that the government cannot afford, given current financial realities and the government’s commitments to other sectors of the economy. ASUU has disputed that figure but the indisputable truth is that the union wants more pay for its members and a better working environment, which boils down to more expenditure by the government.

May I suggest that Nigeria take a pause and look at how other countries have achieved industrial harmony in the education sector while not compromising on standards? The closest country to learn from is colonial Britain, from where Nigeria borrowed formal education.

How is education being funded in the United Kingdom? Is it the British government that pays the salaries of lecturers; provides funding for the purchase of books into libraries, from Cambridge to Manchester, Preston to London; desks and tables in classrooms, and hostels for students at ridiculous tuition fees as obtains in Nigeria? No! The UK government only provides grants and student loans, repayable by the beneficiaries in a long-term, borrower-friendly scheme. Each university then makes money to run itself through endowments and tuition fees, especially from foreign students. The UK system is not remarkably different in many other parts of the developed world even those places where university education is free. There is no free lunch anywhere, someone is paying for it somewhere. Even in Germany and Finland where education is free up to university levels, various shades of social insurance schemes are instituted to put the funding in the hands of the citizenry.

What currently operates in Nigeria is a feeding-bottle system where the kid that cries the loudest gets the most attention. ASUU’s struggle, though noble, is only to join National Assembly members, and other layers of government in howling, to get more from the national purse.

Of course, who would blame the university teachers when they observe that the monthly pay of a university professor in Nigeria is probably what politicians dash their numerous girlfriends after a night out. They have also observed how the government which says it is broke spends thoughtlessly on frivolities. So, ASUU members feel entitled to their share of the so-called national cake.

They therefore yell and turn their backs on classes until the government is blackmailed into acceding to their demands.

As a friend once quoted a Northerner public officer under whom he worked as a youth corps member, when my friend expressed concern that government money was being frittered away: akoi kudi manna; akoi kudi falafala, meaning: there is money, lots of it (in the government purse), the public officer told my friend.

Once ASUU’s current demands are met, it will be a miracle if the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) does not start its own, followed by the Non Academic Staff Union (NASU), the junior counterpart of SSANU! University education in Nigeria is in peril if the government continues to run university education, because every sector’s gaze is on oil earnings.

Yet, as attributed to 19th Century Native American leader, Chief Seattle: “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children.”

Oil earnings are not a gift from our ancestors, but a trust in our hands for our children. They are not supposed to be exhausted – even touched – by our generation but to be invested in long-yielding investments for the next generations.

Unfortunate, the 1999 Constitution — that discredited document, again! — provides for the federal and the state governments to meet every month to share proceeds from oil sales. The beneficiaries then return to their states and federal offices on a spending binge, buying exotic vehicles for civil servants, traditional rulers, throwing cash gifts at neighboring countries and other frolics. It is from these oil earnings that civil servants are paid, and university teachers demand more pay. There is no thought for how each agency of government can be self-sufficient and contribute into the national purse. There is no thought for tomorrow, it will take care of itself.

British universities run two academic sessions in a year in a creative bid to boost income. Their Nigerian counterparts deny students admission and tell applicants to reapply next year! This is because their salaries are not being paid from tuition fees and other earnings by the universities but an entitlement from the government. Middle class Nigerians who, seeing that the dreams of their children to become medical doctors would be truncated by the Nigerian system, struggled and sent their wards to countries in the former soviet bloc. They pay between $4000 and $7000 yearly, apart from accommodation fees and living costs. The affluent send their children to schools in the United States, UK and Canada where tuition fees start from around $25,000 With the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine, countries like Poland, Romania and Georgia have thrown their doors open for foreign students fleeing Ukraine to transfer to their countries. What are Nigerian universities doing? Nothing! They will rather have the students who were already in Years Three, Four and Five to return home and sit for UTME all over! The only possible reason for this attitude is that Nigerian universities depend on government for funding and think of no creative way to boost income.

Akoi kudi manna; akoi kudi falafala!

Oluyinka Olujimi, a former newspaper editor, contributed this piece through, y2olujimi@yahoo.com

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