In two stories that The Nation published, one above the other on February 21, you could well sight the descent in the quality of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) campaigns, summarized by incessant strikes.
That, however, is without prejudice to some genuine complaints that ASUU might have, which the government has not solved.
In one of those stories, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB), backed ASUU on its rejection of the government’s Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), for its perceived inflexibility for academic work.
“I am not a fan of ASUU,” he told a gathering, “but they have a point here. IPPIS is unsuitable for the university system.” Proof? Short-and-sharp: with IPPIS, it would have been impossible to recruit a Nigerian with PhD in Botany, that Oloyede sighted at Australia, when he was vice chancellor at the University of Ilorin (Unilorin).
Recall: Vice Chancellor Oloyede was no friend of ASUU. As helmsman at Unilorin, he called ASUU’s bluff and kept his university from joining its incessant strikes. But without emotions, he made his pro-ASUU point this time round and he sounds very credible.
Contrast Oloyede’s take to the visceral effusions of Prof. Ayo Akinwole, chairman of the University of Ibadan ASUU. His was a flurry of demonization, personal attacks and sundry dons’ lamentation: the Federal Government lacks integrity; the government implements IMF destructive policies; the Education minister is insensate; the government treats lecturers as slaves; lecturers’ take-home pay is scandalous, and so on, and so forth!
Pray, even if these allegations are true, which audience does our angry don think he is addressing? A band of Dugbe market women in Ibadan, easily moved my moans, lamentations and sundry theatrics? Or hard-boiled fellows, only swayed by compelling logic, facts and figures?
If Prof. Akinwole’s presentation truly gauges the level of the quality of ASUU’s discourse, then it’s no surprise that what it hits on is strike and more strikes. That is unfortunate. To surmount the ASUU-Government challenges, strikes are clearly an unsustainable tool.
Hardball said this before and it bears repeating: the flower of Nigerian intellect, which ASUU should represent, should out with fresher thinking; and embrace a pragmatic culture of give-and-take.
It umpteenth resort to strikes is progressively making it less friends, even if it could have some justifiable causes. The government too should strike implementable deals with ASUU, to build confidence on both sides.
It’s time to change grand strategies — on both sides — to save public tertiary education. A word is enough for the wise.