If there’s one thing the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike has achieved it is beaming the searchlight on tertiary education in Nigeria. Beyond attempts to play politics with our emotions, most Nigerians are now aware of the challenges facing, not just our varsities but the entire education sector. Is the university to blame for a student that cannot communicate effectively in English? Would there not have been a dysfunction somewhere at the base? But the question will remain, how he got into the university in the first place and how did he graduate?
Another issue it has raised is where we place our priorities as a nation. Because of the prolonged nature, ‘strike weariness’ set in within ASUU ranks as voices of dissent started emerging asking whether strike is the best option to force the government to honour agreements it willingly signed.
This, I must point out, is not a recent occurrence. As far back as 2009, Prof. Babatunde Munir Ogunsanwo who delivered the 49th Inaugural Lecture of Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), said: “The union cannot claim the dearth of expertise in industrial psychology, sociology, law or crisis management, who should be able to synthesize an efficient alternative to strike actions which have done more damage to the public image of ASUU as a union of academics who are never contended but rather are ready to sacrifice the future of their students for the improvement of their personal emoluments.”
Several current and former members of the union have also lent their voices on what some of them term the obsolete nature of strikes. Just like I’ve mentioned in this column in the past, I’m yet to see concrete and workable suggestion on how the union could’ve compelled a government that has other “serious things” on its mind to bother themselves with the ‘harmless’ ranting of some lecturers or professors.
I must state here categorically that I’m not holding brief for ASUU, but I’m only interested in workable and constructive solutions on how to make our varsities competitive and attuned to the challenges of a technologically and knowledge driven 21st century. We are deceiving ourselves that we are in the present while in fact we are still living in the past.
There is no better way to gauge this ‘strike weariness’ than the fallout of the union’s meeting with the president last week. Varsity campuses are divided on the issue of calling off or continuing the strike action. As at Monday this week, The University of Lagos (UNILAG), Lagos State University (LASU), University of Calabar (UNICAL), Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto, Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Federal University of Technology Minna and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso chapters voted that the strike should end. Some of them, however, did that with conditions attached.
On the other hand, the University of Jos (UNIJOS), the University of Benin (UNIBEN) and the Nasarawa State University chapters voted for the strike, continuation.
Dr. David Jankam, UNIJOS chapter chairman, who has been quite critical of government’s handling of the issue, said members did not see any substance in the dialogue with the Federal Government to warrant calling off the strike.
“We have just rounded off our meeting”, he was quoted as saying. “As a matter of fact, our members voted overwhelmingly for the continuation of the strike. I can also confirm to you that five of the eight universities that make up the Bauchi Zone of ASUU have also voted for continuation of the strike, and the general saying is that the government has not shown any commitment so far.”
Prior to the latest development, and as the politics of emotion continued, Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam, last week, in an interview with Thisday Newspaper, alleged that the strike embarked upon by the ASUU was aimed at bringing down the government of President Goodluck Jonathan. This is perhaps the fourth time the governor is making the allegation. Recollect that he is also the chairman of the Federal Government’s Needs Assessment Committee for Nigerian Universities.
Let’s hear the Governor: “ASUU’s leadership is determined that PDP government must be brought down and the easiest way to do it is ensuring that every family is affected. And so, the Nigerian family will simply say, ‘look, to keep this government in place, our children will be out of school. So it is better that we kick this government out and bring another government.’
“That is all they are doing. There is nothing to it. Otherwise, the Federal Government has touched on all the requests that led to the strike by ASUU. They have no basis rather than playing politics with the strike and then holding the nation hostage and destroying the future of this country.”
Buttressing his claim, he said: “I feel that if it is not that they have introduced politics, you know people can’t say that they don’t have political leanings. ASUU’s leadership, we know where they are standing in this whole political process. They can’t deny that they are sympathising with opposition parties and they are determined to destroy the PDP government. That is what they are doing and it is nothing more than that.”
I called a few ASUU members to see how they will react to the governor’s allegation. “I have never heard of a more preposterous allegation than this”, one of them told me “what is my business with the PDP or any government in power when all I’m asking for is for the necessary tools and environment to be able to pass on knowledge to young Nigerians. I feel pained that someone as highly placed as a governor can make such allegation.”
That notwithstanding, the strike action will go down in history as one of the most discussed ASUU strike of all time. For me, the obverse side provides us an opportunity to critically and analytically look at the curricula and course contents in our varsities. There is a huge gulf between theory and practice in the country. The content of some of the courses taught in our institutions have no place in the 21st century, but unfortunately, I don’t see that being discussed in all the postulations I have so far monitored.
For instance, 9/11 has changed the world and we have two broad narratives being written by the ‘good’ guys and the ‘bad’ guys depending on where you belong. In short, security issues are now on the front burner in most countries. Are we aware of this?Some members of ASUU, to the best of my knowledge, know too well that beyond the issues at stake they share part of the blame; they’re not claiming to be saints. Some of them teach with the sole aim of giving grades to their students because the facilities required to augment teaching are not there. I cannot be faulted if I say that the intellectual discourses that were characteristic of our universities in the 1980s and 1990s are long gone; our lecturers have mastered the art of dictating notes to students as the only mode of delivery.
From the federal, state to private, our universities have failed to promote scholarship in the real sense of the term. Our lecturers and professors have become contractors and prefer executive positions to academic ones. Some have failed to serve as mentors to younger academics because they are not on their seats to offer direction and guidance. I wonder how many professorial chairs are truly funded by either corporate organisations or government. If the chairs are not funded, how will the professors conduct research? So many things are wrong with our universities. Beyond the strike we are on an intellectual war!
University administrators are also partly culpable for the internal rot within the universities. However, it must be equally acknowledged that those internal problems are rooted in under-funding, under-staffing, and under-equipping of the universities as well as the devaluation of education and scholarship by successive governments and the substandard environment under which teaching and learning are taking place. This is the crux of the matter.
