No longer defensible

Editorial

No matter how members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) see it, the point is, they cannot be doing the same thing all the time and expect a different result. For the umpteenth time, members of the umbrella labour union of academics in Nigerian public universities have been on strike as a result of grievances with government and the institutions have been grounded for the last eight months. Incessant strikes by members of ASUU, which have become near-yearly rituals, paralysing their institutions, rendering students idle and psychologically distraught, compounding the financial burden of parents and worsening the woes of the educational system and the economy as a whole have become the most common feature of the country’s beleaguered university system.

Those parents who can afford it are thus forced to send their children to expensive local private universities, even more costly educational institutions abroad, or schools in neighbouring West African countries that are not necessarily of a higher standard than those at home. Surely, ASUU should know that something is terribly wrong when it repetitively resorts to the same strike tactic without achieving its objectives. It is thus understandable that key stakeholders like parents, and other members of the public who would have ordinarily been sympathetic to ASUU’s cause have come to see the union itself as one of the core problems of the system.

In the 1980s and 1990s, ASUU used the strike weapon courageously and won significant concessions from respective military dictatorships, particularly with respect to enhanced funding for the universities. Within that context, perhaps prolonged closure of the universities was a price worth paying for the expected gains. But ever since, the strikes have grown more frequent while the benefits resulting from them have continually diminished. The rationale for ASUU’s current strike is particularly difficult to comprehend.

The union’s main grouse is with the new Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), which the Federal Government has introduced as the platform for payment of salaries and allowances for all its employees. Insisting that the IPPIS is unsuited for the university system and negates the principle of university autonomy, ASUU has proposed that government utilise its own University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) in paying university teachers. We find it difficult to understand why ASUU wants the adoption of what amounts to a segregationist policy in the mode of payment for different categories of Federal Government employees.

We are aware of nothing fundamentally peculiar in the university system that makes it impossible for lecturers to be paid the way other Federal Government workers are. This is especially so because the IPPIS was instituted partly to check abuses, enhance transparency and eliminate loopholes for resource leakage. In the same vein, ASUU’s insistence that government must meet the terms of agreements reached with it as far back as 2009 before it calls off its strike is unrealistic. True, government has no business signing agreements with unions that it does not intend to honour. But then, human realities are not static and agreements are not cast in stone.

It is unfortunate, for instance, that ASUU is obviously not taking into consideration the current COVID-19 pandemic that has dislocated economies across the world, and Nigeria is no exception. The Federal Government’s revenue has taken a plunge by over 60 per cent and ASUU cannot afford to be indifferent to this fact. It is only rational that the union makes consequential adjustments in its demands just as other private and public sector organisations have been forced to do in the face of new realities.

The government has promised to examine UTAS, which in a sense means shifting ground. If at the end of the day it feels the system meets its set criteria for instituting IPPIS and adopts it, we hope ASUU too will be ready to shift some ground. Even if UTAS fails to meet government’s criteria, both parties must still be able to come to a round table to see how they could come to an agreement. ASUU should avoid giving the impression that its members are untouchables. The union cannot dictate to its employers how it wants to be paid, especially when the issues concern transparency and integrity which we feel ASUU should be championing.

The most critical thing for now is for ASUU to call off its strike and ensure that the universities reopen immediately while continuing its negotiation with government in the light of current realities.