Tag: ASUU STRIKE

Since the beginning of this decade, allocation to education sector had remained below 10% of budget allocation except in 2013 when it was 11.49%. In 2004 it was seven per cent which is the same as 2018! The figure for 2012 was 8.4% and 6.1% in 2016 but down to 5.41% in 2017. Actual budget spending is usually much lower, to the detriment of the sector. A cursory look at the 2017 allocation for neighbouring countries in West Africa shows how unserious our federal and state governments are in education matter. Thus, in 2017, the budget allocations show that Ghana allocated 23.1 per cent; Benin Republic, 15.9%; Cape Verde 13.8 per cent and Liberia, the second lowest in the sub-region beside Nigeria was 12.1 percent.

A country where half of the population is illiterate is in serious trouble, particularly in the future and that is the situation with Nigeria. Recently, the minister for education released statistics that over 60 million Nigerians are illiterates and international statistics continue to put the number of children out of school as between 10 and 13 million. All these statistics can be regarded as underestimation because even half of those we regard as literates are semi-literate given the expected global standard of education. What is baffling is that these statistics are treated by the political class as trivial issues. They do not see those children as future Boko Haram that will cause socio-political instability for the country and for their prized children.

The crops of professors in all Nigerian universities today, (public and private) are products of public funded institutions. Increasingly, many young professors are finding it difficult to get international grants or invited to participate in research in international group meetings. This is because the international research communities are not sure of the depth of research being carried out in Nigerian universities. I make bold to say that but for ASUU and the strikes, the tertiary institutions would have gone the way of lower level public schools with empty laboratories and non-existent libraries. Teachers or tutors in public primary and secondary schools, who can be regarded as part of the elites, have lost confidence in their school system and prefer to send their children to private schools. Those public schools are meant for the children of the poor, yet they can boast of the most experienced teaching staff in the pre-tertiary educational system just like academic staff in public tertiary institutions. In different newspapers or even in various audio-visual media, we have seen pupils in public primary schools sitting on the floor to study or studying under trees in the 21st century Nigeria, despite massive financial resources.

ASUU members have, over time, prevented the total destruction of the university system by checkmating the political class in its bid to do so. Contrary to the opinion of some people that the strikes destroy the system, I make bold to say that the strikes, which is largely supported by its enlightened membership had prevented the destruction. Many tertiary institutions today, including the universities, can be confidently renamed “TETFund University” or “TETFund Polytechnic” because virtually all their buildings were constructed with money from TETFund otherwise, they would have remained glorified secondary schools. Of course, TETFund was suggested by ASUU and is therefore a product of the union’s negotiations and struggle. Even now, the supply of fund from that source is being constrained by bureaucracy which seems to indicate that the political class is totally against quality education or generally against human capital development for Nigeria.

Or, why has the government not pursued other sources that were suggested by ASUU?

As it were, it seems that those in the political class who felt their children cannot rub shoulders with the children of the poor but could not send their children abroad continue to divert public funds either directly or by proxy, to send those children to private universities. The issue of sacrifice by ASUU members may not be understood or appreciated by the public. During strikes, no lectures are allowed and no meeting is allowed on complying campuses. The implications are that lecturers undergoing postgraduate studies are stuck, just as all promotion exercises for academic staff are put on hold till the strike is called off. Now, the academics are being punished with hunger for fighting to keep the government on its toes with respect to maintaining quality tertiary education! Their children, like children of other Nigerians are also at home. Few days ago, the children of the ASUU President were asking me, euphemistically, when they would return to campus and I told them to continue to watch television till they see their father directing us to return to the lecture rooms! Of course, we, their parents, are also products of strikes. We studied in Nigeria when private universities were not even on the drawing table. We are proud of our quality and the struggles over the years border on making sure we reproduce that quality.

All over the world, private universities exist side by side with the public universities. If you google world university ranking by Webometric, you would notice that out of the first 10 universities in the world, or even in Africa, at any time, seven are public universities. The implication is that governments in those other countries are ever committed to funding their universities to maintain competitive edge with private universities. In Nigeria, public universities still lead not because of proper funding but because the academics in those universities are carrying out massive research which are largely funded by international organisations. That is why you do not find any Nigerian university within the first 2500 universities in the world or in the first 50 in Africa.

A major funding aspect that ASUU must pursue now, apart from completion of virtually abandoned ongoing projects, should be for procurement of scientific instruments and equipment for scientific research outputs that are capable of promoting industrialization with local contents to reduce importation of basic chemicals and additives, modern production in oil and gas industry, organic and inorganic agriculture, all of which are capable for unleashing employment and economic development with modern flavour. And of course, further sponsorship young academics for doctorate degrees abroad. To that extent, this strike must be pursued to the logical end for the survival of the tertiary education system.

Many times, people have suggested that ASUU should adopt other techniques besides strike option but no one has suggested any or particular option. I am aware that the union had tried some other methods, such as “work-to-rule’ or holding unto students results, in the past only to realise that Nigerian government, irrespective of colour, acts only when the doors are shut against the students, provoking pubic reactions. The lower level education unions must wake up from slumber with a view to producing future Nigerians from poor homes imbued with quality that will make them competitive to enter tertiary institutions with the children of the elites. Only the best is good for Nigeria’s future survival.

• Tella, a professor of economics writes from Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State.

This is in response to a recent open letter in The Nation, December 14, by Johnson Olaleru, a Professor of Mathematics and a colleague, in my capacity as a card carrying member of the highly respected Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and an active stakeholder in the ASUU project.

The author stated inter alia, that he aligns himself with the purpose of the strike but disagrees with the method of using strike to compel government to do the needful. The writer complained that the union did not exhaust the power of diplomacy, lobbying skill and the pen before the strike.

It is doubtful if the writer avails for himself the bundle of information that both ASUU National Executive Committee and the Branch Executives usually make available to members. It is traditional for ASUU leaders  to seek audience with government and make efforts aimed at lobbying government to make good the various agreements and MOUs. The most recent being the 2017 memorandum of action which was expected to be totally implemented within six months.

The rank and file of ASUU knows that governments in our land commonly employ delay tactics in a bid to frustrate agreements and MOUs without acceptable reasons. Even on occasions when the union win cases in courts against government, many of such court judgments remain in the cooler without being obeyed. An example is the staff school judgment which government is yet to obey. It is frustrating to see ASUU leaders spending ample times writing and visiting one government official or the other at the expense of their safety on the roads, in the air and their personal professional developments. I think we should appreciate these leaders for their efforts to get government to do what ordinarily should be taken for granted in saner climes.  It is so sad that some ASUU leaders have paid the ultimate price in the course of their service to the union.

It is sad that the Nigerian government don’t see education as priority.  Past trends of strikes in the universities over the years are not studied neither do they make deliberate efforts to prevent needless agitation. The psychological trauma on the part of students and staff are some of the fundamental reasons why responsive governments should go extra miles to prevent such agitations. The popular ASUU strike of 1992 led by Professor AtahiruJega, and other strikes after that should have taught us some lessons. It took pain and blood for the 1992 agreement to be reached and signed and subsequently improved upon over the years.

Why would ASUU make progress during the hostile military governments only to be rubbished during a democratic dispensation where debates and free speech are expected as democratic norms?  Why will the government go into agreements with labour unions and issues out memoranda of understanding or actions which they are not sincere about?

How much lobbying and writing do we have to do before these rulers know that the rest of the world had left us behind especially in education? How much lobbying do we have to do for the ruling class to know that the modern world is presently living in top level information age induced by top level Education and Technology. How much writing and lobbying do they need for our rulers to know that Nigeria is terribly receding into the fourth world backward from the present third world because of their neglect of education. Do they need information that Singapore and Malaysia even India our former colleagues in the third world had made giant strides in education and technology and have left us behind while we continue our almost yearly strikes in the education sector as the most populous black nation on earth?  Paradoxically, most of these rulers send their children to top league universities abroad, and later fix them at top level positions in prestigious establishments or political positions in the country upon their graduation. It is so sad.

An alternative to strike is for government to show sincerity, initiate research into the causes of the problems and provide solutions in an enabling environment during peace times. A research and development division in the Federal Ministry of Education and the NUC should be able to work on these when all staff are happy and busy in their various posts. Advanced democracies don’t wait until crisis time beyond finding solutions to myriad of problems facing them.

There are some major parameters that attract low rankings to Nigerian universities. An important component is grossly inadequate funding and inability to attract top scholars and students around the world to our universities. How many Nobel Prize award winners can our present salary system and opportunities for research grants attract to our universities?  How many can we produce locally given the present level of our facilities?   South African universities are on top in Africa because they give their scholars living wages and basic amenities to do scholarship and research. Their systems have been programmed to respond automatically to inflation without any need for massive and destructive strikes. The South African Research Foundation support top level research and publications in top rated international journals in monetary terms. People there hardly use their personal emoluments for research. Compared to Nigeria, a professor at the bar in any Nigerian federal universities earn  less than $1,500 per month, an amount which is less than what a teaching or graduate assistant earn in Princeton or Harvard universities, and the Nigerian academics are  expected on many instances to  support attendance of international conferences and research within these salaries.

Tell me how such level of funding will attract top world scholars needed to enhance our degree reputation. And we are expected to compete with other universities in advanced countries where decorum prevails and where staff, research and teaching are massively supported.

Government should sit down at a serious negotiation table and do a comprehensive appraisal of the present system including the reward system with our eyes on the future of this country without playing politics with education. We should do a comprehensive analysis of our problems including realistic pay of what academics should be earning. What should be paid across board to attract top flight internationals experts to our universities? The present level of pay cannot attract such categories of experts. And any university struggling to be among the top brackets in the world ranking cannot afford to wave this off.

During the 1992 struggle, ASUU took pain to collect salaries all over the world and used African average to bargain for what we are still earning till date. A situation whereby the rest of the world especially African universities had left us behind in terms of pay and infrastructures is clearly unacceptable. And what about terrible inflation and massive devaluation that had made nonsense of our existence? As academics, ours is a profession that is not location bound. We have the whole world to contend with. A university is a universal institution. Universal rules, conditions and pay must be applicable as much as possible. The present conditions seriously limit our capacity to attract the best from anywhere in the world. Gone are the days when some of our first generation universities including Ibadan, were classified as some of the best universities in the Commonwealth. Those were the days when our first degrees were accepted directly for doctorate research at London, Cambridge and Oxford universities. That was made possible because of the seriousness of purpose of the then national and regional governments. Many countries today are looking down on our degrees because of our inability to manage ourselves properly. It is sad if our present government and other proprietors of universities are claiming ignorance of these travails.

Another major problem is the issue of disbursement of TETFUND funds. To enhance scholarship, we need to have a second look at the proper utilization of the TETFUND collected funds.  In Nigeria, some restricted thematic areas of research are approved and forced on everyone by TETFUND operators without looking at the long term interest of researchers, future developments of the areas that are left out, the interest of the universities, the nation and the whole world.  We note that substantial portion of Tetfund funds are lying fallow while operators keep saying that academics cannot write good proposals to access those funds. Some of us consider such statements as blackmail since government policy is restrictive to their narrow thematic approved research areas. The existing policy cannot attract international top researchers to the country when all areas of research are not equally treated for funding.

• Ayoola, Professor of Mathematics, is member, University of Ibadan Governing Council.