First, it was the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) strike. Then Primary and Secondary school tachers started their own. Now, it is the turn of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). What is happening in the education sector? Is there a plan to ground the sector? As the teachers insist on fighting for their right, their wards, who feel the pinch, are crying.

For the education sector, it is a season of strikes. First, it was the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) that downed tools nationwide, protesting the failure of the Federal Government to implement its 2009 agreement with the union. The union’s strike paralysed academic activities in many federal and state polytechnics.

Its demands include the non-reconstitution of the governing council of polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of technology; non-release of government white paper on the visitation panels to federal polytechnics; non-commencement of Needs Assessment of polytechnics, among others.

The strike by public primary and secondary school teachers under the aegis of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) followed in some states to protest the non-implementation of the 27.5 per cent Teachers Peculiar Allowances at the beginning of last month. While some NUT wings have resolved the issue with their state governments, others are still in the trenches fighting to reach an agreement on the payment of the allowances.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) started its own strike last Tuesday. Unlike in the past, it did not embark on any warning strike; it took the public by surprise when it began the strike over the non-implementation of some parts of the 2009 ASUU/FGN agreement.

The strike was announced after a meeting at the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), in Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State.

The bone of contention is the failure to pay lecturers some allowances.

These allowances were earned by lecturers while supervising examinations, serving as heads of department, or supervising postgraduate students, or other related activities.

In an interview, Comrade Idaevbor Bello, an ASUU member at the University of Benin (UNIBEN), accused the government of blackmail and refusing to implement the agreement after signing it in 2009. Contrary to the perceived suddenness of the strike, Idaevbor said ASUU had been working behind the scene to get the government to implement the agreement.

“In 2009, the government reached an agreement with the union. It was some sort of blackmail because the government just implemented the monetary aspect of the remuneration and ignored the rest.

“In the university system, people are constantly working round the clock on exams, as heads of department and other roles. For these, they ought to get responsibility allowances, excess workload, postgraduate supervision allowance; clinical supervision and all that.

“Earned allowances are an important component of the agreement that the government simply refused to implement. They started shifting responsibility to the universities, saying they will only pay a part and the university will source for funds to pay the rest. That was even after the union pestered the government to implement it. If they signed the agreement, they should be ready to fund it.

“Since 2009, we have been working round the clock trying to get the government to honour the agreement. Even in 2011 we went briefly but they refused to pay attention to the issues,” he said.

Some other components of the agreement are increased funding to universities; extension of retirement age of professors to 70, better condition of service, among others.

Chairman of the Lagos State University (LASU) chapter of ASUU Dr Adekunle Idris said the union is in total support of the strike because of the non-implementation of the agreement after five years. He added that even after the national strike is off, the local ASUU chapter may continue the strike if the Lagos State government fails to implement the agreement.

“A lot of the items of the 2009 ASUU-Federal Government agreement have not been implemented. The Lagos State government also freely agreed to execute the agreement at a meeting held with the governor and Head of Service (HoD) and ASUU-LASU, and signed by both parties on Friday, December 31, 2010.

“It is unfortunate that up till 2013, government has not implemented this agreement. Part of this agreement is that universities will comply with other Acts that have to do with the running of the universities. There is a major one – the 2012 Universities Miscellaneous Provision Act passed by the National Assembly and assented to by the President of Nigeria.

“This Act states that the new retirement age of academics of professorial cadre shall be 70. The Lagos State government has not domesticated this law for LASU. Our academics on professorial cadre who are expected to produce new PhD and other professors have had to retire at age 65. As a matter of fact, the university management started writing some of them ahead of their retirement. A forward-looking management will not write off their best brains. This is frustrating our members and making them feel they are not wanted by the system.”

Other lecturers who spoke on the strike and the non-implementation of various components of the agreement said this time around, it would be a fight to finish.

One of the lecturers from the Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH) who did not want to be named said the strike would go on for as long as the government refused to meet their demands.

“There would be no academic activity until the matter is resolved,” he said.

Dr Celestine Aguoru, ASUU Chairman of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi (UAM) also said the Federal Government should implement the agreement it voluntarily signed.

“ASUU has been pushed to the wall and left with no choice than to embark on the strike. ASUU is only trying to arrest the almost falling standard of education in the country. Nigerians should prevail on the Federal Government to save education,” he said.

If it takes one year for the government to implement the agreement, a lecturer in the Department of Geology, Federal University of Technology, Minna (FUTMINNA), said they were ready to stay out of classrooms, studios, laboratories and workshops. He added that the government’s willingness to allow students sit at home further underscores its insincerity.

“For me, if we will have to stay away for a year let it be. Government is not sincere about our demands and if we do not put our feet down now, I can not see any positive thing from this government. Earlier, the government sent people to appeal to ASUU, we yielded; let them not think we will this time. Our leaders are insensitive.

“I know the students will suffer and our leaders care less about them because if they care, government ought to attend to ASUU and now ASUP has joined. This development speaks volume about our leaders,” he said.

A lecturer at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), who pleaded anonymity, said if implemented, the demands would benefit students as well.

“Well, this ASUU strike is not just for our interest but that of the students too; because there has been a memorandum of understanding between Federal Government and us, and the Federal Government approved it. So, why should it relent since 2009? Each time they go for meetings the representatives of the Federal Government would either not come or say they could not do it until when they make it official,” he said.

Lecturers may be insistent on the strike, but many of the students, who are forced to stay away from the classrooms, are not happy about it. Some are worried about the elongation of their courses and the attendant effect on the quality of education; others worry about increased costs of their programmes.

University and polytechnic campuses across the country visted were desolate, and devoid of the usual student activities.

However, some students of the striking universities are luckier than others as their lecturers voted to allow them complete their examinations before embarking on the strike fully. This was the case at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, (ESUT), the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU), Awka, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and others.

Kemi Busari, a 400-Level Political Science student of OAU, said they were lucky to be allowed to complete their examinations.

“When we heard about the strike, I felt very bad about it. Though it is affecting my school presently but they allowed us to finish our exams last Friday before joining the strike,” she said.

However, she said this did not take away from the implications of the strike.

“The major implication of this strike to OAU students is that it will give us automatic extra year like some of us that had experienced up to three or four ASUU strikes since we got to campus. So, most of us go home being idle and those that are not idle indulge in criminal activities. So, for ASUU, I think it is high time our lecturers sought better means of bargaining with the Federal Government rather than going on strike,” she said.

Students from other schools such as the University of Calabar, CRUTECH, UAM, Benue State University (BSU), FUTMINNA, Usumanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS), Bayero University, Kano, and others were not so lucky. Their examinations have been suspended because of the strike.

Already, students of the Bayero University Kano BUK and their Kano State University of Science and Technology (KUST), Wudil counterparts have all vacated their hostels and headed for their states and homes.

Some of those who spoke said: “We appeal to the Federal Government to address the demands of the teachers/lecturers and save the sector from another crisis.”

Some final year students lamented their fate and the effect of the strike on them. One of them, Zanaib Yan-Mohammed, said: “The strike would surely take its toll on us. We would have started our examination on Monday but the strike has paralysed it.”

At UDUS, examinations for the second semester have been truncated by the strike. Yet, the university only just resumed after an unrest by students caused a month-long closure.

A female student said of the strike: “We are put in bondage of sort, especially we final year students. I am privileged to hear that the hostels will under lock and key. Those students relying on the fact that they could hang around for lack of finance to travel home will have no option than to quit the campus.”

She pleaded to the academic body to, for the sake of their future, call off the strike, “not for the Federal Government’s but for our sake. Its affecting our intellectual abilities and exposing our parents to financial losses.”

Students’ Union Government President of BUK Sani Saidu Ibrahim, a 400-level student of English, said December graduation date was no longer feasible for them.

“We ought to have started writing our final examination in two weeks time but ASUU struck, we are now taken aback, as some of us are due for graduation in December; you can see what ASUU has done to us,” he moaned.

Ibrahim further said about 500 Law students may miss Law School if the strike was not called off.

“About 500 Law students, whose names were shortlisted for Law School, should be writing their exams in two weeks,”he said, adding that “their fate is hanging in the balance if the strike persists.”

Miss Joyce Ugochukwu of Kogi State University, Anyigba, is not finding the strike funny. She told The Nation that it has compounded her education because her poor parents had to borrow to finance her education.

“As I am speaking with you now, I am stranded; I cannot even transport myself back to Anambra State where I come from. Most of my course mates have since gone home. I am at the mercy of God,” she said.

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Posted in Nigerian Newspapers. A DisNaija.Com network.

Source: The Nation Newspaper

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