Much Ado About ASUU/ FG Negotiation

ast Thursday’s appeal by Vice-Chancellors of

Universities to President Muhammadu Buhari, urging him to take over the negotiation between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), as well as with other unions in the country's tertiary institutions, over their lingering strike actions, is very timely. The call from the vice chancellors, who are operating under the umbrella body, Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, (CVCNU), could not have come at a more auspicious time.

The Chairman of CVCNU, Prof. Samuel Edoumiekumo, made the appeal on behalf of his colleagues while speaking at the public presentation of the Model Intellectual Property for Nigerian universities in Abuja.

Maintaining that the appeal became necessary because of the effects of the industrial actions, not only on the institutions affected, but also on the students as well, the vice chancellor said: “We plead that drastic action is taken to stem the haemorrhage that the system is currently witnessing. For the sake of our children and our society, we need a decisive decision.”

The vice chancellors made their views known on a day the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) also indicated its readiness to embark on a nationwide protest over the ASUU strike. NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, lamented the insensitivity of the Federal Government to the lingering crises in the nation's public universities and other tertiary institutions.

"The strike in the education sector is an eyesore. For now, running into four months, the children of the poor have remained at home. You would recall that the last decision we took was to the extent of writing to Mr President and we gave a 21-day notice for them to convene a very high-powered meeting to be chaired either by the SGS or the Chief of Staff, for this issue to be resolved once and for all.

“That meeting was called, but from the reports that we received yesterday (Wednesday) from all the unions in the education sector, ASUU, NASU, SSANU, NAAT, colleges of education and polytechnics, we have found out that progress has not been made and the timeline of three weeks given by that committee for all reports to be turned in and for the government to be able to make decisions that have not taken place...

“Today, there has been an increase in issues of social vices and this can be traced to the fact that those children have been at home for four months and no progress has been made," Wabba explained.

These renewed calls are coming as there seems to be no end in sight to the industrial action embarked upon by ASUU, even as the negotiation between the university lecturers and the Federal Government appears to be deadlocked.

The ASUU strike, which started on February 14, 2022 as a four-week warning action, is still ongoing despite several assurances given by the Federal Government that the demands of the striking lecturers would soon be met.

Now, the strike is running into its fifth month. Sadly, officials of the Federal Government who are supposed to be on top of the matter are also tightliped. When the matter was raised a couple of weeks ago with the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, his reply was that the ASUU issue was complicated.

Earlier, in the middle of the crisis, former Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, had abandoned the negotiation table and resigned his appointment to embark on a flight of fancy. He joined the presidential race of the governing

All Progressives Congress (APC), just like some other aspirants. Unfortunately his presidential ambition was ''dead on arrival.''

A fortnight ago, the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige, tried to give what later turned out to be a false hope to Nigerians when he said that university students who had been at home for the most part of the year would soon return to their classrooms. President Muhammadu Buhari also expressed hope in a possible resumption of academic activities in public universities, but it was dashed due to the inability of both parties to reach a consensus.

ASUU Chairman, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, has always insisted that the Federal Government was not sincere in its dealings with the union. The don's assertion may not be far from the truth, with the way the negotiations have been handled so far.

At a point when Nigerians felt that an agreement was about to be reached by both parties, some elements within government circles were waiting to puncture whatever gains that must have been made with their reckless, insensitive and arrogant outbursts.

While the allegation of using starvation to force university lecturers back to work, by stopping their salaries, is very weighty and highly condemnable, the apparent plan to destroy the public university education system in the country will not augur well for Nigerians.

It is sad to note that while the already existing public universities are being grounded through inadequate funding, the government has continued to give approval for the establishment of new ones as licences for new private universities are being rolled out from time to time.

The strike in the education sector is an eyesore. For now, running into four months, the children of the poor have remained at home... Today, there has been an increase in issues of social vices and this can be traced to the fact that those children have been at home for four months and no progress has been made

It is unfortunate that the Federal Government is still finding it difficult to accept the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), a payment system presented by ASUU as a replacement for the government’s controversial Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), despite several tests. This is one of the issues of contention between ASUU and the Federal Government, apart from the latter reneging on fulfillment of previous agreements with the former.

For the sake of the teeming Nigerian students in public universities and their parents, as well as other service providers who depend on the university system for survival, we call on President Buhari to personally intervene in the negotiation by ensuring that all bottlenecks to the quick resolution of the dispute that led to the four-month-old strike are removed.