FG, ASUU And Plight of Nigerian Returnees

Days of rage are definitely back with us as there seems to be no end to the annual ritual of the Federal Government tussle with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over unresolved differences. The students of public universities and their parents, however, are at the receiving end. Two years after the then Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Universal Basic Education Commission, Professor Julius Ihonvbere, slammed the

Federal Government for the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), having failed to honour some of the agreements it signed with the universities’ lecturers, his words are still resonating today.

Ihonvbere spoke as the then governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2020 Edo State gubernatorial elections, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, also appealed to the Federal Government and striking ASUU to urgently resolve their differences and allow students to go back to class without further delay. IzeIyamu felt that the EndSARS riot of that year was compounded because many of the varsity students were at home as the ASUU strike lasted for nine months.

Sadly, after two years of going back and forth, with no tangible progress made on the initial 2009 agreement and the 2010 Memorandum of Understanding between the two parties, we are back to square one as our children are back at home. An initial one-month warning strike by ASUU has just been extended by another two months because of the failure of the Federal Government to honour simple agreements.

ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, was quite emphatic while announcing the extension of the strike by another two months. According to Osodeke, ASUU national executive council “was disappointed that Government did not treat the matters involved with utmost urgency they deserved during the four-week period as expected of a reasonable, responsive, and well-meaning administration. “

He however acknowledged “the intervention efforts, in various ways, by patriots and friends of genuine national development (students, parents, journalists, trade union leaders, civil society activists etc.) to expeditiously resolve the crisis which Government’s disposition had allowed to fester, “even as he maintained that “ASUU, as a union of intellectuals, has historic obligations to make governments honour agreements.”

Now, the stage is set for another longdrawn battle as public universities students are getting restless with NANS issuing a two-week ultimatum for the Federal Government and ASUU to agree and reopen the universities. The initial attempt by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) to make the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, reason with the lecturers was rebuffed by an arrogant minister who walked out of the meeting with the students’ leaders. His Labour and Productivity counterpart, Chris Ngige, did not fare better either.

His public utterances on the issue smacks off uncommon arrogance that has unfortunately become the signature of Ministers under the Muhammadu Buhari seven-year-old Administration despite the fact that they have failed woefully to deliver on promises made to Nigerians.

Nigerians are shocked by the latest claim by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) that the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), a payment system developed by ASUU, which had been okayed as far back as August 2021, has suddenly failed the integrity tests of user acceptance, vulnerability and stress. This is coming as the Minister of Education, Adamu, has also inaugurated another committee led by Prof. Nimi Briggs with a threemonth mandate of renegotiating the agreement with all university-based unions including ASUU, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), National Association of

Academic Technologist (NAAT) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Educational Institutions.

All these are coming at a time the fate of the over 1,500 students recently brought back from Ukraine appears not to be the concern of the Federal Government anymore as the government is still basking in the euphoria of its success in safely bringing the traumatised students back home after the initial inaction. While the repatriation exercise is commendable, we feel it would have been better for the Diaspora Commission to be more proactive and advise the Federal Government to adopt the Ghanaian example instead of the media razzmatazz embarked upon. As it is now, the fate of these innocent young Nigerian students, who were forced to go to Ukraine for further studies because of the frustration at home, is hanging in the balance.

The Ghanaian Government, which places great value on the future of its children, quickly swung into action by entering into agreement with some universities in neighbouring Georgia for the transfer of about 200 Ghanaian medical students in Ukraine to continue their studies in Georgia instead of bringing them back to Ghana.

We call on all well-meaning Nigerians to continue to speak out against the apparent plan to cripple the country’s public university system by pleading with the leadership of ASUU to call off the strike while the negotiation continues . We also commend the efforts of the House of Representatives member, representing Esan North East/ Esan South East constituency, Sergius Ogun, who may soon be having a big laughter at the end of the day despite the recent shutting down of his Bill which sought to prohibit public officers from sending their children abroad for education.

More importantly, the Federal Government should also learn to honour simple agreements instead of the blame-game it has continued to be playing over the matter.

Since government is a continuum, agreements entered into by previous administrations ought to have been honoured. While the government keeps complaining that it cannot, alone, fund public university education in the country , it has continued to shamelessly fund the extravagant lifestyles of its political appointees as it is also playing “Father Christmas’’ here and there with the donation of $1million to the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC).

Also, the $8.5 million hurriedly released to bring back the Ukraine returnees, half of which will eventually end up in the private pockets of its officials, would have gone a long way in solving some of the problems in our public universities and our students wouldn’t have to troop to countries in Eastern Europe and other neighbouring West African countries in search of education.

We call on all well-meaning Nigerians to continue to speak out against the apparent plan to cripple the country’s public university system by pleading with the leadership of ASUU to call off the strike while the negotiation continues

It is really shameful and incomprehensible to note that Nigeria is fast bleeding to death with no solution in sight as almost every sphere of our national life is heading to ground zero. Yet, our leaders, though appearing helpless, still feel unconcerned as what matters most to them right now is their personal political interests while the average Nigerian is left to bear his or her cross. This must stop.