The Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASUU) is gradually losing sympathy from the general public. Reason: The
union's perceived "un-implementable" agreement with the Federal
Government in 2009, which has ground operations in the nation's
universities since July 1 is causing ripples. Last week, the Senate
expressed grave concern on the protracted strike by ASUU and urged the
university lecturers to return to the classroom while effort is being
made to meet their demands.
However, a number of Nigerians were angered last week by the
revelation of details of ASUU's agreement with the government in 2009.
For many, the demands were not only outrageous but that such demands
were neither made nor paid to lecturers in any part of the world. It was
alleged that those who negotiated and signed the agreement on behalf of
the late President Umaru Yar'Adua's government at the time had thought
that it would be immediately implemented and hoped to benefit from it.
Otherwise, it has been alleged that hardly would anyone in his right
senses agree to such demands. Against this background, Senate President
David Mark expressed shock on the content of the agreement during a
motion on the strike on Wednesday. According to him, those who signed
that agreement with ASUU were not only unfair to the nation but were
also a bunch of ignorant persons, "who did not know their right from
their left."
Details of ASUU demands as contained in the agreement and read on the
floor of the Senate last Wednesday showed that the lecturers were
asking for maternity leave, housing loan, sick leave, injury pension,
vehicle loan/car refurbishing loan, postgraduate supervision allowance,
teaching practice/industrial supervision/ field trip allowances and
honoraria for external moderation of undergraduate and postgraduate
examinations.
Other demands were postgraduate study grants, external assessment of
readers or professors, call duty/clinical hazard, responsibility
allowance, excess workload allowance, staff schools, provision of office
accommodation and facilities, pension of academic staff, compulsory
retirement age, formation of university pension fund administrator,
National Health Insurance Scheme and funding of the universities. In
all, ASUU demanded for a whopping N1.5 trillion expected to be paid
within three years of 2009 to 2011. A breakdown of the proposed payment
plan is as follows: N472,031,575,919 in 2009; N497,331,778,701 in 2010
and N548,768,190,681 in 2011. ASUU also demanded that each state
university shall require N3,680,018 per student for the period between
2009 and 2011.
To underscore the level of the perceived outrageous demand, Senator
Sola Adeyeye (Osun Central), who is also a former lecturer, said he
almost wept when he saw the agreement signed by the Federal Government
with ASUU, saying there is nowhere in the world where such allowances
demanded are paid to lecturers.
Adeyeye, a professor of Molecular Biology and senator on the platform
of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who ordinarily was expected to
be sentimental in his submission, having been a one-time member of ASUU
and simultaneously an opposition lawmaker, opted to put sentiment aside
and hit the nail on the head. According to him, there is nowhere in the
world where the central government is asked to fund state universities.
He also added that it was whimsical for professors to be asking for
allowances before supervising postgraduate students.
"I asked ASUU during one of our meetings: is there any nation where
any of such allowances is paid according to international standard? A
typical teacher teaches two courses in a semester for three hours a
week. You are paid salaries, why should you be paid again for these
other things? Where in the world are lecturers paid examination
allowances? Where is a professor paid allowances for supervising
postgraduate students? Why is he a professor in the first place? What
you cannot ask for in other spheres ought not be asked for here. "The
standard practice in the United States is that if you go on sabbatical,
you 'll be paid for six months; if you spend more than that, you have to
fund it yourself. Where in the world do you say the Federal Government
should be involved in the funding of state universities?" Adeyeye
queried.
Still expressing shock on the content of the agreement, Mark said: "I
was really wondering whether this was signed or it was just a proposal.
But when he concluded, he said it was signed. It only shows the level
of people the executive sent to go and negotiate on its behalf because
ab initio, people must be told the truth, what can be accomplished and
what cannot be accomplished... ASUU took advantage of the ignorance of
those who were sent and simply just allowed this agreement to go on
because it is obvious that this is going to be a very difficult piece of
paper to implement."
At any rate, a number of people have argued that if the quality of
education will improve upon the implementation of the agreement, the
federal government would have been encouraged to shift ground. But some
educational consultants have alleged high level of negligence of duty by
ASUU and submitted that the demand is in contrast with what obtains in
the universities as there are allegations that lecturers are absent in
most classes and busy consulting for foreign organisations while project
supervision is haphazardly done. The end result -half-baked graduates
are produced.
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