opinion
The legitimacy of whatever industrial action
considered by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, must be
within the bound of reasonability, sensibility, human conscience and
decorum if a worthwhile struggle is truly or genuinely meant. For the
third month running or thereabout, ASUU has embarked on an industrial
action to drive home its demand for some allowances. You may call it
earned allowances, expectedly accruing to its members and not even an
issue bordering on salary.
Its grounds for the on-going strike might be tenable, given the
infrastructural decay and overcrowded-single lecture-classroom scene,
among others in Nigeria's public universities. Consequent upon this, the
universities have become unattractive and unconducive for learning, a
situation private universities in the country have smartly exploited to
their own advantage, and thus having a field day, even though they are
never better off, in terms of qualitative staffing and academic content
delivery. ASUU, therefore, has the right to express its grievances in
whatever way and dimension possible, allowed by the law of the land, but
with listening ears and seeing eyes to appreciate other variables
necessary for a re-think and caution. About 10 years ago, the University
of Ilorin, Kwara State, dissociated itself from ASUU, and ever since,
the university has been alone, without leaning on any trade union for
support in fighting a cause it genuinely believes in. This attitude or
posturing is, of course, paying off for both the students and staff of
UniIlorin today, as they have been enjoying uninterrupted, smooth
academic calendar. When fresh men and women enter the university, they
certainly know when they are graduating. Law and order pervade the
institution, such that the entire atmosphere is orderly and peaceful,
which is a prerequisite for good learning.
A cliche familiar with some critics of the nation's higher education
system is that the academic standard in Nigerian universities is
gradually falling, but the same cannot be said of UniIlorin. The
university has been waxing stronger and stronger. The institution has
become the envy of those who appreciate high quality education and has
been adjudged the best university in the country today and one of the
best in sub-saharan Africa, as a result of which the institution has
attracted the highest number of foreign students currently studying on
its campus, with soaring reputation for academic distinction.
UniIlorin may have risen to its current enviable height from its
ashes, almost an intractable challenge then, which stemmed from the
disagreement between the institution's authority and its lecturers, some
of whom were sacked. The booted lecturers were denied the prompt
solidarity they badly needed from their fellow academic staff in other
universities, who rather chose to stay aloaf and watch from the
sidelines; and so, they left their colleagues in the lurch. Realising
their loneliness in the struggle, the sacked lecturers carried their own
cross through the long and narrow gate of legal process until they
finally reached the end of the tunnel, where the desired light of hope
and assurance beamed on their faces. They got justice at last! Coming
out of this bitter experience, UniIlorin has remained resolute to keep
ASUU at arms length.
Lecturers from other universities or the then ASUU failed to
solidarise with their UniIlorin counterparts, because there were no
selfish political benefits for them to harvest from the crisis. Today's
striking ASUU has not shifted ground, in spite of all entreaties,
dialogues, moral suasions from well meaning Nigerians, corporate
organisations, top government functionaries, parents or guardians, law
makers and so on, not even after the Federal Government has shifted its
own position and yielded under pressure to dole out N30 billion for the
striking lecturers.
Besides, the government has released N100 billion to cater for the
infrastructural needs of the public universities, and yet ASUU has not
considered it necessary to return to classrooms, at least, in the
interest of the students. Instead, they have co-opted other interest
groups into the struggle. The reality of the matter for now is that if
the government meets ASUU's demand 100 percent, other critical sectors
may collapse, because they also need to be taken care of as well. A peep
into other areas like, security, transport, power, agriculture, road
construction and a lot more, will give you an idea of the huge sums of
money the government has expended on these sectors, and it's a
continuous process to also keep them alive.
ASUU's recalcitrant stance does not hurt the affluent in the society
in any way, not even those in the policy-making positions in the
education sector, who can afford to send their children and wards abroad
or to local private institutions for higher education. So, the on-going
war by ASUU is essentially against the interest of the poor and the
less privileged, whose children and wards are currently studying in the
affected universities.
The strike, no doubt, has assumed pure political dimension, with
intent and purpose to cast aspersion on the current government, which is
accused of reneging on the agreement it signed with ASUU in 2009. The
more reason ASUU should tread softly and be considerate is that the
present administration did not sign the agreement, but merely inherited
it. It's just one strike carried too far, at the expense of the students
who are already tired of staying at home.
Khena-Ogena is an Abuja-based practising journalist
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