Just when we are beginning to think that Nigerian University system is
becoming more stable, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU),
last Monday, embarked on a nationwide indefinite strike which has once
again paralysed universities.
Classrooms are now empty with some of the helpless students vacating their hostels and some hanging around the schools, hoping the strike will soon be called off.
Incidentally, they may need to wait for long as ASUU National Chairman, Dr. Isa Faggae had vowed that the present strike action “is going to last for as long as the Federal Government wants it”. ASUU’s grouse is that Federal Government has failed to implement part of a 2009 agreement signed by the two parties.
This is happening even as Polytechnic lecturers have been on two months strike due to alleged non-implementation of agreements and lack of infrastructure in their institutions.
ASUU strikes and agreements with government have come a long way. The agreements, according to ASUU, started from 1981, 1982, 1999 to 2001. In all these years, agreements that addressed salient areas concerning the welfare of lecturers and the education sector were signed.
Failure of one of the parties, the Federal Government to implement these agreements has been largely blamed on instability in the tertiary education sector in Nigeria.
A situation where Nigerian students cannot boast of, at least, one year uninterrupted school calendar leaves much to be desired. Each time we keep complaining of the poor quality of graduates produced from Nigerian universities without reasoning that these graduates were not properly groomed. Many of them spent half of their school years at home due to one ASUU strike or the other.
Today, many lament over the high number of Nigerian students in foreign universities. But I wonder which parents who can afford to send their children to schools abroad for quality education will fail to do so going by the back and front nature of Nigeria’s education system. No parent is happy when a child is forced to spend six years over a four-year course because the school system is constantly disrupted by strike actions.
We cannot expect things to be better except the Federal Government and lecturers, who are primary enforcers in the tertiary education system, put an end to the age-long bickering, realising that their actions or inactions leave negative imprint on their direct subject, the students. As the proverb goes when two elephants are fighting, the grass suffers.
It is high time the Federal Government realised that the ability of a government to honour its words makes such government responsible. To borrow the words of the Senate leader, Chief Victor Ndoma-Egba, Federal Government should always keep any agreement entered into with labour unions to save the country from sufferings and hardships occasioned by incessant strikes.
Really, why should government wait for labour unions to down tools before giving listening ears to their demands? What about nipping the situation in the bud?
I think government at all levels should be more sensitive to the plight of workers. The welfare of workers should be the top priority of any responsible government.
Many lecturers had expected that President Goodluck Jonathan and the Minister of Education, Prof. Rukayyatu Rufai hav-ing been a university teacher before, would understand the plight of the lecturers. Many had expected the President to pay more attention to the education sector than he is currently doing. Some actually believe that those in the corridors of power pay low premium on education and that explains why the budgets for education have never reached the minimum requirement by UNESCO. There is therefore a need for proper funding of the education sector to avoid its total collapse.
ASUU on its part should devise other strategies to resolve dispute with government other than strike. The union, I believe can achieve a better result through dialogue instead of putting down their tools in protest for whatever grievance it has.
I support ASUU’s quest for better funding of the universities, improved wages for university lecturers and other genuine demands, but there must be other ways of achieving these other than “punishing” students, parents and guardians. Progress cannot thrive in an environment of instability. Therefore, ASUU, Federal Government and other stakeholders should put an end to this persistent battle for the education sector to grow.
BY: Calista Ezeaku
Classrooms are now empty with some of the helpless students vacating their hostels and some hanging around the schools, hoping the strike will soon be called off.
Incidentally, they may need to wait for long as ASUU National Chairman, Dr. Isa Faggae had vowed that the present strike action “is going to last for as long as the Federal Government wants it”. ASUU’s grouse is that Federal Government has failed to implement part of a 2009 agreement signed by the two parties.
This is happening even as Polytechnic lecturers have been on two months strike due to alleged non-implementation of agreements and lack of infrastructure in their institutions.
ASUU strikes and agreements with government have come a long way. The agreements, according to ASUU, started from 1981, 1982, 1999 to 2001. In all these years, agreements that addressed salient areas concerning the welfare of lecturers and the education sector were signed.
Failure of one of the parties, the Federal Government to implement these agreements has been largely blamed on instability in the tertiary education sector in Nigeria.
A situation where Nigerian students cannot boast of, at least, one year uninterrupted school calendar leaves much to be desired. Each time we keep complaining of the poor quality of graduates produced from Nigerian universities without reasoning that these graduates were not properly groomed. Many of them spent half of their school years at home due to one ASUU strike or the other.
Today, many lament over the high number of Nigerian students in foreign universities. But I wonder which parents who can afford to send their children to schools abroad for quality education will fail to do so going by the back and front nature of Nigeria’s education system. No parent is happy when a child is forced to spend six years over a four-year course because the school system is constantly disrupted by strike actions.
We cannot expect things to be better except the Federal Government and lecturers, who are primary enforcers in the tertiary education system, put an end to the age-long bickering, realising that their actions or inactions leave negative imprint on their direct subject, the students. As the proverb goes when two elephants are fighting, the grass suffers.
It is high time the Federal Government realised that the ability of a government to honour its words makes such government responsible. To borrow the words of the Senate leader, Chief Victor Ndoma-Egba, Federal Government should always keep any agreement entered into with labour unions to save the country from sufferings and hardships occasioned by incessant strikes.
Really, why should government wait for labour unions to down tools before giving listening ears to their demands? What about nipping the situation in the bud?
I think government at all levels should be more sensitive to the plight of workers. The welfare of workers should be the top priority of any responsible government.
Many lecturers had expected that President Goodluck Jonathan and the Minister of Education, Prof. Rukayyatu Rufai hav-ing been a university teacher before, would understand the plight of the lecturers. Many had expected the President to pay more attention to the education sector than he is currently doing. Some actually believe that those in the corridors of power pay low premium on education and that explains why the budgets for education have never reached the minimum requirement by UNESCO. There is therefore a need for proper funding of the education sector to avoid its total collapse.
ASUU on its part should devise other strategies to resolve dispute with government other than strike. The union, I believe can achieve a better result through dialogue instead of putting down their tools in protest for whatever grievance it has.
I support ASUU’s quest for better funding of the universities, improved wages for university lecturers and other genuine demands, but there must be other ways of achieving these other than “punishing” students, parents and guardians. Progress cannot thrive in an environment of instability. Therefore, ASUU, Federal Government and other stakeholders should put an end to this persistent battle for the education sector to grow.
BY: Calista Ezeaku
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