Education remains the bedrock of development plan of any society. It therefore should be treated with utmost seriousness as trivializing it poses an utmost peril of an already ambushed and truncated future. From foundation, formation to finishing, education should be geared at practically signposting the envisioned development trajectory of any given society
Every arm of society should be bothered about what direction the future and fortune of the nation’s education is heading. Education should also be context based or situated by which I mean that it should be designed to proffer solutions to existing challenges of any given society. Thus far, there has been an appreciable level of private sector involvement in the nation’s quest for educational advancement. This indeed comes as a relief as it provides some form of internal options to those who discontented with what obtains in the public institutions, would want to make studying abroad their only choice.
Suffice it however ,to state that no matter the level of private sector involvement,the state still owes it an onerous responsibility to see that citizens are impacted with quality education designed for responsible citizenship and Community transformation. This can come through direct involvement in the process of proprietorship or regulation of prescribed desired quality.
It ,therefore, becomes an issue of obvious concern when stakeholders in this all important sector are neither on the same page nor can be said to be singing from the same hymn book. I have my long standing grouse with the government over poor funding of the sector. A lot needs to be done to address this atrophying trajectory.
President Obama was once quoted to have told the world at some point that any nation that can out budget you in Education can ultimately outpace you in development. The cost of qualit and impactful education may on the surface appear high but the long term cost of recycled ignorance which the out of school children in Nigeria represent can be daunting. I am equally pained at the jaundiced dogmatic resolve and stubborn inclination of the leadership of ASUU which makes them settle for strike and closure of the University systems as the all purpose solution and negotiation tool towards bringing the nation’s education to relevance and sectoral reckoning.
Incidentally, ASUU has made more news through resort to strike and varsity closure rather than results from research to power Nigeria’s much needed development and breakthrough in key sectors of human endeavors. Not many of our universities have demonstrated enough resolve at innovation and solutions for existing societal problems. The Ivory Tower as the proverbial gown is expected to show the light for the town to find the way. Education without innovation and transformational impact is but of little value to society. There is hardly an academic session that passes without welfare and funding issues degenerating to trade disputes and strike action between ASUU and the Federal Government.
Another of such buildup started last week with various chapters of ASUU calling on the federal government to implement the renegotiation agreement entered into with the union to avoid industrial action, which will affect about two million students nationwide.
As at Tuesday, a nationwide protest was embarked upon by the union across all the campuses paralysing academic activities. As it currently stands members of the union are on red alert in readiness to shut down institutions whenever a full blown strike is declared by its leadership.
ASUU’s agitations have by now become all too familiar except that this time around every local chapter is fervently stoking up the fire to accommodate all their internal grudges and agitations including the renaming of the university of Maiduguri after late President Mohammadu Buhari.Top among a wide range of issues causing rift between the two parties include non-signing of the 2009 renegotiation agreement, non-payment of three-and-half month withheld salaries, non-payment of promotion arrears and non-release of revitalisation funds to make the university environment more conducive than is currently the case.
Some branches of the union are also protesting the non-remittance of third-party deductions, N150,000 monthly retirement benefit to professors, described by ASUU as a “national embarrassment”. There are also brewing disagreements over Tertiary Institutions Staff Support Loan Scheme.
It is expected that when parties have differences, they are resolved at the negotiation/ resolution table for the system to move forward. The rather disturbing unfolding scenario this time around is that (ASUU) has resolved that it will not participate in any meeting with the Federal Government to finalise the 2009 agreement with the union. ASUU is asking for implementation rather than any form of renegotiation.
Meanwhile, the federal government has denied claims that it signed a binding agreement with ASUU insisting that the documents referenced by the union were merely draft proposals. In the words of the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, “The documents ASUU has been referring to as agreements were just proposals that were never signed,”
The minister explained that the government had held an expanded meeting with stakeholders to review the contents of the draft agreement line by line.
According to him, a technical committee, chaired by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, had been tasked with refining the proposals before forwarding them to the Yayale Ahmed-led renegotiation panel. Why on earth has it taken both parties these years to return to the negotiation table. This does not fairly reflect the level of seriousness that the human development sector deserves. Stakeholders should play less politics with the nation’s education but strictly follow and implement laid down policies for therein lay the seeds for a greater future.
It is indeed worrisome to note that in the past ten years (from mid-2015 to mid-2025), ASUU has gone on strike at least four times: in 2016 (a one-week warning strike), 2017 (one month), 2018 (three months), and 2020 (nine months). There was also a prolonged strike in 2022 and a failed warning strike attempt in 2021.
Failure to implement agreements reached in 2009 has been at the center of recent face ups. While the Federal Government is insisting that what exists is an unsigned draft of resolutions, ASUU insists the agreements were signed but that we are saddled with a government that is very poor at records keeping.
In 2016 Nigerian universities recorded a one-week warning strike over the failure of the Federal Government to implement this same 2009 agreement.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) began its history of strikes in 1988 under the military regime. The protests were over better wages and university autonomy. This led to its temporary proscription. Since then, ASUU has engaged in frequent industrial actions, often due to the government’s failure to implement agreements regarding funding, poor salaries, and allowances for lecturers. These frequent strikes have historically led to the suspension of academic activities in public universities and have significantly impacted the quality and standard of education in Nigeria.
Earlier this year, the President Bola Tinubu administration was reported to have released N50bn to settle earned academic allowances owed to university lecturers and staff.
However, ASUU has consistently demanded clear commitments on improved salaries, conditions of service, university funding, autonomy, and a review of laws governing the National Universities Commission and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board.
Also on the table is how to phase the fiscal commitments into the national budget and produce a legally binding instrument for signature.
Our public universities cannot afford any strike induced closures and breakdown in the academic calendar. Whereas more funding needs to be injected into the sector our university administrators should strive towards innovative and problem solving education. By now, the leadership of ASUU ought to come to terms with the fact that strikes and varsity closures have done more harm to the system than good. We all should join hands in saving our public education from a downward slide into total irrelevance.
