Once again, the Federal Government’s refusal to honour an agreement it
reached with lecturers of public universities has forced the Academic
Staff Union of Universities to embark on industrial action on Monday,
SEGUN OLUGBILE reports
When the Academic Staff Union of Universities suspended its
two-month strike in February 2012, many had thought that the last had
been heard of national strikes in public institutions. This optimism was
hinged on the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Federal
Government and the lecturers on how to resolve funding challenges,
infrastructural decay and welfare problem in the nation’s public
universities.
But this is not to be, as the union on Monday stated that it has
returned to the trenches to fight government for its alleged refusal to
honour an agreement it reached with lecturers. Specifically, ASUU said
it has resumed the suspended strike from Monday (yesterday). This
action, the union’s National President, Dr. Nasir Fagge, said was taken
after the Federal Government allegedly failed to implement the
agreement.
Fagge said the action, though painful, would be total, comprehensive
and last for as long as the government implements the details of the
Memorandum of Understanding that both parties signed in 2011.
Consequently, the semester examinations going on in some universities
would be disrupted, while admission processes would be put on hold.
Final year students writing their projects would be hit hard, as their
supervisors would not attend to them. By this, academic activities in
public tertiary institutions, particularly in universities and
polytechnics, which had been on strike in the last three months, would
be paralysed.
The decision to embark on the action was taken during the National
Executive Council meeting of ASUU at the Olabisi Onabanjo University,
Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State between Sunday and Monday. All the 53 chapters of
ASUU were represented at the meeting, during which 51 chapters of the
union overwhelmingly voted in support of the action.
Briefing the press about the outcome of the NEC meeting at the
University of Lagos on Monday, Fagge said the union decided to suspend
the action in January 2012 after the Federal Government and ASUU signed
the MoU, which contained how all the issues of funding, pension scheme,
retirement age and payment of earned allowance for qualified lecturers
would be handled.
The Federal Government, the union stated, had only implemented the
extension of the retirement age of professors to 70, but had failed to
pay the earned allowance for lecturers who are assigned other duties
apart from teaching, research and community service. The earned
allowance is the money paid to lecturers who are assigned to
administrative duties such as heads of department, hall wardens, student
project’s supervision and examination duties and pay for extra workload
on lecturers.
Under the student projects’ supervision allowance, a professor is
expected to be paid N15, 000 per theses. Also, under the extra workload
category, the lecturer/student ratio in Arts, Social Sciences and
Education faculties is one lecturer to 50 students, one to 35 in Faculty
of Sciences and one lecturer to 25 students in Colleges of Medicine.
Lecturers are supposed to be paid if they have more than the national
lecturer/student ratio.
“When we signed the MoU, it was stated that N100bn had been set
aside to pay the earned allowance. But I can tell you that no lecturer
has been paid since 2009. Yes, the government has extended the
retirement age of professors to 70 as agreed, earned allowances have not
been paid while little has been done to raise the level of
infrastructure in universities,” he said.
Although he explained that the union had met with government over
the matter many times, government has refused to respect the agreement.
Rather, he said, ASUU was told that the government forgot to include the
earned allowance in the budget.
The Chairman, ASUU, UNILAG chapter, Dr. Karo Ogbinanka, who had
earlier briefed the press about the readiness of his chapter to start
the strike after a congress on Monday, explained that the strike was
called because government had never shown enough commitment to the
development of the sector.
He explained that after the MoU was signed, a NEEDS Assessment
Committee on the State of Public Universities was set up to look at the
state of infrastructure of the institutions.
“The report has been submitted and all of us know that our
universities fall short in physical development, but our concern is
government has not done enough to revamp these institutions and the
modalities for the injection of funds into these universities have not
been followed. That is why there has been increase in the rate of
agitation for improved municipal facilities in our universities which
has unfortunately been leading to the deaths of innocent students,”
Ogbinaka said.
But why is the union embarking on strike when it has not given the
government the required ultimatum, Ogbinaka explained that the union had
done a warning strike before now.
“Anyway, we don’t even need to give them ultimatum because it is
clearly stated in the MoU that we signed with them that we (ASUU) will
go on strike without warning should they fail to honour the agreement.
They have reneged on the agreement and so there is nothing that can stop
us from embarking on this comprehensive and total strike,” he said.
On when UNILAG would join the strike, Ogbinaka said that immediately
after the press briefing, a congress would be called and the university
management would be informed. “It’s a national strike and UNILAG has
joined the action,” he said.
Also the National Treasurer of ASUU, Dr. Ademola Aremu who is also
the former Chairman, University of Ibadan chapter of ASUU said the
action, being a national one, would be fully supported by lecturers at
the premier university. “We are not fighting management of the
university, it is the Federal Government that should be blamed for
pushing us to the wall to make this painful decision,” Aremu said.
Most of the students our correspondent spoke to on this new
development expressed sadness at the action. They called on the Federal
Government to honour the agreement by giving their teachers their due.
“I’m in the final year, if this crisis is not urgently resolved, it will
dislocate my career and that of the other students,” Wale, a student of
Political Science at UNILAG said.
But before ASUU finally resorted to go on strike, the House of
Representatives had few weeks ago summoned the Minister of Education,
Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufa’i and officials of the union with a view to
ensuring that the crisis did not degenerate. The duo were invited to
meet with members of the House Committee on Education as part of the
moves by the legislature to avert the looming strike.
It followed a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by Mr.
Bashir Babale (PDP/ Kano) and unanimously endorsed by his colleagues.
Babale said it had become worrisome that university lecturers
frequently embark on strikes to compel the government to meet its
obligations.
This, he noted, was not good enough as the issues at the root of the
crisis were matters that had been agreed upon by both parties.
The lawmaker urged the House to intervene in the crisis and avert the impending strike.
Other lawmakers who contributed to the debate, argued that democracy cannot survive without good education.
They warned that it would be wrong for the government to continue to
treat its 2009 agreement with ASUU with levity. But this intervention
was fruitless, as government said it had no money to pay the earned
allowance.
“We even agreed to sacrifice 20 per cent of the earned allowance but
government said it could only pay 50 per cent. We were even shocked
when they said they had forgotten to include the money into the budget.
So, since 2009 no lecturer has been paid the earned allowance and all of
us can testify to the fact that our universities whether old or new are
still being underfunded,” Ogbinaka said.
The ASUU officials, however, pleaded with students and parents to
bear with the union as they could no longer stand government’s lack of
commitment to education.
The last time ASUU embarked on a national strike over the same issue
was December 5, 2011. The union was prevailed upon to suspend the
strike in February 2012 after the Federal Government signed the now
contentious MoU with ASUU with a promise to accede to the lecturers’
requests. President Goodluck Jonathan hurriedly signed into law a bill
that sought to extend the retirement age of professors to 70. But after
that not much had been done to make the system better than it was in
2009.
Efforts to speak with the minister failed, as a top official in the
ministry, who pleaded anonymity, said she was not available for
comments.
The source, however said the ministry would comment on the new development VERY SOON.
