FG: Playing the ostrich with ASUU strike

In a manner that seems as if Nigeria is still in a military era, the Federal Government, on Tuesday, registered two unions in the country’s university system.

The new unions are the National Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA) and the Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA).

This surprise action is coming on the heels of the government’s failed attempt to coerce the university teachers to return to the classroom using a court order given by the National Industrial Court (NIC).

By these actions, it is clear to us and, indeed, many other Nigerians that the government is simply playing the ostrich in its lingering face-off with the university teachers through their umbrella body, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

ASUU has been on strike since February 14, 2022, seeking improved welfare conditions for its members, adequate funding for universities, and the replacement of the government-introduced payment platform – Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), with the University Transparency and Accountability Solution.

The registration of the new unions is overly a tacit way of weakening ASUU, and it smacks of government’s insincerity with the lecturers and insensitivity to the plight of hapless students and their parents

The latter was designed by ASUU following complaints against the IPPIS over alleged poor standardisation and incompatibility with the university system. In the last seven months, there has been one meeting after another between the government and the lecturers, all ending in deadlock.

The court order and the registration of the new unions, in our view, imply that the government is not ready to end the ASUU strike through meaningful dialogue. The registration of the new unions is overly a tacit way of weakening ASUU, and it smacks of government’s insincerity with the lecturers and insensitivity to the plight of hapless students and their parents.

The minister of labour, Chris Ngige, while presenting certificates of registration to the two unions, said more of such unions were on the way, adding that whenever the government had anything to discuss with ASUU, all those unions would be involved.

Read also: FG breaks ASUU, registers 2 new university unions

We urge the government to end this hide and seek game and face the lingering strike with a view to ending it for the sake of the country’s university system, the students and their parents.

It is worrying to note that because of this prolonged strike, many of the students who should be in school or should have graduated, have taken to criminal activities such as armed robbery and prostitution. Some of the lecturers have been reported dead while many others have jetted out of the country, deepening the manpower problem in the education system in the country. Many Nigerians who have their businesses in the various university campuses have been idle in the last seven month, meaning that they have been under intense financial pressure.

For us, therefore, time is now for both the government and the teachers’ union to shift ground so that an amicable solution to the problem can be reached. Much as we have our thumbs down for the government for being slippery, cunny, evasive and somewhat arrogant in dealing with the agreements it willingly entered into, we are also miffed by the unyielding and insensitive attitude of the lecturers to their students’ plight.

We have heard too much grammar; we have also seen too much intolerance, arrogance and let-heaven-fall disposition of the lecturers which are unwittingly making solutions difficult to come.

We are in sync with the CONUA’s national coordinator, Niyi Sunmonu, who emphasised, on a TV programme on Tuesday, the need to democratise the university setting, stressing that such was what the academics should be after, and that academics must look at issues from different perspectives.

Sunmonu said there should not be “a fixed perspective to issues; it should not be a thing of only this way or the highway.”

We cannot agree more with this as it speaks to the lecturers’ objectionable insistence on the replacement of IPPIS with the University Transparency and Accountability Solution designed by them. That, in our thinking, is too self-serving and has the capacity to encourage other trade unions to also come up with their designed payment system as against that of the government.

We are therefore calling on the ASUU to reconsider some of its demands in the interest of peace and the growth of the nation’s education sector.

It is a known fact that even in situations of outright wars, issues are resolved at the table by disputing parties devoting more time for dialogue to avoid casualties who are the university system, parents and the students. Let there be a shifting of grounds by both parties. Government, particularly, should not go through the back door to look for a solution to the problem.

That, in our opinion, is subterfuge, it is deceit and disdain to the other party in a dispute. While we want ASUU to come down from its high horse, we equally advise that the government should jettison its ostrich approach to resolving this strike, which has overstayed its welcome.