REVEALED: Real Reason Why Federal Government Does Not Want ASUU Strike To End

Nigerian universities have been buffeted with agonising months
of strikes for over a decade and until now, the story is pretty
much the same. Government is still unwilling to give the
education sector a shot in the arm.
Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has been on strike
since June 30 and has dialogued with FG over 11 times, albeit,
inconclusively.
This underscores the lukewarm posture of government towards
the striking lecturers and from ASUU’s body language and
utterances,  they have made it abundantly clear to anyone who
cares to listen that they are ready to continue the strike even if it
takes years, insisting that their decision was adequately taken in
a bid to revitalise Nigerian universities.
The bone of contention is lucid in itself. An agreement was
reached in 2009 that all federal universities would require a total
sum of N1.5 trillion spread over three years (2009-2011) to
address the rot and decay in the universities.
But, in the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, signed between
the union and the government in 2012, FG decided to extend the
gesture to include both federal and state universities. After the
2012 review, it was agreed that instead of N1.5 trillion, FG
would infuse a total of N1.3 trillion into the universities over
four years.
Almost four years down the line, FG has refused to fulfill its end
of the bargain. Rather than respond to the issues raised by the
union that would ensure quick resolution to the imbroglio,
government boycotted ASUU to summon a meeting with Pro-
Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors of universities, offering them
N130 billion with a matching order to lecturers to resume work
immediately.
But the union is insisting that by throwing money at universities
in that manner, government has repudiated the 2009 agreement
it entered freely with the union and the 2012 MoU. ASUU is not
making any fresh demand but has maintained that the 2009
agreement must be honoured.
It is ridiculous that government officials were quoted as saying
ASUU’s N1.3 trillion demand is capable of shutting down the
country. No. Their insatiable and rapacious greed will.
The private jets in the presidential fleet can fly, centenary
celebrations is a priority to government, there’s enough money
to pay humongous salaries and allowances to federal legislators
and other political office holders, enough to forfeit to oil subsidy
thieves, enough to pay militants bogus amnesty cheques and
phantom contracts while they continue to bunker our crude oil
like never before, there’s enough money to beg Boko Haram to
accept amnesty but there is no money for law abiding Nigerian
students who want to eke out a living using university education
as a stepping stone. It is this kind of attitude from the
government that provokes the use of brute force by some
regional groups to attract government’s attention to their
problems.
Government cannot claim it has no money to fulfill this
agreement. A country with 109 senators earning about N19.6
billion a year, while N51.8 billion is spent on members of House
of Representatives for the same period, totaling N71.4 billion.
This sum, N71.4 billion, represents 17.8 per cent of the N400bn
yearly intervention fund recommended by the Committee on
Needs Assessment of Nigerian Universities. Surely, our lecturers
and universities where they were trained deserve more.
When we talk of heath care, government official and the ruling
elite go abroad for medical attention; we talk of bad roads, they
fly private jets; we talk of power, they run their homes on 24-7
alternative electricity source; now we’re talking Education, their
wards are in some of the best universities abroad. There is no
way the myriad of problems bedeviling the country can be
tackled if the political elite don’t feel the pangs.
That Mr. President has taken out time from his ‘busy’ schedule
to constantly parley with the warring factions of his party, PDP,
but has never sat down with ASUU members to chart a course for
Nigeria’s leaders of tomorrow clearly shows his priorities. Party
affairs and chasing perceived enemies of his 2015 ambition
around with apparatus of state are far more important things
than bending over backwards to pander to the demands of the
striking lecturers.
But then, government must take into cognisance the fact that,
the longer the students remain at home, chances are that they
will be lured into social vices. The aftermath can be disastrous
for the state.
There are misplaced calls in some quarters for ASUU to be
‘reasonable’, accept FG’s offer and return to classrooms. Others
lambast them for being self-centered and unpatriotic. It is
unfortunate that Nigerians are always looking for quick fix
solutions to monumental problems. Less endowed countries like
Ghana, Botswana and Angola are making giant strides on all
fronts because the citizenry have at one point or the other
insisted that the needful be done. Here, anything thrown at us is
accepted with glee.
We must get our priorities right as a country. Government must
curb its own excesses. Education must be given the attention it
deserves. Education of the citizenry should not be subjected to
any form of Negotiation. Negotiating the education of our
leaders of tomorrow is more or less negotiating the future of the
country.
Government deliberately wants the strike to linger, first, to
blackmail the opposition. There have been several unsavoury
comments from the government’s divide of the negotiation table
that ASUU has been infiltrated by moles from the opposition,
alleging that the strike has lingered to gain political capital.
That is how low this government can stoop. We have seen it
before. It is an irresponsible and shameless government, one that
lacks integrity and honesty that will blame the opposition for all
its woes. It is unbecoming for the government of the day to
continue to heap its failure on the doorstep of the opposition
and ASUU strike is just another avenue to paint the opposition
black before the public.
Second, is to send a strong signal to other unions who might be
contemplating similar action to have a rethink. Perhaps,
government thinks by acceding to ASUU’s demands, other Labour
unions might toe the same path at the slightest excuse.
Third, the ultimate aim of government is to paint a bad image of
the association to Nigerians, at least, for as long as the strike
persists. The Governor Gabriel Suswan-led NEEDS Report
Implementation Committee mediating on behalf of the
government has unfortunately taken a position that is false,
dishonest, and calculated to misinform the public and cause
disaffection towards the union.
Rather than seek cheap popularity, Governor Suswan and the
rest of the FG team should tow the part of honour by asking
President Goodluck Jonathan to honour the 2009 agreement.
There’s no basis for turning the heat on ASUU and the campaign
of calumny.
It calls for worry, that same government that has always
maintained that ‘our graduates are unemployable’ and our
universities churn out ‘half-baked graduates’ find it difficult to
commit the much needed funds to revamp the universities.