ASUU Strike: What Does The Government Really Want?

 By Omololu Soyombo

The Academic Staff Union of Universities’ strikes have been on and off for quite some time – every new strike action is triggered by the failure of the government to fulfill its part of the agreement reached with ASUU. Each time, as soon as ASUU responds to the “promise” by the government to fulfill its part of the agreement and the plea by stakeholders in the education system to suspend its strike action, the government reverts to its characteristic failure to honour agreements reached.

The current strike is an effort by ASUU to get the government to implement the negotiated and renegotiated 2009 Agreement, which successive governments, including the current one, have failed to honour. Over the years, whatever partial implementation and payments ASUU got from the Federal Government only came after strike actions, lending credence to the widespread belief that a strike action is the only means of getting the government to act on its promises. The experiences of medical doctors’ union, other unions in tertiary institutions, etc., including the foreign airlines operating in Nigeria bear testimony to this belief. As soon as the strike action is suspended, the government goes back to sleep!

Trust and Credibility Deficit

Understandably, the flagrant disregard of Agreements/promises has given the government a bad image, creating a trust and credibility problem for the government. Today, no one trusts the government to do whatever it promises to do. No one can bank on the government’s promise. The question in many people’s mind is: Can you trust the government? This is a bad example for young people about honour and integrity!

In the last three years, several committees have been set up by the government, with the government repeatedly failing to accept or implement the recommendations of its own committees. This raises questions about the sincerity of the government in setting up the committees and in resolving the problem of ASUU strike. For instance, ASUU embarked on a strike action in 2020, which the government allowed to drag on for about nine months. The strike action was suspended in December, 2020, with the constitution and inauguration of the Professor Munzali Jibril-led Committee by the Federal Government to renegotiate the 2009 Agreement between the Federal Government and ASUU.

The Professor Munzali Jibril Committee completed its work in May, 2021, but the FG refused to act on the Report, until ASUU commenced the current/ongoing strike action on February 14, 2022. In response to the commencement of the current strike action, the FG rejected the Professor Munzali Jibril Committee report and set up another Committee in March 2022, chaired by Professor Nimi Briggs, to again look at the same issues that the Professor Munzali Jibril reviewed and reported to the FG. The Professor Nimi Briggs Committee submitted its report and recommendations to the FG on June 16, 2022. Yet, again, the FG threw the report aside. The conclusion that can be reached from all this is that the FG did not like what its appointed Committees were reporting to it, each time setting up another Committee and similarly throwing the Committee’s report aside! 

After discarding the report of the Professor Nimi Briggs Committee, the FG came up with its own unilaterally determined salary package! A take it or leave it package, which was not acceptable to ASUU. The question is: If the government knew it was not interested in the reports by its own Committees, why set up the Committees? This suggests a time-wasting tactic by a government which does not really want to do anything! Except the government is hoping to get a Committee that will do its bidding and tell it what it wants to hear, which no serious Committee seems ready to do.

Seemingly in an effort to resolve the crisis that had emerged in the education sector with the closure of public universities for nearly seven months, as at that time, a FG team led by the Minister of Education met with the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities on September 6, 2022. Yet, again, the government rejected the CVCNU recommendation. After the meeting between CVCNU and the FG representatives, Mr. Ben Goong, the Spokesperson for the Minister of Education, informed the media that the FG set up a 14-man committee to further review and advise the government on the ASUU strike and report to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

The leadership of ASUU also had what was described as an unofficial meeting with the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Pro-Chancellors of Universities on September 14, 2022 over the lingering strike at the National Universities Commission office, with no concrete information given at the end of the meeting.

Moreover, on September 16, it was reported that President Buhari met with pro-chancellors of Nigerian universities, with the President again promising further consultations with key stakeholders in order to end the ASUU strike, and assuring the Committee members that he would get back to them.

In further effort to end the ASUU strike, the House of Representatives met with representatives of ASUU and the FG on September 20, 2022. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, who led the House Committee to the meeting, informed the media that an agreement was reached at the meeting, which was to be communicated to President Buhari upon his return to the country after his trip to the United States.

Other efforts to resolve the crisis include meetings with the Chief of Staff to the Presidents, as well as the Head of Service of the Federation. What all these suggest is that the problem has persisted, not because of lack of effort, but because of lack of commitment or will by the government to resolve the problem. The non-resolution can also not be said to be due to lack of funds, but lack of appropriate priority to education. Extravagance in government expenditure, misplaced priority, poor financial management, unbridled corruption and low financial accountability across the government Ministries, Departments and Agencies have continued unabated. It is scandalous for a country’s public universities to be shut since February 14, 2022 without a resolution to the problem! The closure of the public universities for so long is doing so much damage to government image and integrity. It says so much about industrial dispute resolution capacity of the government!

The National Industrial Court Connection

As well-meaning stakeholders were making various efforts to reach an amicable solution to the strike, the Federal Government, while still participating in the intervention efforts by well-meaning groups, decided to take the hardline approach of taking the case to the National Industrial Court. This resulted in the directive by the NIC, on September 23, 2022, that ASUU should call off its ongoing strike. It is confounding why the government would take this line of action without consideration for the ongoing negotiation and mediation efforts. This is a clear indication of the insincerity of the government in seeking a negotiated resolution of the crisis. It is a well-accepted belief that arbitration and negotiated settlement is better and longer lasting than judicial imposition.

Going Forward and Backward

In the morning of September 26, 2022, the media reported the directive of the Federal Government through the NUC to vice-chancellors to re-open their universities and ensure immediate commencement of lectures. However, in the evening of the same day (September 26, 2022) the media again reported the withdrawal of the directive to the vice-chancellors by the NUC, creating confusion in the minds of students and their parents, and especially the vice-chancellors, whose advice, the FG had earlier disregarded. The question can be asked: What is the government really up to?

Negotiator and Mediator Fatigue

More and more, the government is wasting the goodwill of well-meaning stakeholders in intervening in the dispute. It is reasonable to believe that many stakeholders will find the FG attitude and behaviour in ignoring the recommendations of its committees and other well-meaning stakeholders frustrating, leading to what may be described as negotiator and mediator fatigue. This FG attitude may discourage many reputable persons from playing any mediation role in the future. Many of the mediators now seem to have withdrawn and are looking to see how things will play out. In this regard, one recalls the early intervention of the Nigerian Inter-Religion Council to end the strike. The government is missing the opportunity to do something good in the interest of youths in the country.

What is the Way Forward?

It is imperative that the Federal Government takes steps to resolve the crisis without any further delay. The FG has the list of key demands by ASUU. What one would expect the government to do is to identify and respond immediately and reasonably to the demands.

1. Take up for consideration and implementation the report of the Professor Nimi Briggs Committee, which is the last formal Committee that the government set up.

2. Invite ASUU for further discussion and negotiation of the recommendations of the Committee, with the involvement of credible, reputable and sincere mediators.

3. Implement immediately the outcome of the final negotiation with ASUU.

4. Pay all salaries and allowances owed the ASUU members over the strike period, taking cognizance of the peculiar nature of academic work in the university system, and the fact that the strike action, which was avoidable, was caused by the government, through its deliberate failure to meet its obligations.

5. Respect the agreements reached and the timeline for implementation in order to avoid another protracted dispute.

*Professor Omololu Soyombo is of the Department of Sociology, University of Lagos.