By Gerald Njoku
It is incontrovertible to state that the continued ASUU strike in the country has placed the nation’s education system on a momentous crossroad.
The recent extension of the warning strike by the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) by another twelve weeks has again dashed the hopes of parents, students and all stakeholders in the education system of the much anticipated resolution of the crisis between ASUU and the federal government.
This crisis in the education system has continued to frustrate the ambitions and aspirations of Nigerian students with the regular culture of disruptions to the process of acquiring knowledge with its attendant dangers.
According to ASUU, this current episode which started sometime in February is as a result of federal government’s failure to meet up with agreement signed with the Union since 2009 and other sundry matters. It is worrisome to note that this latest strike is the 16th strike in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions since the return to democracy in 1999. The period ASUU has been on strike in this last 23years is enough to earn a student a bachelor’s degree in an uninterrupted academic setting. This is truly troubling.
One pertinent demand from the agreement is the allocation of at least 26% of Nigeria’s annual budget to the education sector. According to ASUU national president, Emmanuel Osodeke, the demand remains unmet. The 2009 agreement also emphasized the funding for revitalisation of public universities and the inconsistencies in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System Payment (IPPIS) among other concerns.
Although one would expect ASUU to look inwards and find sustainable solutions to resolving the issues, it is most unpatriotic on the side of government to maintain a lackadaisical position in the face of the dangers these incessant strike actions by university lecturers could cause. The attitude and posture of the federal government and its officials to the issues in contention is to say the least unexpected. And to think that most of these issues have been on the front burner for years is a sad commentary to the perceived efforts of successive governments to improve the quality of education in the country.
The prolonged ASUU strike has so far struck discordant chords among young people in the society. It has done more harm than good on the education sector with students bearing most of the accruing costs from the occurrences.
An increase in youthful crime and immorality is not unrelated to the incessant ASUU strikes. The saying, “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop” aptly describes the preoccupation of some youth while schools are shut. Lack of vision and mission makes a handful of youth wander about with no direction. Thus, engaging in all sorts of illegal businesses like cyber-crime, gambling, drug abuse, fraudulent acts, etc.
Regular strikes rob off academic time from school calendars and upon resumption, lecturers tend to rush academic work which might mean forgoing important parts of the course work. Ultimately, this has a knock-on- effect on the intellectual capacity of the student. Strike causes students to spend more time than the statutory duration in school. This has an effect on the employment pattern where age is an important consideration for entry-level jobs.
Similarly, most students resort to searching for job opportunities to earn stipends during strike actions. Some of them end up securing employment that offers reasonable remunerations. A situation that makes education less interesting and sets them in a tight corner when classes resume from industrial action. This scenario ultimately leads to increasing rate of school dropout and unfulfilled dream.
Unfortunately, there are few prominent voices in government circles genuinely wishing for the end to ASUU strike and for government to do the needful. Preposterously, this is not entirely new or surprising in our clime. However, since the lecturers’ strike, the government has denounced the strike action with vigour, threatening fire and brimstone against ASUU. An action many stakeholders see as being insensitive to the plight facing education. Between government and its apologists, the ASUU’s grievances are out of contest. Particularly as government continues mourning about paucity of fund, yet it spends billions of naira on elephant projects.
Only recently, the public was greeted with the humongous and ridiculous amount politicians expended in purchasing nomination and expression of interest forms just to seek public office but when it comes to funding projects that will serve the common good, the story will change.
Government continued negligence and turning a blind eye on the general decay in the education sector is worrisome. ASUU’s demand for improved salaries and better welfare, adequate funding for all universities programmes and activities as well as demand for laboratories and libraries to be equipped with relevant materials is not in any way asking for too much in the 21st Century.
Over the years, both past and present governments have played too large a role in robbing education in muddy waters, acting either directly or indirectly through the ministry of education. The ruling government’s overbearing negligence to fund the education system has led to the continued poor standard of education in the country. This has exposed graduates from Nigerian institutions to denigration across the world as many people hold the opinion that university graduates from Nigeria are half baked.
What education needs at the moment is for government to declare a state of emergency to re-build it. This re-building should start with proper funding on everything about education. The federal government and ASUU prolonged failure to reach a mutual agreement invariably strengthens the decay in education to the disadvantage of the entire country. The continued disagreement between them is neither in the interest of the students nor the education system in which both parties play frontline roles to salvage.
Every difference should be resolved amicably through sincere negotiations and compromises. This is the only way the education sector can move forward in the interest of all and bring our children back to classes.
Rev. Fr. Gerald Njoku is the Director, Justice, Development, Peace and Caritas Commission (JDPC), Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri, Imo State.
