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Nigerian students in public universities suffer as Academic Staff Union of Universities members embark on a total indefinite strike to compel the federal government to honour a 2009 agreement they signed

For years, the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, have been embroiled in a seemingly unending war which often culminates in strikes for various reasons. Most often, the issues in dispute centre around funding, university autonomy, retirement of its members and conditions of service among others.

The Obasanjo administration basically glossed over the issues. But, the Yar’Adua administration went further and signed a 2009 agreement, with ASUU to address the demands. But, the non-implementation of the agreement, especially after a one-week warning strike embarked upon from September 25 and a two-month grace period led ASUU’s National Executive Council, NEC, to embark on another round of indefinite strike across Nigerian campuses effective from midnight of December 4, 2011.

Ukachukwu Awuzie, a professor, and ASUU president, has justified the strike insisting that the National Executive Committee of ASUU took that painful decision after the Federal Government “neglected, ignored, failed and refused” to implement the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement after more than two years of its signing.

He said federal government squandered the two-month grace period it requested from ASUU without achieving any progress in the implementation of the agreement. Instead, it sacked the Implementation Monitoring Committee that served as the forum for dialogue on the dispute. With this development, Ukachukwu said: “ASUU was convinced that the government is terribly insincere and is manifestly unwilling to genuinely implement the agreement it freely entered into with ASUU. The government has abandoned the main tenet of industrial democracy that all agreements freely entered into must be honoured.”

He went on: “Therefore, the NEC resolved, painfully, to direct all members of ASUU in all branches nationwide to proceed on a total, comprehensive and indefinite strike… For the avoidance of doubt, a total, comprehensive and indefinite strike means no teaching, no examination, no grading of script, no project supervisions, no inaugural lectures, no appointment and promotion meeting, no statutory meetings (Council, Senate, Board etc) or other meetings directed by government or their agents.”

This directive has grounded academic activities around the country despite initial cynicism that it would be partially obeyed. In Lagos, academic activities were suspended at the Lagos State University, LASU, and University of Lagos, UNILAG. At LASU, most of the offices and faculties were locked and few students were seen on campus. To prevent any breakdown of law and order, armed policemen and armoured personnel carriers, APCs, were stationed at the gates of the University.

Abayomi Jimoh, secretary, ASUU, LASU chapter, said the current ASUU strike had nothing to do with salaries, but that the union is fighting for the future of Nigerian youths. “Another critical issue is the funding and establishment of research and development units which should be tailored to developing the Nigerian economy. Also, there is the need to comply with the 26 percent UNESCO recommended budgetary allocation to education,” he said.

At UNILAG, lecturers complied with the directive from ASUU to commence an indefinite strike. Consequently, students who went for lectures were disappointed as there were no lecturers in the classrooms. But, Newswatch learnt that a few lecturers held classes last Monday. Oghenekaro Ogbinaka, chairman ASUU, UNILAG chapter, said “the institution is fully complying with the directive to go on indefinite strike. We are mobilising our members to comprehensively join in the strike.”

At University of Ibadan, the strike left fresh students of the nation’s premier university stranded as many of them could not register. Though, older students of the institution have finished their examinations, other activities like conferences, seminars and workshops could not hold.  Students at Ekiti State University were not so lucky. The strike disrupted ongoing examinations at the institution last week. Some students from the Geology and Psychology departments who were billed to start their examinations were driven out of examination halls.

In Jos, John Galadima, chairman of the school’s chapter of ASUU, confirmed that academic activities were also suspended at the University of Jos, UNIJOS, because the lecturers had joined their counterparts nationwide to commence an indefinite strike.

This was the situation in other campuses around the country. In Abia, the State University, ABSU, and Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, complied with ASUU directives from ASUU. Though ABSU students were billed to resume last week after a short break, a visit to the university showed that no academic activity took place last week as the lecturers stayed away from the classrooms and their offices. Similarly, this was also the situation at the University of Uyo, University of Calabar, Cross River State University of Technology, Delta State University, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Olabisi Onabanjo University, OOU; Tai Solarin University of Education, TASUED; University of Maiduguri, UNIMAID; Niger Delta Univeristy, Bayelsa; University of Benin, UNIBEN; Ambrose Alli University; AAU; Imo State University, IMSU, Owerri; and the Federal University of Technology Akure, FUTA.

Others were the Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki; Rivers State University of Science and Technology, RSUST, Nkpolu; Ignatius Ajuru University of Education and the University of Port Harcourt, UNIPORT.  Felix Igwe, chairman ASUU, RSUST branch, said his members were fully in support of the strike. Even before last week’s strike, both RSUST and the University of Education had been on strike to press home their demand for implementation of the 2009 agreement.

But, the strike was ignored in some schools like the University of Ilorin and the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, FUPRE, Effurun, Delta State. In FUPRE, the strike commenced Monday, December 5, same date ASUU members were supposed to resume work at FUPRE after a three-week tango with the vice chancellor, the Nigerian Universities’ Commission, NUC, and the minister of education. A source who did not want to be named said, “FUPRE’s case is a peculiar one; ASUU and other unions in the university had been at loggerheads with the NUC, and the minister of education over the recall of their vice chancellor and the Registrar from their accumulated/terminal leave, which was duly directed by the governing–council.” The school suspended joining the general ASUU strike in order to allow the NUC peace panel, led by Alhassan Bichi, a professor, to address the fundamental needs of the school. Except if it is extremely important that FUPRE must join the strike, it may not be in a hurry to observe it.

But, some universities were bent on seeing through their institution’s ongoing examinations before embarking on the strike. At the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, ASUU members supervised second semester examinations which had already commenced before the strike. The same situation occurred at the Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, where students continued with their various examinations despite the commencement of the strike because the institution also wants to conclude its examinations before joining strike.

However, Newswatch’s investigation reveals that some universities often avoid joining strikes by paying fines to ASUU’s national secretariat in order to be exempted. But, Ogbinaka, said that no university is exempted per se. “The universities that are granted exemptions are those that have observer status and this is the beauty of ASUU. If a university has not been chartered as a member, you are allowed to observe the union for some years so that you will be in a position to say that you want to belong or not,” he said, adding, “These are the ones we grant exemptions because they are really not full ASUU members.”

According to him, there are some universities who for no just reason, break ASUU’s rules out of “intrigue.” Such institutions are suspended by ASUU. Newswatch learnt that part of this “intrigue” is the perception by some of these unco-operative schools that ASUU is biased towards their cause because the body rarely addresses their concerns unless some top universities are affected. So, they decide to boycott the strikes. Some others like the University of Ilorin, have it as their strict mandate to boycott every call to industrial action. As a result, the University of Ilorin is currently rated as the best university in Nigeria.

Ogbinaka feels that the FG can implement the 2009 agreement if it musters enough political will to do so. What it needs to do now is to send the necessary bills to the National Assembly and follow them up as executive bills. But it had not done anything since 2009. The latest round of battle with FG started in August. ASUU embarked on a one-week warning strike on September 25, 2011, after all its efforts to persuade the government to honour the agreement it freely entered into with it failed. Soon after the notification of the union’s decision to embark on the warning strike, government quickly convened a meeting with the union’s principal officers with a view to listen to it and possibly avert the strike. So, the government requested to be given one month to address the issues but ASUU readily offered a two-month grace period so as to give it enough time to tidy its end. That meeting culminated in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, in which, government undertook to resolve the contending issues not later than November 22, 2011. But, this was not done. Not just that, the FG decided to sack the committee that drafted the MoU to ASUU’s chagrin.

Many students, who bear the brunt have lamented the situation and through the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, pleaded with the government and ASUU to resolve their differences promptly in the interest of students. Lekan Kareem, a part-two law student at LASU, said: “We are always the victims of these unending strikes as we end up spending more years in school than we should have and eventually, we become juniors to our peers who attend private universities or who attend schools abroad.” After pleading unsuccessfully with ASUU to call off the strike, the FG has agreed to meet with ASUU, Wednesday, December 07, three days after the strike commenced, to find a lasting solution to the dispute once and for all.

Meanwhile, Ruqayyatu Rufa’i, a professor and the minister of education, has pleaded with ASUU ‘to understand the situation.’ “I have pleaded and I am pleading with my brothers and sisters in ASUU, as colleagues, to understand the situation in the interest of all and youths in particular…to suspend the strike and go back to work and come back to the negotiating table.” She said that the inability of the federal government to implement the agreement was not deliberate because there were still grey areas to be sorted out with the ASUU on the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement. The minister, however, failed to mention specific areas to be ironed out with the ASUU.

According to her, as part of government’s commitment to dialogue, it had invited the union’s leadership for a meeting a week before the strike but ASUU turned it down. She explained that the government was still interested in dialogue so that peace and stability could return to the university system because Anyim Pius Anyim, secretary to the government of the federation, SGF, was ready to take up the issues at a higher level of discussion.

But Awuzie would have none of that. He said that Nigerian lecturers would not return to the classrooms until their demands are met as laid down in the 2009 ASUU/FG Agreement. That agreement spells out what to do to ensure a healthy academic environment, and also address the deteriorating conditions at the nation’s universities. He explained that the strike was not meant to punish the students but to put things in order in their own interest. The ASUU president said the strike is total, and that all the universities will comply accordingly. Ukachukwu said the decision to go on strike was not taken by him alone, but by the officials representing all the universities, hence the action is total.

The action is typical of ASUU since its establishment in 1978 as a successor to the Nigerian Association of University Teachers formed in 1965 and covering academic staff in the University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; University of Ife and the University of Lagos. It normally follows proper procedures as laid down in the labour laws to press for their demands. Therefore, once it decides to embark on a total, indefinite strike, it rarely bulges until government shifts ground a bit. The union was active in struggles against military regimes during the 1980s. In 1988, the union organised a national strike to press for fair wages and university autonomy. As a result, ASUU was proscribed on August 7, 1988, and all its property seized. It was allowed to resume in 1990, but after another strike, it was again banned on August 23, 1992. However, an agreement which met several of the union’s demands including the right of workers to collective bargaining was reached on September 3, 1992. ASUU organised further strikes in 1994 and 1996, protesting against the June 12, presidential elections and the dismissal of staff by the Sani Abacha military regime.

After the return to democracy in 1999, the union actively continued to demand for the rights of its members against opposition by the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo. In July 2002, Oladipo Fashina, former national president of ASUU, petitioned Justice Mustapha Akanbi of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission to investigate the authorities of the University of Ilorin, UNILORIN, for financial mismanagement and corruption. UNILORIN has never embarked on an industrial action.

In 2007, ASUU went on strike for three months. In May 2008, it carried out two separate one-week ‘warning strikes’ to press for a range of demands, including an improved salary regime and the reinstatement of 49 lecturers who were dismissed at the University of Ilorin many years ago. In June 2009, ASUU ordered its members in federal and state universities nationwide to proceed on an indefinite strike over disagreements with the federal government on an agreement it reached with the union about two and a half years earlier. After three months of strikes in October 2009, ASUU and other staff unions signed a memorandum of understanding with the government and so, it called off the industrial action. The FG’s failure to implement the agreement has led to another bout of total and indefinite work-to-rule action in 2011.

Reported by Dike Onwuamaeze and Godfrey Azubike