- We expect the alternative academic union to be a positive force
After over three decades of being the sole umbrella union representing the country’s academics and pursuing their interests, both with government at all levels as well as respective university authorities, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) appears to have reached a critical crossroads. A newly formed body, the Congress of University Academics (CONUA), has been clamouring for some time now to be registered as an officially recognised association representing academics in the country’s universities, and it is only a matter of time before this request is granted given the freedom of association guaranteed by the constitution.
The emergent CONUA recently held a three-day national stakeholders’ meeting in Ile-Ife, Osun State, signalling that its members are determined to actualise their objective. Members present at the meeting were from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; Federal University, Oye-Ekiti; Federal University, Lokoja; Kwara State University, Malete, Ilorin, and Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State. Articulating the core vision of the group at the event, its national coordinator, Dr Niyi Sunmonu, said this is to redefine unionism, cultivating new approaches to solving problems as well as restoring peace and stability in the universities.
It cannot be disputed that ASUU played a most laudable and courageous role in protecting the interests of its members, pursuing their welfare and promoting the overall wellbeing of the university system, especially through adequate funding, over the years, particularly under military rule. Members of the union severally made serious sacrifices when they went on strike for prolonged periods without pay to compel government to meet its various obligations to staff and students of the institutions. Indeed, beyond its role as a labour union protecting the welfare of its members, ASUU was a critical voice that played a courageous and patriotic role in the struggle against military dictatorship and for the restoration of democratic rule.
However, a number of ASUU’s members have increasingly said that the union has not sufficiently adjusted its tactics and strategies to reflect the new context of democratic rule within which it has been relating with government since 1999. Thus, we have had the persistence of the same old methods of resort to endless strikes by university teachers to achieve demands for funding and welfare objectives that are sometimes difficult for governments to meet, especially with the significant drop in government’s revenue.
It is thus not surprising that critical stakeholders began to see this perceived militant style of unionism as becoming a serious obstacle in itself to the progress and peace of the universities. As a result of prolonged strikes, students are no longer able to predict the duration of their courses. This has had serious implications not just for the finances of parents and guardians but even for the very future of the students. Those who can afford it are thus forced to patronise exorbitantly prized private universities where academic or student unionism is practically non-existent. The unpredictable academic calendar as a result of incessant strikes by academics is a key factor fuelling the large number of Nigerian students patronising foreign universities.
Against this background, many parents and students will certainly identify with CONUA’s alternative vision of unionism when it promises to seek for new ways of addressing the welfare of its members “and to put an end to the unnecessary wasting of student’s time as a result of frequent strike action”.
The fear has been expressed that the formation of CONUA may be no more than an attempt by subversive elements to break the ranks of the academics and make it impossible for them to achieve a common front in future. If the emergent union is predicated on such mischief, there is no way it can endure ultimately. But there is no basis to believe so for now. As things stand, the case for the co-existence with ASUU of another academic labour association with an alternative brand of unionism is compelling.
