The long-running dispute between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government has smouldered for 11 years serving as underlying catalyst for the periodic strikes and labour squabbles that have become second nature to Nigerian tertiary institutions. These have led to a clearly dysfunctional, utterly unreliable academic calendar which forms the basis of our huge student exodus to other countries. The most modest calculation is that the exodus costs Nigeria at least a billion dollars per annum.
ASUU’s latest strike, which commenced a few days before the declaration of a public health emergency in Nigeria, has continued virtually unnoticed because all schools and universities have been closed down due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Now seven months into the pandemic and as many months of the forced closure of all educational institutions, there is talk of reopening the schools and an opportunity to resolve the long-standing issues that have dogged the relationship of the lecturers with the Federal Government.
We urge the Federal Ministry of Education as well as Ministry of Labour and Employment to seize the opportunity of the space granted by the forced holiday to resolve all outstanding issues and restore industrial peace in the universities. The immediate cause of the current ASUU strike, it should be remembered, is the disagreement between the Federal Government and ASUU on the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS) which is the system to ensure that pay cheques go to only those who are biometrically confirmed to be on the payroll. Because IPPIS is able to keep ghost workers out of payrolls, the Federal Government ordered all workers in its payroll, including lecturers of federal universities, to be enrolled in the IPPIS system. However, the university teachers objected. First, they said, it would amount to treating them like other civil servants. They also pointed out that there are nuances in their service conditions which may not be readily captured in the IPPIS system. After months of argument, the government said the teachers must enrol or there would be no pay. The lecturers then went on strike. Although the government relented following the eruption of the pandemic, there was still no resolution of the underlying issues.
We think this period of forced school holiday provides a much needed space and opportunity for both sides to reflect on and revisit the issues once again. ASUU’s vaunted alternative to the IPPIS solution has been the University Transparency Accountability System (UTAS). It is gratifying to learn from ASUU that the UTAS is now ready for a roll out. ASUU has promised to do a demonstration of the efficacy of the system and its superior merits compared to IPPIS. It is our hope that ASUU would soon get the Federal Ministry of Education to see the platform and, hopefully, all issues about IPPIS would be finally laid to rest.
IPPIS is only the most recent of the many issues that necessitated the strike. We think that legacy issues in the agreements of 2009 should now be represented, dissected, and reevaluated in terms of their current relevance, applicability and immediacy. ASUU has said it is open to renegotiation of those agreements as they concern its members. The economic situation of the Federal Government is not static and so are its abilities to implement agreements which involve spending a lot of money. Given the present liquidity of the government vis-à-vis 2009, we think that both sides should appraise the situation of the country and agree on what is possible at the moment. One of the core issues of the 2009 agreements has been the revitalisation of the universities. A university worth its name must be able to provide its students and faculties with reasonable facilities for teaching and learning. We know that our university administrators are not immune from the epidemic of fraud, waste and abuse that afflicts Nigeria as a nation, but the Federal Government must be willing to provide funding reasonable enough to enable the universities to be able to perform their basic functions and not look like glorified high schools.
Other tricky but outstanding issues include the visitation panels and the proliferation of universities, especially by state governments. It is now fashionable for state governors to build a university in their native towns or villages as their most cherished legacy. This is one huge opportunity, before the final resumption of schools, to resolve all the disagreements, reach common ground, and perhaps renew the promise of a dependable university calendar in the country to end wildcat strikes that pay little heed to the future of our students and the patience of parents.
