ASUU AND THE CULTURE OF IMPUNITY Since the formation of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in 1978, industrial action has remained its primary weapon of engagement with successive governments. In spite of ASUU’s textbook claim that its industrial actions are actuated by public interest, the reality is that ASUU has always manipulated the people’s craving for university education for the ends of higher pay. When ASUU embarked on the current installment of its endless circle of strikes on July 1, this year, the union said the action was warranted by the failure of the federal government to honour the agreement reached with it in 2009. In the hysteria that followed the industrial action, the federal government made concessions to ASUU to persuade the union to end the strike to no avail. Consistent with its established modus operandi, ASUU has, since the commencement of the current strike, adopted a combination of blackmail, propaganda, public incitement and deliberate misinformation to mobilise public against the government. To mask the self-service of its demands, ASUU makes a song and dance of the 2009 Agreement which it claims the federal government has not honoured. In view of ASUU’s belligerence, concerned citizens are invited to interrogate the issues at stake in the on-going stand-off. While no responsible citizen would advocate that agreements should be made and broken at will, it is crucial to stress that all agreements are subject to existential imperatives. Like other rules of engagement which govern social relations, agreements are meant to serve the mutual interests of the parties to same. Therefore, any law or agreement which works hardship on society is due for alteration; which is why every agreement is subject to the doctrine of impossibility. When ASUU recites the mantra of government’s failure to honour agreements, it seems to forget the intervening socio-economic variables and the circumstances that gave rise to the agreement. An examination of the chemistry of the 2009 agreement indicates that it was an offshoot of an earlier one between ASUU and the federal government dating back to 2001 which both parties agreed to re-negotiate. The then Minister of Education Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, inaugurated the Re-negotiation Committee on Thursday December 14, 2006 with Mr. Gamaliel Onosode as the leader of the government team and Dr. Abdullahi Sule-Kano as the leader of ASUU team. That re-negotiation exercise gave rise to the 2009 Agreement. By ASUU’s admission, the federal government has implemented part of the agreement while some aspects are outstanding.Among the gains which accrued to ASUU from the 2009 agreement are the bumper emolument of university teachers via the Consolidated University Academic Salary Structure (CONUASS II) and the elongation of the retirement age of Professors from 65 to 70 years among others. Of the unimplemented component of the agreement, ASUU seems most touchy about the earned academic allowances the arrears of which amount to about N93 billion out of which the federal government has agreed to release N30 billion. Determined to collect the Earned Academic Allowances booty in full, ASUU insists that all the terms of the 2009 Agreement are sacrosanct and inviolable. In spite of ASUU’s propaganda, any wholesale condemnation of the federal government for failure to comprehensively implement the agreement misses the vital point that the agreement is patently inoperable for the reason that it is a product of blackmail and intimidation arising from a poisoned universe of negotiation. By now, it should be clear to the discerning that ASUU uses the prevailing political temper in the country as the barometer for timing its endless strikes. For ASUU, the current political situation in the country obviously presents a fertile climate to strike! In the mean time, opposition parties will attempt to make political capital out of the strike. In the mix, parents’ frustration on the plight of their wards will rent the air while genuine and fake civil rights groups will seize the moment to jostle for visibility and relevance with some journalists in tow.To sustain the heat, the national leadership of ASUU would direct all its local branches to address press conferences and issue public statements to the effect that government is anti-education. With elections around the corner, many in government would begin to find a nexus between their electoral fortunes and the industrial action.If anyone is discerning enough to condemn ASUU’s underhanded tactics, the union will descend on such person charging that he must have been bribed by government.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 19:32:39 +0000
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