ASUU STRIKE: MY STAND ON THE CONTENTIOUS ISSUES I salute the resilience spirit and the doggedness of all Nigerian students who have been made to remain at home and bear the brunt of the on-going industrial action embarked upon by ASUU. Indeed, I assure you all that the sacrifice you are now making will never be in vain. It is a struggle to rescue our decaying public universities which have been left to deteriorate over the years by our corrupt and inept capitalist governments at both the federal and state levels. However, since the strike began, it has been observed that some individuals both within and outside government have chosen to endlessly misinform and insult our collective intelligence on many issues arising from this on-going industrial action. It will interest us to know that between 2000 and 2011, the Nigerian government earned N48.48 trillions from the sale of oil alone as against N3.10 trillions made between 1979 and 1999 (Guardian, 24/3/13). Hence, going by this tremendous upswing in the revenue at the disposal of the Nigerian government between 2000 and 2011, the issue of paucity of funds in servicing public universities should not have been an excuse. But with the reckless management of the country’s fortunes by our corrupt political leadership, our public universities are not only under-funded today; they have also been inevitably turned into profit-making ventures under guise of raising their internally generated revenue of (IGR). In fact, the budgetary allocation to education in Nigeria has been regrettably slashed from 12.22% in 1985 to 8.5% in 2013. This is indeed far below what UNESCO recommended for education. It is therefore mischievous and misleading for anyone to say that ASUU is responsible for the declining university education standard in Nigeria when in actual fact countries with smaller GDP in Africa are committing more resources to public education. In fact, for the purpose of record, the percentage budgetary allocation to education in Ghana is 31%; in Uganda is 27%; and in Swaziland is 24% just to mention a few. But in Nigeria, the opposite is the situation as our political leaders do not place premium on education but have irresistible penchant for profligate spending on projects of no value to the citizens. This is why it is laughable that some commentators will prefer ASUU to demonstrate high level of patriotism and work under pitiable conditions. Indeed, these commentators glossed over the fact that the spirit of patriotism cannot be evolved where transformational political leadership is grossly lacking. Also, some commentators have chosen to condemn ASUU on the ground that the recurrent industrial action by the union is giving rise to half-baked and unemployable graduates in Nigeria. For this group of commentators, they failed to appreciate that ASUU will not just down tools if the government will for once respect agreement that is voluntarily entered into by implementing its content in its entirety without further ado. Indeed, without mincing words, what we are experiencing today is a reflection of government’s insincerity over the years and not the intransigence of ASUU as those commentators have argued. More importantly, for ASUU to have demanded for proper funding of public universities in Nigeria, it goes to show that the union is more interested and committed to turning our citadels of learning into world class institutions that can compete favourably with other institutions anywhere in the globe. Again, I became very perturbed that I have continued to wonder how some supposed educated fellows will dare to argue that government is not a direct beneficiary of education and should therefore hands-off from its funding on the ground that education is not an income-generating venture for government. Indeed, this argument is not only lacking in logic but also contradicts the fact that education is a veritable tool for national development. Perhaps, those who hold this opinion should learn more on the role which vibrant education sector played in the industrial revolution of countries like China. Also, it is very infuriating and should be seen as the highest level of irresponsibility on the part of the federal minister of labour in Nigeria when he said that he inherited the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement as if government is not a continuum. Clearly, this is a reckless statement which confirmed the fact that inconsistency of policies is one of the major problems bedeviling political governance in Nigeria. But before I resign my pen, I must not forget to say that everywhere in the globe, industrial action by way of strike is not only a legitimate tool of pressing for lawful and reasonable demands by workers, it is also a tool of social re-engineering through which the working class gets their dues when the controllers of economic capital fail to be sensitive to their plight. Since this is a universally accepted fact, then, it is unimaginable that some commentators who should rather know better chose to see strike as an archaic tool which ASUU should have done away with. Perhaps, these commentators should ponder on the words of Gardner that if we are lazy, self-indulgent, and wanting to be deceived; if we willingly follow corrupt leaders; if we allow our heritage of freedom to decay; if we fail to be faithful monitors of the public process - then we shall get and deserve the worst. Emmanuel Kayode Awolere Founder and President Good Governance and Advocacy for Peace Movement (GAPEM) Kayonline81@yahoo ABOUT THE AUTHOR Emmanuel Kayode Awolere is a peace and strategic studies expert and a research fellow. He obtained a Masters Degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Ibadan and he is currently a doctoral candidate in Peace Studies at the same university. His areas of research interest cut across the management of societal conflicts, development and security studies.
Posted on: Sat, 28 Sep 2013 16:37:30 +0000
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