ASUU Strike| 16 Frequently Asked Questions

 ASUU Strike and some of the frequently asked questions...

My response to some frequently asked questions on the ASUU strike and the demands.

Qn: ASUU has been going on strike since the 80s and has not produced results. Why can't they change tactics?

Ans: First-generation universities were established to be able to sustain themselves with time. You can see that from their assets. The coming of the military government in 1966 distorted the plan as education that was still in the developmental stage was pulled out of the priority list of the country by the government. Development in education was relatively stagnant as more universities were established in 1975. The starting structure sustained the first and second-generation universities to a point. They start to degrade without adequate attention. 

ASUU and the Student Union began the agitation for proper funding. Students got lost somewhere along the line after they successfully killed radical student unionism. That agitation by ASUU led to the establishment of what we have now as TETFund in 1993 which brought a little relief to the public universities. Then, the release of the first tranche (N200bn) of the revitalization funds in 2014 by the government of President Goodluck Jonathan got some jobs done. Our university would have long died without the intervention of ASUU. It is the ASUU strike that has given our universities a semblance of a university, else they would have all gone like the public primary and secondary schools.

Qn. What was ASUU asking for in the FG-ASUU 2009 agreement?

Ans: The following is contained in the 2009 agreement-

-Salary Structure for Academic Staff in Nigerian Universities 

-Earned Academic Allowances 

-Funding of Universities and sources of funding

-University Autonomy and Academic Freedom

-Some issues that require legislation.

The 2009 agreement which includes the salary of academic staff was meant to be renegotiated every 3 years. It's 13 years now and the agreement has not been renegotiated. You can find the details of the said agreement here. https://asuu.org.ng/fg-asuu-agreements/

Qn: What is this University Autonomy

Ans: The principle of autonomy is the power possessed by universities to govern themselves, have their own rules within the framework of their *organic* law, designate their authorities, determine their plans and programs within the principles of academic freedom, and research, and freely manage their assets. This is to shield the ivory tower from the bureaucracy of the civil service. 

The Nigerian Universities Autonomy Act No. 1, 2007 has this: "The Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act 2003 (otherwise called the Universities Autonomy Act No. 1, 2007) enacted by the National Assembly and signed into law on 10th July 2003 and later gazetted by the Federal Republic of Nigerian Official Gazette No. 10, Volume 94 of 12th January 2007 as Act No. 1 of 2000, has vested the powers of MANAGING THE PERSONNEL AND PAYROLL SYSTEM issues in the hands of each university’s governing council."

Qn: Since public universities are autonomous, why don't they generate the money to fund themselves? 

Ans: Public universities no doubt draw their funding from public funds since they are tuition-free, that is why they are called public universities. They are budgeted for and funded with public funds but have the freedom to govern themselves to liberate the university from the bureaucracy of the civil service. This is to enable the Council to exercise its powers and perform its functions without undue external interference or influence. This is to protect the integrity of the ivory tower.

Qn. Why is ASUU comparing their salary to politicians and not to the police and military?

Ans: Up till 1966 Professors earn more than federal ministers, Generals, etc. Professors were the highest paid civil service after the Prime Minister, The VC of University College, Ibadan (University of Ibadan), and the Chief Judge of the federation. What has changed? So, why should a PA on social media to the president that helps the president to Facebook and Tweet earn more than twice the salaries of Professors in the 21st century when we should be setting a path for a knowledge-based economy? Why should FIRS staff (tax collectors) earn more than a Professor? Etc. Does that make any sense?

Qn. Why did ASUU reject IPPIS as a payment system acceptable by other sectors?

Ans. Section 2AA of the University Autonomy Act states: “The powers of the Council shall be exercised, as in the Law and Statutes of each university and to this, extant establishment circulars that are inconsistent with the laws and statutes of the university shall not apply to the universities.” Section 2AAA states: “The Governing Council of a university shall be free in the discharge of its functions and exercise of its responsibilities for the good management, growth, and development of the University.”

The personnel and payroll of every university should be controlled by the respective Governing Council by law and not by the office of AGF. IPPIS contravenes the Univerity Autonomy Act. IPPIS is again developed for normal civil service and does not capture the peculiarities of the university system. Aside from this, it has a lot of implications if personnel and payroll are controlled from Abuja. There is an embargo on employment at the moment and the university council can't employ anyone no matter the need of the university. The Autonomy Act is to shield the university from this. For a university to employ whenever they decide to lift the embargo, the VC may need to go lobby the Head of Service, AGF, etc. Supposing he needs 30 academic staff, he may come back with additional 60 candidates not interviewed to be employed. By the time your kids are in the university, they may likely be taught by these people that should ordinarily have no business with the university. But they got an offer of a meal ticket.

Qn: I still don't understand how the implementation of the IPPIS will affect the quality of education.

Ans: The whole idea of Visiting Lecturers/Professors is a temporary measure to fill the gap of the non-availability of the required number of Academics in the senior cadre as you train the younger academics to get to that level. And that is only possible with the autonomy of the university where the management can use their discretion to effectively utilize the available resources to keep the system working with temporary staff pending the availability of enough tenure Lecturers in the senior cadre. Now that the university has been stripped of the control of the personnel and payroll and handed over to the OAGF, that flexibility is no longer there. It is either tenure staff or nothing. That means you can't start a new program and employ the services of temporary academics while you train the younger academics to take over unless you can snatch senior academics from other universities which could be very difficult. Some of the existing programs in that category without the required tenure senior academics have lost NUC accreditation since IPPIS was forced on universities. How is that helpful to our education program and development?

Qn: Why is ASUU insisting on UTAS?

When the issue of university peculiarities was raised in 2013 and that IPPIS can't fit into the university system, the government agreed on the development of an alternative platform for university workers that will address university peculiarities. In 2020, this government challenged ASUU to produce an alternative. ASUU accepted the challenge and UTAS was produced by a team that comprise the members. UTAS is developed to be in line with university autonomy. NITDA test revealed that UTAS performed much better than the IPPIS. So, why should the government insist on error-friendly IPPIS for the universities when we have a better alternative platform?

Qn. On the fund for the revitalization of universities, do ASUU really realize that they are not the only sector suffering from underfunding in Nigeria?

Ans: No country, especially the developing countries, jokes with education except Nigeria. If there is N2.4trn to fund the security budget, it should be possible to give a little attention to education. If there are billions of naira to maintain unproductive refineries yearly, they can satisfy the demands of ASUU. As a developing nation, education is very critical to our development, and ignoring it has future consequences. The giant of Africa should lead by example on education in Africa

Qn: A department graduates 100 students and then cries about no staff to hire and demanding Earned Academic Allowance (EAA), I don't understand.

Ans: From NUC guidelines to the universities, every academic rank has its percentage and you cannot populate a department with Graduate Assistants (GAs) that are not even qualified to teach till they obtain their MSc to become Assistant Lecturers, according to NUC guidelines. If all the graduating students were employed and the top ranks are weak, can the new graduates do the job of a Senior Lecturer? Who will train the GAs to get their MSc and PhD? Who will do the teaching and students project supervision job before the GAs attained the level to perform those functions? Since the quota for the Junior lecturers is already filled, the excess work has to be done by the available staff and they are meant to get the EAA which is hardly paid except ASUU goes on strike to get a fraction of it

Qn: Why engage Visiting and Adjunct Professors when there are plenty of graduates without jobs? Are they not taking up the jobs of unemployed graduates? Open up the university space, get people employed

Ans: The engagement of contract and visiting Professors to Senior Lecturers never stopped employment in the university. They are engaged because of their value to the system. Mass Communication department, ABU has such a celebrated Professor that was retired but engaged till IPPIS. Among the Academics that I worked with in the UK during my PhD was a retired Emeritus Professor, Len Dissado that was among my 4 guides. He was 80 years last month and still serving the university. I am very proud to have Co-authored a published paper with him. It was a rare privilege. That is one of my best papers using his model, the Dissado-Hill (QDC) model. The Professor of Engineering with a PhD in Chemistry was retired before I met him in 2009 when I got to Leicester. He was about 70 years just after I left in 2012. I learn a lot from him. I will remain pleased with the University of Leicester for retaining the retired but not tired Professor and a Dielectrician that I had the privilege to learn from.

In the university, we don't just discard intellectuals that are still resourceful to the university like a piece of rag. That is part of the peculiarities of the university that seems to be beyond the realm of understanding of those not in academia. They are valued till death. If it was in Nigeria where intellectuals are not valued, Professor Stephen Hawking, the celebrated genius of Cambridge, that died at the age of 76 years in 2018 would have been abandoned.

Qn. Why did ASUU feels that all their demands must be met or no work, even though these ASUU demands are shielded from the public?

Ans: The demands are not secret. The 2020 MoA can be found here.  https://asuu.org.ng/fg-asuu-agreements/.  You can find the press release in August 2020 on the same website that highlighted what the government needed to do to end the strike. The demands include:

-the renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU/FG Agreement

-Adoption of UTAS

-Revitalization of public universities

-Earned Academic Allowance

-Proliferation of universities by state governors.

Not a single one of the demands have been met by FG till now.

Qn: Federal government claimed to have attended to 80% of your needs. Why are you still on strike then?

Ans: That is misinformation from FG and very disappointing. After 6 months of the strike, FG is yet to address a single demand of ASUU.

-The Draft Agreement of the Nimi-Briggs Renegotiation Committee was submitted in June 2022 (NOT SIGNED).

-Adoption and deployment of UTAS as the payment for university staff as against IPPIS (NO DONE).

-Release of N170bn to complete one tranche of NEEDS assessment Revitalization Fund as agreed in 2020 MoA (NO DONE).

-Release of N50bn to complete the arrears of EAA as agreed in 2020 MOA (NOT DONE).

-Release of government white paper on 2021 visitation panel report to federal universities (NOT DONE).

-Legislation to curb the proliferation of universities, especially by State Governors (NOT DONE).

-Payment of withheld salaries from March 2022 (NOT DONE).

AS A MATTER OF FACT, THE GOVERNMENT HAS ADDRESSED 0% OF THE DEMANDS OF ASUU.

Qn: But the government is broke and there is no money to fund education, why can't you understand?

Ans: The problem is not the lack of funds but the mismanagement of our resources and funds. If the government can stop crude oil theft, stop the wasting of billions in the yearly rehabilitation of refineries that are not refining, stop the subsidy fraud, stop the loopholes exploited by the AGFs to rob the country, etc, there will be more than enough money to fund education.

Qn. Why will ASUU want to be paid for the "wasted" 6 months of the salary they didn't work for?

Ans: Who caused the strike? FG refusal to implement an MoA it willingly signed in 2020. Who made the strike to be this long? FG's nonchalant attitude. If FG had taken the demands serious, why would the strike last this long? The issues at stake can be resolved within a month and everyone will get back to their normal business. But the education of the masses is not important to them. What's the justification for holding the salary?

Moreover, the Academic Staff Union of Colleges of Education was on strike for 2 months. Why were their salaries not withheld? The staff of research institutes were on strike for several months, why were their salaries not withheld? Is their so-called no-work no-pay policy during strike actions applicable to only university lecturers? The government seems confused. The university lecturers deserve their pay like the others.

Meanwhile, when the strike commenced, there was an APC internal crisis as their party's convention was approaching. They were desperately looking for a solution. Mal. Adam Adamu was seen in a trending picture with the then APC Chairman on a visit to the president in London concerning the APC crisis. While the education minister was running up and down to resolve the APC crisis, he ignored the crisis in the universities he was appointed to manage.

So, does he deserve a salary as the minister of education for 5 months before the meeting of the ministers with the president on the ASUU strike? You will answer that universities are not his only responsibility in the ministry. So also is teaching not the only responsibility of the university lecturers. As the lecturers refused to teach due to ASUU Strike, they are engaged in their other responsibilities that include research and community services. The lecturers deserve their pay the same way the minister got his pay. The withheld salary should not even be an issue to argue over. It will be paid.

©️Amoka