Eight-week strike over as government concedes demands

Students across Nigeria expressed joy on learning that the academic staff union had called off its eight-week nationwide strike. The government has promised to implement a 2009 agreement signed with the union, including finalising the retirement age and reviewing issues related to the academic pension scheme.

But although the strike, which paralysed public tertiary institutions, has been called off doubts have been voiced in some quarters over the sincerity and political will of the government to meet the financial implications of the agreement.

Two major issues are of concern to Nigerians. Not only should government abide by the letter and spirit of the agreement, but it and the union should prevent future closures of public universities because it is impacting negatively on the quality of higher education.

With the public, especially parents, growing increasingly impatient with incessant strikes on university campuses, there was a spontaneous explosion of joy among students the length and breadth of Nigeria on news of the cessation of the industrial action.

“On behalf of Nigerian students, we congratulate our teachers and government officials who agreed that there was the need to reopen campuses for teaching and research,” said Mourof Shehu, a spokesperson for the National Association of Nigerian Students.

The association’s president, Dauda Mohammed, also welcomed the end of the strike, calling it “a step in the right direction because public universities have suffered years of neglect”.

According to reliable sources, the central government has reaffirmed its commitment to implementing the strategic areas agreed upon in the 2009 agreement it signed with the Academic Staff Union of Universities, or ASUU. One of them is raising the retirement age of academics from 65 to 70 years.

The recent passage of the retirement bill through both the national assembly and senate has helped to convince the ASUU that government is, to some extent, serious and determined to implement the agreement.

Senate president David Mark promised lecturers that both houses would soon harmonise their positions on the bill and thereafter the bill will be sent to Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan for his assent.

“Goodluck Jonathan, a former member of academic staff at the University of Port Harcourt, is anxious to sign the retirement bill. He recognises the importance of improving the living and working conditions of his colleagues,” said a presidency official who requested anonymity.

However, lecturers could not persuade members of the national assembly to improve on the current academic staff pension scheme. ASUU has consistently campaigned for a scheme similar to that of the armed forces, in terms of which retired generals continue to collect their full salary and allowances until death.

But both the legislative and executive arms of the government kicked against this proposal to be applied to academics, arguing that the pension scheme for the armed forces was in recognition of the fact that the military safeguards the unity and territorial integrity of Nigeria.

They said that if the government were to implement the military pension scheme for academic staff, other unions would be emboldened to press for similar demands. A senate member who did not want to be named confessed that spreading such a pension scheme to other sectors would have serious implication for government’s dwindling finances.

However, the government has made an important concession on the academic pension scheme, agreeing to review the situation so that ASUU representatives will be members of the pension unit in each university, to ensure transparency and efficiency.

Further, the government and the union have agreed to set up and expand an implementation monitoring committee in order to ensure adherence to the new agreement.

The issue of funding

According to Dr Jamiu Oluwatoki, ASUU chair at Lagos State University, the major challenge confronting universities is funding.

He said the problem was as old as the university system itself. Funds were never adequate for teaching and research and, in some cases, funds at the disposal of the universities were barely enough to pay salaries and ensure teaching activities. Research operations were usually underfunded.

The funding nightmare has been part of the protracted negotiations between the ASUU and the government.

It is on record that government has never fully handed over the funds it promised for helping to run universities. Many say lack of political will to properly fund universities is a key problem, and that government officials should suggest a return to the table with ASUU to renegotiate the funding scheme whenever the financial fortunes of the nation are at stake.

Professor Ukachukwu Awuzie, ASUU national president, said the government had reaffirmed its commitment to the revitalisation of universities through budgetary and non-budgetary funds.

Sources of budgetary funds include government’s willingness to stimulate the funding process with the immediate disbursement of US$634 million. He said that government had given its commitment to building this amount up to an annual sum of about US$2.5 billion in the next three years.

“These interventions will be based on identified, prioritised needs,” he said.

Awuzie also revealed government had committed itself to a “progressive increase of [the] annual budgetary allocation to education to 26% between 2012 to 2020”, in line with the UNESCO recommendation.

The non-budgetary sources of funds include transfer of landed properties to universities, and the setting up of research and development units by companies operating in Nigeria in close collaboration with universities.

There is an interesting aspect of the outcome of the latest agreement. Awuzie indicated the willingness of central government to assist state universities by the provision of “special and statutory funding interventions”.

In the current ASUU structure, there are more state universities than federal universities. State branches have vociferously complained that they are losers in any outcome of negotiations between the federal government and ASUU.

But branches of the union in state universities are, for once, satisfied that the federal government has committed itself to providing special funds for state universities.