Strikes? Ponder Over This!

On continues ASUU Strikes, Prof. Abubakar Mu’azu, a lecturer, from the Department of Mass Communication, University of Maiduguri in Borno comments on the ongoing ASUU Strike, expressing dissatisfaction with the government’s attitude towards the standard of education in Nigeria.

In a Facebook post, Mu’azu identified some key points to ponder upon; read below:

#1: Government says it has no money to fulfill ASUU’s demands in the interest of our public universities. Government has no money for the revitalisation of the universities, no money to improve salaries, welfare and conditions of service of university workers.

#2: Instead of providing N220bn every year for the revitalisation of public universities, government provided a mere N30bn in almost a decade even then it was forced by ASUU strike

#3: Government refused to constitute Visitation Panels to inquire into the management of public universities in almost a decade, until ASUU forces government to act through strikes. The Visitation Panels were set up to cover two five-year periods because government did not do what was required by law at the right time. It is not impossible that the white paper on the various visitation panel reports may only be released only after another strike by ASUU

#4: Since 2013, the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation simply refused to configure the IPPIS template to address the peculiarities of the university system. Using the IPPIS template, university workers are paid monthly salaries arbitrarily. Some Professors receive not more than N250,000 in one month and N5,000 in another; some are paid the salaries of Readers instead of Professors’ salaries. There are others that have not been paid for a year because the IPPIS template does not recognise the 70 years retirement age for Professors. Again, there are deductions being made beyond the 10% tax without reasons. IPPIS is simply a template that iniflicts pain on university workers. Yet, the fiction is that it is an anti-corruption template. The fiction is sweet since for every person enrolled government is paying N16,500 per enrollee which amounts to about N4.8bn from the federal universities yearly. Who are the consultants/vendors/commission agents behind this IPPIS?

#4: Some government officials and their apologists have continued to argue that strike is not the best way to resolve industrial disputes. May be it is so. But the labour laws allow strikes to be invoked as an option for resolving industrial disputes. Strikes are a result of government’s insensitivity and refusal to respond to workers’ grievances through all the processes before declaration of industrial disputes. Government officials simply neglect the labour laws and make comments that can only flow from dictatorial minds that feel unconcerned to respect the labour laws. To end strikes simply respond to the issues raised by workers and treat the issues with openness and sincerity. Workers are not unreasonable and can make suggestions to help government to act responsibly as ASUU helped with the idea of TETFund. Sadly, even to get TETFund to come into existence and help address challenges in the education sector, ASUU had to embark on strikes to get the government to do the needful. So long as the operators of the machinery of government choose the path of arrogance, refusal to respect the labour laws and simply want to dictate to workers, strikes will never cease.

#5: There is a provision in every agreement signed between ASUU and government since 1992 that in the event that government had difficulties in the implementation of any aspect of the agreement, it should convene a meeting to address the very component (s) of the agreement it was having difficulties in implementation. This is a proviso to help sustain culture of dialogue to avoid breakdown of industrial peace and strikes. Sadly, since the 1992 agreement was signed government has never utilised that option. Government officials prefer matters to degenerate to the point of strikes before they awoke to their responsibilities by dishing out half-truths, half-hearted commitment towards addressing the issues, issuing threats and stoppage of salaries hoping to coerce workers back to work . So how can strikes be avoided? Not with such deviations and distractions that make matters worse without resolving anything.

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The structures of government are operated by human beings. The operations of government is a reflection of the minds of some of the officials that operate the machinery called government.

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