President Bola Tinubu is public-opinion sensitive and determined to take Nigeria to greater heights. He also seems to be committed to doing whatever that can bring greater good to a greater number of Nigerians. From all indications, Tinubu, unlike his immediate predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, is more communicative and interactive with obvious willingness to make life more bearable.
President Tinubu who brands his government as administration of “renewed hope”, comes across as a leader who is ready to right many, if not all the wrongs of the past, particularly the misdeeds of the last regime. It is against this background that one is persuaded to join many eminent Nigerians, in raising the issue of public university system with him.
There is no controverting the fact that the system is currently tottering at the brink of collapse as it is dying of insipidity. It is unfortunate that many federal universities’ laboratories have resorted to using kerosene stove in place of Bunsen burner. In metaphorical sense, the system is not only sick; it is on an intensive care unit, gasping for breath. During the Buhari regime, the system sweltered from crisis to crisis, as various campuses of universities became cloudy with so much aches and pains.
In response to the nagging problems of poor funding, decayed infrastructure, poor welfare of workers, campus-based associations – the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), and Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) as usual, took on Buhari’s regime, after shouting themselves hoarse, embarking on an indefinite strike.
The last strike which began on Monday February 14, 2022 and was called off on October 14, 2022 remains one of the longest with debilitating effects on the system. For eight months, the system was in a complete paralysis and rigour mortis. The then government sadly provided leadership atrophy which clearly destroyed the system. It is unfortunate that the strike was allowed to drag for that long.
However, irrespective of what may be perceived as the unions’ “excesses or offences”, no responsible government should have allowed a crisis to fester for eight months. And, after eight months of starvation, stress and distress, the government invoked the “no-work, no-pay” policy, thereby withholding payment of the striking workers! Who does that? Who says ASUU members did not work during the crisis? Many of them were still stealthily supervising theses and dissertations of their students with hunger in their stomach. I know many students who completed their PhD programmes during the eight months of strike.
Who says SSANU and NASU members were not working during the strike? Security men and women, who are members of these unions, were coming to work every day to protect government’s property. Yet, Buhari’s government was audacious enough to say those who sacrificed so much to safeguard lives and property should not be paid! And they have not been paid up till now!
What Buhari and his ministers, the duo of Chris Ngige and Adamu Adamu, did to the university system was more than an equivalent of the coup d’état. The way they handled the face-off amounted to a deliberate destruction of the system. Bad enough, it was as if Ngige had cheap scores to settle with academics in general and ASUU president, Emmanuel Osodeke in particular. Ngige, displaying all the traces of tyranny and subtle sadism was just being propagandistic rather than being genuinely interested in seeking solutions.
Let me slice it a little thinner: Buhari handled the crisis with extreme apathy and unfriendliness. While Ngige, in a fit of vengeful hubris was always presenting a phalanx of statistical inaccuracies, sarcasms, and negative innuendos, Education Minister Adamu appeared to be at loss; standing so aloof with no creative solutions to the raging storm. At the end of the day, it was a triumph of politics over rationality, with humongous spill-over effect.
Today, many academic and non-academic staff members have resigned and migrated abroad in search of the proverbial greener pastures. Political elites forced them to seek safety elsewhere. If there is any sector that has experienced “Japa” syndrome, it is the university system as workers resign on a daily basis in all the university campuses. Refusing to pay varsity workers in different categories for four and eight months respectively is an indiscretion that is currently haunting at a higher cost to the integrity of the system.
Indeed, if Buhari and his ministers thought they defeated and decimated the campus-based unions, they only need to look back and see the backlash of their draconian decision. In a particular department in a university, only three lecturers are left as 10 have resigned and migrated abroad, saying they could not withstand the indignity of begging to feed their families. Again, many of the young academics sponsored abroad for further studies by Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund) have refused to come back to the system.
Now, what is the way forward? This is where President Tinubu is invited to step forward and remedy this national disaster. If there was a government which inadvertently destroyed a system, there must be a government that should be credited with renewing and rebuilding. Tinubu should be able to bind the wounds inflicted on the system and dress its suppurating gashes. The first step in this regard is to pay eight months withheld salaries of the academics and four months of the SSANU members. Forget about the court ruling upholding “no-work, no-pay policy”. Tinubu shouldn’t be legalistic in this matter, rather he should be moralistic!
How much is the salary of a professor? An average professor goes home with a little above N400,000. The payment is pittance and the wages are wretched in today’s economy. It is heinous and heartless for any government to have withheld such poor salary for eight months. Apart from the eight months’ salary withheld, ASUU in its recent release claimed that the government has stopped paying promotion arrears since 2018. SSANU has also confirmed the same claim, adding that the government has never paid 23 percent salary increase implemented among other federal workers recently.
The university is the resource base of the nation. It is the powerhouse of the future. It is very pivotal to the country’s growth. Developed countries such as Canada, Australia, Japan, Finland and the United Kingdom place much premium on their educational system and they are better for it. In Nigeria, contrary is the case as knowledge is derided, scholarship is disparaged. Yet, we want our universities to rank among the best in the world. It is day dreaming!
Tinubu, without doubt, possesses substantial native wisdom, potent enough to handle the crisis. The remediation option is simple: he should promptly order the Accountant General of the Federation to release the withheld salaries; interact with union leaders and assuage their pains.
The mood of the university workers, since last year, has been dour. From the recent strike, they have ended up with burns and blisters. The workers have paid the price of crucifixion in order to ensure that the system enjoys the glory of resurrection. The point cannot be overstated that they need healing. The healing they require urgently now is the payment of their seized salaries and other allowances. This is the road to recovery.
•Saanu is with University of Ibadan.