Open Letter To ASUU: Have Pity On Poor Students By Yushau A. Shuaib

This missive is to appeal to members
of Academic Staffs Union of
Universities (ASUU), individually and
collectively to consider the plight of
innocent students and their helpless
parents and return to work.
Since July 2nd, 2013 when they
declared a “total and indefinite
strike” over issues they claim have
remained unresolved pertaining to
2009 agreement, innocent students
and their poor parents have been at
the receiving end of the stalemate.
While some government officials are
lousy and combatant in their approach
to resolving the faceoff over the
strike, it is difficult to fault their
arguments and the statistics they reel
out over the level of government’s
intervention and implementation of
the contentious 2009 agreement.
It is therefore a welcome development
the recent disbursement of N100
billion by the government for the
implementation of the first phase
projects listed in the Needs
Assessment Report of Universities and
another N30 billion to support Federal
university Councils in the payment of
arrears of Earned Allowances to
deserving staff.
As I wrote in an article on the
problems of public and private
universities in Nigeria in October 2011,
the deregulation of education in
Nigeria is a deliberate effort to break
government’s monopoly on education
and by allowing the establishment of
private universities to check the
incessant strikes by lecturers in public
institutions.
I then pointed out that that most of
the current leaders attended public
universities that were well-funded.
Our leaders, including some of the
current activist-lecturers enjoyed
scholarships and crisis-free academic
sessions which unfortunately, the
current students could not enjoy.
While we accuse political leaders of
selfishness, there is no difference
between them with some of the
lecturers in their seeming connivance
in the promotion of private universities
and patronage of foreign institutions,
to the expense of our public
universities.
It is regrettable that while
attempting to register their
grievances against inadequate funding
from the government, ASUU members
take some actions that are inimical to
the progress and development of their
poor students. Yet, the flexibility of
academic environment with job
security and huge severance packages
influence the decision of many
lecturers to remain on the payroll of
public universities. We are also aware
that some of the lecturers provide
part-time lecturing to the private
universities in the name of private
practice (PP), while others would
rather lobby or take political
appointments and consultancy jobs
than attend to the needs of their
students. Surprisingly too, some
professors are yet to adapt to the
new use of information technology.
They still rely on old books and
theories of past centuries when the
internet provides the theory of reality
and practicability.
We must also blame ASUU for
indiscipline and lack of adequate
inspection on the campuses which have
caused cultism, drug addiction, gang
rape and other criminalities on
campuses. For instance, the incessant
ASUU strikes influence idle students
to engage in prostitution, robbery and
kidnapping to earn a living and to
occupy their times. It is therefore not
surprising that some of the
institutions are alleged to churn out
certificated illiterates who can barely
write their names and place of origin.
Not every parent can afford or willing
to send their children to expensive
private universities that widen the
social gap between the rich and the
poor. The private institutions, too have
their weaknesses with some of them
operating medieval laws that weaken
independence and freedom of
expression on the campuses. Like
regimented garrisons where all forms
of feudal measures are taken, the
private institutions do not treat their
students as adults but pupils in
boarding schools who must observe
strict wake-up time and bedtime
light-out.
The option of missionary universities
also have some challenges. Instead of
making the fees affordable, some of
them develop unwritten house-rules
that ‘no student will ever fail to
graduate because of spiritual
interventions.’ Apart from
discriminatory policies against those
that do not believe or practice their
faiths, some of them conduct virginity
tests on students upon resumption.
While worshippers, occasionally act as
part time lecturers, whose allowances
could be paid ‘only in heaven,’ some of
the recruited scholars are actually
lecturers from established public
universities within their vicinities.
We know that we have crises in our
hands and it seems the government
with recent moves have demonstrated
willingness to resolve the crisis. After
a recent meeting of key government
officials with Vice-Chancellors and
Chairmen of Councils of Public
Universities, it was disclosed that the
government had implemented some of
the agreements it entered with the
academic staff. These include
implementations of the Consolidated
Salary Structure for Academics and
non-teaching staff; National Health
Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for staff
of universities; Amendment of
Pensionable Retirement Age of
Academics in the Professorial cadre as
Professors and Readers now retire at
70 years while others now retire at 65
instead of 60 years.
Government has also provided a
counterpart funding of N250 million
to help ASUU meet up with the
mandatory deposit required for
registration of Nigerian Universities
Pension Management Company
(NUPEMCO) while it continues to
assist state universities through the
Federal intervention agencies.
There should be a way to resolve
demands pertaining to commercial
ventures, especially the alleged
request by ASUU for the transfer of
government landed properties to
universities, which government resists
because ASUU has no structure to
manage or maintain such property.
While we must call on our policy
makers to ensure that our universities
are adequately funded, our lawmakers
should enact laws that would compel
lecturers to be responsible to their
duties and concentrate on the job for
which they are discriminatorily
remunerated. The law should also
compel public officers to send their
children to public institutions where
they can relate and compete with
other poor students.
Regulatory bodies such as NUC, JAMB,
NECO and WAEC should be more
proactive and responsive in monitoring
responsibilities so as to ensure that
Nigerian universities comply with
international best practices.