It
is no more news that President Goodluck Jonathan met with the leadership of the
Academic Staff Union of Universities on November 4th, 2013. By the
end of the historic meeting between President Jonathan led team and ASUU
leadership, it appeared the federal government (FG) was ready after all to
resolve the lingering ASUU’s industrial strike action. According to Minister of
Labour, Emeka Wogu, “the meeting ended
positively and the message of the President to ASUU is full of hope and high
expectations, and our prayer is that they come back with positive response.
They might not even come back to meet us; they might even take decisions there
that will meet your expectations.” Labour Minister Wogu also noted that “the offer made by the president was in line
with the 2009 agreement reached with the union. The offer is within the issues
that led to the strike; the issues contained in the 2009 agreement and we did
not go beyond the agreement”. The breakdown of the new offer from the FG
was that “the Federal Government would
give N 1.1 Trillion to public universities in the next five (5) years. The
government will release N220 Billion yearly into the sector beginning from 2014”
towards revamping
the Nigeria’s public universities. The NUC,
NLC and TUC as joint guarantors of the agreement while the Minister of
Education will be the implementation officer. Also, the meeting agreed that the
money will be placed in a special account at the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN).
To
an average layman or woman, the outcome of the meeting was a nice way for
President Jonathan to earn praise from Nigerians for helping to resolve the
logjam, which all the small men and women in and around his cabinet couldn’t
deal with. Like the animated saviour of the people in the cartoon movie
‘Spiderman’, President Jonathan’s resolve and his 13 hours sitting with ASUU
was commendable. A meeting which has earned him comparative credentials liken
to that of late Dr. Nelson Mandela, hero and former President of the Republic
South Africa, who spent 27 years in prison.
Of course, we cannot take it away from President Jonathan, this is by no
means an achievement in a country where political office holders hold the
citizens with a ‘go and die’ disdain. Be
that as it may, the positive resolution of the ASUU strike in November could
have helped the President put his much vaunted ‘transformation agenda’ back on
track and probably Nigeria on the part to being a member of the top 20
economies in the world by the year 2020. But all that appears to be history
now.
What
could have gone wronged, despite the President’s 13 hour sitting-down meeting
with the lecturers’ union leaders? Nobody except the President and his men and
women of his cabinet can tell. But as an outsider, I like every other Nigerian believes
that the President Jonathan led federal government team are neither committed
to the greatness of this country nor the welfare of its citizens. Reflectively,
27 months earlier, in 2011, when President Jonathan launched the transformation
agenda with the pomp and glamour nobody could have doubted the fresh air
blowing round the Nigeria’s political landscape. The Transformation Agenda is
based on a summary of how the Federal Government hopes to deliver projects,
programmes, and key priority policies, from 2011 to 2015 coordinated by the
National Planning Commission (NPC). These key projects, programmes,
and priority policies are not different from those contained in the Vision
20:2020. To attain the overarching goal of the vision 20:2020, key parameters
such as polity, macro-economy, infrastructure, education, health, agriculture,
and manufacturing would have to be met and sustained.
While
the identified key parameters could be considered very potent, the education
parameter appears to be the bedrock upon which all other parameters are built.
The important role accorded education in this drive towards attainment of the
vision’s goal for the country is crucial given that the educational goal includes the provision of
modern and vibrant education system, which provides for every Nigerian the
opportunity and facility to achieve his/her maximum potential and provide the
country with adequate and competent human power. By no means, education is a
form of investment in human capital, which in turn yields economic benefits and
contributes to a country's future wealth by increasing the productive capacity
of the people. Suffice to say that the success of other sectors of the economy
largely depends on the extent of support for the country’s educational development.
Hence, without the provision of a vibrant educational or training system, it will
be very difficult, if not impossible for the country to achieve the lofty aims
contained in the vision 20:2020 and Millennium Development
Goals (MDG).
With
the ASUU strike in its 6th month, it is gradually becoming obvious
that the transformation agenda of the President Jonathan and Nigeria’s vision
20:2020 is in jeopardy. A revisit to the Mo Ibrahim IIAG ranking places Nigeria
in the 41st position in Africa behind more serious countries like
Mauritius (82.9%), Botswana (77.6%) and Cape Verde (76.7%) in first, second and
third position respectively. Whilst the top three leaders at the West African
sub-regional level includes Ghana (66.8%), Senegal (61%) and the island nation
of Sao Tome and Principe (59.9%). Comparatively,
at the continental level, the leading country on the IIAG ranking, in 2012, Mauritius
devoted about 15% of its GDP and between 30 and 40% of her annual budget on
education during the same period. Also between Ghana and Nigeria, Ghana in 2012
spent 8.2 per cent of its GDP on education while Nigeria spends 0.8 per cent of
its GDP on education. Meanwhile, the combined earnings of the two countries are
by far less than Nigeria’s during the same period. In addition, Southern
African countries are spending about 35 to 45 per cent of their annual budget
on education. This, therefore, forces the question of which country is richer and
serious about its national development goals in relative terms? Of course, the
answer to this question is not far-fetched, as this is very obvious with 2013
publication of IIAG ranking and the FG’s handling of the ongoing ASUU strike
which has paralysed the top echelon of the country’s educational sector.
It
goes without saying that the seriousness and commitment of a country to national
development and institutional performance can be viewed from education sector
performance. Education is universally recognized as a form of investment in
human capital, which in turn yields economic benefits and contributes to a
country's future wealth by increasing the productive capacity of its people. Universities
all over the world are accepted as the citadel of knowledge, education and
human resource development. The gross neglect of this sector by successive
Nigerian governments over four decades, is a classical demonstration of the FG many
double speaks on the issue of university funding. That President Jonathan would
suddenly find solace in issuing threat of sack on the striking university
teachers is a further demonstration of the fact that the FG and President
Jonathan is not wholly committed to its own project and programs of both the
vision 20:2020 and Transformation Agenda. Archetypically, the FG has not
deviated from the norm, since it appears whether a military or civilian
administration, there is a particular trend of line which must be toed. And
this is to always obfuscate the issues; such that its resolution becomes a
mirage, while the chaos continues in perpetuation.
This
perhaps explains FG’s claim that ASUU was making new demands even when it was
very obvious that there was nothing like that from ASUU and on the strength of
that, the lecturers are to be sacked. On the issue of salaries for the period,
ASUU is right to request for the withheld salaries since the strike is
justified and rooted in the international Labour laws regarding lockouts and
non-payment of salaries. International labour laws guiding lockouts or strikes
stipulate inter-alia that “the employer shall not lockout employees
during the tenure of the agreement” as well “employees shall not embark on
strikes during the tenure of the agreement”. This clause is always fundamental
clause in any labour agreements signed across the world to protect the system. I
say this as someone who has previously participated in workers’ union
negotiations both within and outside Nigeria. What this suggests, is, where the
employer(s) lockout workers, the employers shall pay the workers remunerations
and dues to them since the workers have not shown or demonstrate unwillingness
to work. But where the employees embark on strike or lockout while the
agreement subsists, the employees shall forfeit their dues and remunerations.
There have never been troubles over this as parties are known to respect and
implement agreements signed.
Now,
what makes the present case of ASUU strike different is that the ongoing strike
is aimed at forcing the FG to respect and implement an agreement it signed with
the union in 2009. On the basis of this, the FG owe the university teachers
hereto referred as the employees in the agreement their dues and remunerations
for the period in question. Hence, ASUU justified in its request for the payment
of the withheld monthly salaries as a condition for the suspension of the
strike. Having said this, I need to quickly say that strike as a weapon is not a
strange phenomenon throughout the world. Even in the global headquarters of
capitalism, the United States of America (USA) and other G8 countries, workers
do embark on strike when and if they needed to. Strikes are the only means with
which employees can force their voice to be heard. No workers’ union is known
to embark on needless strikes.
The
accusation against ASUU strike as self-serving and politicised is grossly
unfair and absurd. If anything, we should support ASUU in its fight against
impunity and the revitalization of our universities. Our universities,
polytechnics and colleges of education need serious intervention; otherwise the
future of the country is doomed. I am at loss that it’s only when ASUU or any
other workers’ union are on strike that things will collapse when it comes to
funding issues. For the avoidance of doubt, it need be known that it was ASUU
strikes that brought about Education Trust Fund (ETF) and Tertiary Education
Trust Fund (TETFUND). Of course, ASUU or the universities is not the only
beneficiary of these gains on the long run, the major beneficiary is the
government and Nigeria. Further, any labour agreement being signed after a
strike all over the world always carry a statement that no one will be
penalized for taking part in the strike.
As per ASUU insisting that N200 billion should be deposited in
universities accounts is not out of place. This is December 2013, if truly FG
wants to start implementation this year, I don’t think this should generate any
issue. The entire sack threat thing goes to confirm that FG is actually not
interested in implementing the agreement. Nigerians must not forget that the present strike was called
after the union had written 351 letters and met
various government officials at least 150 times to remind government on the
need to honour the agreement promise.
Beyond
the issue of trust, let’s look at this from another angle. ASUU has not made
any demand that the money should be in a special account in the CBN, this was
agreed to by the President as a guarantee that the money will be safe. ASUU had
requested from the President that an official of the Federal Government at the
level of a Minister preferably the Attorney General and Minister for Justice
sign on behalf of the FG so that the agreement/resolution will have the force
of Law. This, President Jonathan himself had guaranteed ASUU; that it will be
done also. This is not too much to do if the President and FG actually love
Nigeria and believe in the great future for the country.
After
all the shenanigans, it’s a welcome development that the FG has acceded to ASUU
by signing the memorandum of the understanding (MOU). According to the MOU, the FG is to fulfill all
the obligations agreed upon during President Jonathan’s November meeting with
ASUU, including the non-victimization clause. For a country that has grown
weary with FG’s lies and half-truths, let’s hope the FG will demonstrate good
faith by implementing this newly signed MOU. For the avoidance of any doubt,
the MOU among other issues stipulates that the FG will inject N200 billion
yearly beginning from 2013 towards revitalization of the country’s universities
over the next five years.
Anthony Kola-Olusanya
is a teacher and citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
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