ASUU Strike, Students’ Plight and Tetfund’s Obsession with Infrastructural Upgrade in Schools, by Rahma Olamide Oladosu

Education is the panacea that liberates an individual from slavery while the university is the brain box of a nation. The education sub-sector especially tertiary institutions in Nigeria has witnessed in recent times incessant closures due to avoidable industrial actions. The impact of this instability is a lot.

The tertiary institution worldwide is regarded as the citadel of learning, the fountain of intellectual development and a ground for the production of leaders of tomorrow and no matter what, a university progresses when it is able to provide knowledge and value and when it is not properly managed by the administrators and staff, it then fails in its function of providing knowledge and value.

Importantly, the role of universities in human capital development, research and technological innovation cannot be over-emphasised. All over the world, investment in University education is a critical component of national development effort. Most nations today depend increasingly on knowledge, ideas and skills which are produced through research in the universities.

Undeniably, Universities have the responsibility of producing their own corps of academic personnel, that is, the intellectual resource pool that will, through scientific research, generate new knowledge and innovation to solve developmental problems.

Tertiary education in Nigeria has thus suffered tremendous setbacks as a result of industrial actions by both the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Nonacademic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP). This has always subjected the students to pitiable conditions, disrupting academic programs, giving students undeserved extension in their study years, poor students’ concentration on academic programs and poor lecturer-student relationships among others.

ASUU, whose incessant industrial action takes a heavy toll on the academic performance of the students, has become a yearly action. The union was formed in 1978, a successor to the Nigerian Association of University Teachers (NAUT) formed in 1965 and covering academic staff in the University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Ife (Now, Obafemi Awolowo University) and University of Lagos.

The Federal Government’s failure to “satisfactorily” implement the Memorandum of Action (MoA) it signed with the Union in December 2020 on funding for revitalisation of public universities (both Federal and States), renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement and the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) amidst other demands pushed the union to embark on a total and comprehensive four-week warning strike on the 14th of February, after which the union extended the industrial action by another two months to afford the government more time to address all of its demands, with the recent being extended by twelve weeks.

Although they have forced certain positive actions from government in the past, ASUU actions have caused more harm than good. A typical and very common instance is the loss of interest in continuing the program, as a result of this strike, most students have secured jobs or other means of generating money and does not wish the strike to be called off soon, some have even planned not to return to classroom as the salary they now receive is large and they are not sure of getting such jobs after school which often occurs more among the business minded students. Other downsides are more years to graduate, toll on students’ mental health, waste of accommodation rent and the most dreaded being a tremendous rush in the academic calendar.

The strike has not only affected the undergraduate students, it has also disrupted the plans of the post graduate students as well, many of whom I am part of, and currently awaiting results to either push for promotions at work or for a fresh job opportunity.

Regardless of the ongoing strike, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund) in it’s efforts to boost infrastructure in the nation’s tertiary institutions recently commenced the disbursement of the direct intervention funds approved by the Presidency to public Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education in the country.

The sum of N642, 848,138.00 was allocated to each University, N396, 780,086.00 to each Polytechnic and N447, 758,804.00 to each College of Education in the country for the year 2022.

The allocation papers were presented to heads of the beneficiary institutions at the National Universities Commission (NUC) by the Executive Secretary of the Fund, Arch Sonny Echono.

This development from the fund at this time is highly commendable and it brings ray of hope in the education sector.

Obviously, TETFund under the present management does not want infrastructure to suffer even as the strike lingers.

Even though the strike has been a major setback in the educational system as it has perpetually slowed down the already set academic calendar and has rendered students’ effort to reconcile with their desired grade futile, I’ll implore students to make use of this period to build themselves in their areas of interest, invest deeply in personal development, learn and nurture a skill and most importantly stay positive, be hopeful and stay out of trouble.

Rahma Olamide Oladosu is a Staff Writer with the Economic Confidential