Many news organisations reported few days ago a supposed decision of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to declare a nationwide strike in the country’s public universities in three weeks’ time. The stand was claimed to have been taken during its latest meeting at the University of Ibadan. A formal communication to convey the plan to the federal ministries of education and labour was also said to be underway. In a less publicised response, however, the National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, was quoted to have debunked the story of the impending industrial action, since there was no media event where the union actually made that move known in accordance with its tradition.

The veracity of that particular strike announcement may be in doubt but its likelihood shouldn’t be treated lightly. Most Nigerians are conversant with the truism that there’s no smoke without fire. So also are they with the disturbing record of the numerous gaps created in the academic calendars of public tertiary institutions largely as a result of the trade disputes between their owners and the academic and non-academic workforce. In two decades, ASUU alone has embarked on at least 16 national strikes, feats that have attracted to the ivory tower negative perceptions and commentaries. Many people have accepted the notion that Nigerian university lecturers are more comfortable with sending their students back home in order to secure enough space to operate outside the demands of their jobs and still be paid for work not done. That is, eating their cake and having it!

That viewpoint may not be wholly or easily discarded but it’s not all there is to the argument. Truth is, some ASUU leaders, activists and members have given themselves away as people with doubtful, less than exemplary interest in the overall wellness of education at the peak. There’re many stories of anti-social behaviours amongst them which validate this worrying image. But then, to casually dismiss the agitations of the dons would be simplistic, diversionary and defeatist. To ignore the insincerity, nonchalance, and outright irresponsibility of successive governments in the issues that have bedevilled our campuses for too long would even be more destructive. And for the direct and indirect stakeholders to play the ostrich would further worsen the chances of a country that has suffered too much neglect and squandered opportunities to take redemptive and pragmatic steps into a sterling future. We truly can’t afford to permanently label the academic staff of universities as mere strike mongers.

Their grievances are well known, even if debatable, many of which have since assumed protracted proportions. Insufficient funding. Inadequate, depreciating infrastructure including libraries, laboratories, classrooms, worker and student accommodation and other facilities that are central to healthy teaching and learning. Delay in the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement which has virtually stagnated staff remunerations. (Government’s unilateral award of 25 to 35 percent increase of salaries some months ago fell short of the principle of collective bargaining and added to the pent-up anger and distrust that characterise much of the relationship between the university workers and their employers). The failure of government to honour the disbursement of the 200billion naira annual revitalisation fund for five years beyond its first tranche in 2013.

Equally annoying to the teachers is the inability or unwillingness of the federal government to implement the recommendations of its own three interventionist committees set up in the course of the recurring crises in the sector. Not to mention the opaque implementation of the December 2023 presidential directive to remove federal universities from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) in response to a longstanding grouse of ASUU; the erosion of university autonomy, and what the body describes as proliferation of universities. And, of course, the non-payment of earned academic allowances and the outstanding salaries for three and half months accumulated during the 2022 eight-month strike.

Two months ago, in what appeared to be a conciliatory move, the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, met with the ASUU leadership to design ways of avoiding another interruption of academic activities. Both parties agreed to meet two weeks later to review their commitments. But, sadly, they still haven’t met, courtesy government’s foot-dragging, a situation that now gives credence to the news of the imminence of a potentially crippling down-tool. Can we beam the searchlight on the official handling of negotiations and agreement-keeping in matters relating to our universities? Not reassuring at the moment. Does the current administration have the capacity and conviction to do things differently? Sorry, no reasons at present to be hopeful.

I did a piece here on July 21, 2022 titled, “Pick Your Fights, ASUU Members.” It reads: “I am not too sure if ASUU has properly articulated its positions to the satisfaction of the other critical stakeholders, especially students, parents, guardians and the rest publics but, at the heart of the agitations, in my view, is the fight to perpetuate and nourish the very soul of public universities in Nigeria. Even if some of the methods adopted by the lecturers are faulty, surely, the credibility and desirability of the mission are indisputable. Not too many people are aware that the bulk of the monies in contention is for the revitalisation of the various institutions, which means that individual lecturers will not gain directly from them. What concern can be more noble than that? But for the struggles embarked upon by the past generations of dons, a large percentage of the amenities in our institutions would not have been.

“One major motivation of lecturers in the pursuit of their cause today, in the face of daunting odds, is the need to keep with that tradition. No self-respecting trade union would let down its guards easily. A truth that should not be ignored is that majority of Nigerian families cannot shoulder university training, hence the push to keep the government in. Over time, ASUU has felt compelled to defend the right of Nigerian youths, particularly the less-privileged, to advanced learning. In prosecuting that goal, however, the union which proudly parades an enviable pedigree should urgently wake up to some pertinent present truths. The first is that times are changing faster than was anticipated even in the recent past. With that comes, inevitably, shifts in capacities, perceptions, values, dispositions and strategies.

“When that defining document was signed between the government and ASUU in 2009, the realities then were radically different from the ones now. The one revised under the last administration is also far from being implemented, unfortunately. The lesson here is that, time was when governments were a continuum. Not anymore. The pain of the university teachers is compounded by the fact that while official cries of shortage of funds and appeals for sacrifice fill the air, functionaries of state are yet to lead the way in that regard. Instead, reckless spending of public funds has continued unabated.

“For long, ASUU members have been bearing burdens that should not be theirs primarily. In societies that place premium on education, the legislature as representatives of the people, civil society, alumni associations, parents, students and the enlightened segment of the populace constantly mobilise themselves to protect the integrity of academic organisations.” More than two years after that humble submission, I have no better way of expressing the perennial predicaments that define much of Nigeria’s education at the tertiary level, unfortunately.

Symbolically and characteristically, there hasn’t been any official reaction to this real or rumoured threat from ASUU. But rather than government people warming up to paint the union black and further undermine its respect in the estimation of Nigerians, efforts should be invested in treating ASUU as their worthy partners.

Ekpe, PhD, is a member of THISDAY Editorial Board.