By Chinedum Nwajiuba
The 2022 ASUU strike which commenced February 14, is now five months. In the second week in July, after 5 months, the strike has been in very keen focus by many commentators in Nigeria. I suspect this is principally because of the appeal made by Mr. President, Muhammadu Buhari.
One or two persons have raised the matter of alternatives to strike actions. Some even question not just the patriotism of ASUU and her members but challenged the intellect of ASUU and her members, with accusations of lack of innovation in finding alternatives to the use of strikes. My purpose here is to try tinkering at possible options to the use of strikes to achieve the goals of ASUU.
In 2020 ASUU was on strike for about 9 months from March till December. In the period I wrote and circulated two articles. The first was entitled: Are our Public Universities going the way of our Public Primary and Secondary Schools? The second was entitled: Public Universities closed for eight months and the Story of King Solomon and the Two Women.
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When you add nine months in 2020 to one plus two plus three months in 2022, we have 15 months of strikes from March 2020 to August 14, 2022. Those admitted in 2019 are still at the 200 Level as at date. From March 2020 to August 2022 is 30 months, of which 15 months were for strikes.
In that second article, (Public Universities closed for eight months and the Story of King Solomon and the Two Women), I compared the situation with Solomon and the two women in the Bible. I pleaded that the woman who truly owns the child, should not allow her baby to be killed even if handing the baby over to the other woman. That is still my plea. Anyone who feels a sense of ownership of the Nigeria public universities should please make a sacrifice and stop what is happening.
I reflected on the earlier article on public universities going the way of public primary and secondary schools, as we got the news, last month (June 2022), that Afe Babalola University is now ranked as number one in Nigeria by Times Higher Education (THE). There are persons in our university system who discountenance these rankings as unimportant, but it is truly important. Perception, especially of higher education institutions, is important, in the world that has emerged around global higher education, and the rating of her products. I join the President HE Muhammed Buhari in congratulating the Afe Babalola University for being the first Nigeria university to be in the first 400 by that ranking. Nigeria has over the years wriggled her fingers at the not so good placing of her universities in these rankings.
The future respect for the Nigeria university system would seem to lie with her private universities. For a long time, the country has pretended to rate her universities the same. The country has also assumed that her older public universities produce better graduates than the younger ones, and the private universities. The country has also acted as if her older federal universities are better than the state universities. Some persons, including employers of labour, those participating in interviews of job seekers, those involved with postgraduate admission tests and interviews may be noticing that these assumptions may not be correct. Today many university lecturers say it openly and in fact already implementing preferences for sending their wards to private universities. The same thing that applied to the public primary and secondary schools, with teachers with better qualifications in the employ of public-school systems gladly sending their wards to private schools with less qualified teachers. Nigeria is indeed a clever country.
While that is the case a “small” news appeared recently but seemed not well noted in Nigeria. That news is that the Chair of the NUT in Kaduna state failed the test for teachers in that state. If this news remains unchallenged, that means the number one Teacher in Kaduna state failed primary school (I hope), level test, which we learn is commonly used in those evaluation of the skill gaps of our teachers. Nigeria ought to appreciate the weight of this. We should be taking closer look at the Union leaders and how much of the profession they seek to protect, they truly symbolize and represent.
What has this to do with the universities? It is that some persons are questioning the quality of our university lecturers, their commitment to work, their conducts, not even doing the work they have been employed to do, rather than being on the staff of universities, paid by the universities, but have no exemplary performance in teaching, researching, and community service; union leaders who seek promotion without meriting that. Union leaders in universities who are guilty of the same charge as evidenced in poor-quality graduates, not being able to speak correct English, nor demonstrate quality finishing in conduct and language. Suppose there was to be an examination of lecturers on the courses they teach, what would the result be like?
But we are on the ASUU strike.
Many years ago, when teaching was still a vocation not an occupation, teachers had different temperament. Many years ago, Teachers would even pay fees for poor but bright students and pupils. Today, Teachers accept money for recharge cards from pupils and students, especially in tertiary institutions. But Nigeria has since evolved with strange gods and peculiar values.
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Nigeria as a country, and many Nigerians even in their personal decisions and actions, operate as if she has her own universe, and her own realities away from what most other countries and peoples have realised in the pursuit of development and wellbeing of her citizens. Recently at a forum on the challenges of underdevelopment in Nigeria, I have canvassed that a key constraint to the development of Nigeria, is a crisis in the capacity for defining things, and crisis in the capacity for logic. Check these: The common understanding of traffic lights is that when it shows Green, you move, and as it moves to Amber, preparatory to move to Red, you slow down. But in Nigeria it is the opposite. As the Amber shows, you move faster, not slow down.
Another one: several times I have seen people argue about seats in a Plane, even with Boarding Pass clearly showing seat number, and not the “Free seating” we see sometimes. A different one. A man and his wife forget or did not ask to seat together when checking-in but insist on that when in the Plane. On one occasion it was a Caucasian at the Lagos Airport travelling outside the country who insisted on taking his seat. The husband of the lady who was already seated by her side, loudly asked the man whose seat he had taken, “Why are you interested in my wife?”. The man so asked, quickly ran away. On an Ethiopian Airline Flight from Abuja on Monday July 4 this year, there were at least two such drama, involving persons on pilgrimage to Israel. I had to offer my seat to someone whose seat had been taken.
Another example. Argument over switching-off phones by the Airplanes. This one is particularly worse on flights to Owerri. Calabar and Enugu Passengers tend to behave well. If in doubt, ask the Airlines. On at least two occasions I have seen hostesses grumble about Owerri passengers. On another occasion, a lady switched on her phone 10 minutes to landing to take pictures (selfie). I am not knowledgeable about airplanes, and if those who are, say we should switch off phones as part of safety measures, why should we not obey on a short flight of 50 minutes? On one occasion I said to one, if you want to commit suicide, do that alone.
Nigerians at every level from the high elite levels to the small family and even rural levels, reveal that we are challenged by our inability to define things, and our inability to deal logically with matters. Governments signs agreements and then start arguing about implementation. Elderly persons occupying high public offices freely tell lies.
Part of the responsibility of governance is moral conduct, especially as such occupants of high offices should set examples for the youth and children. Not many persons know that this is an imperative of governance and occupation of high public offices.
I am not sure we still have debates and debating societies in our secondary schools, as we had in the 1970s. The art of debating. The civility in language even when we disagree. The methodology of presenting a case from the first level of what is (definition), introduction, clarity in meanings of words used, the issue at stake/problematique, the context, the objective/goal, and the evidence, the inferences, the thesis, antithesis, and the synthesis, then the conclusions in relations to the issue, problem, and objectives/goals earlier defined, and possible prognosis of the future consequences of actions or inactions. The discipline in thoughts and conduct of such discussion and debate. Where in the education pursuit did we lose these and we begin to see persons carrying papers supposedly certificates, issued by institutions so empowered, with their names on those papers, suggesting an implied level of knowledge and skills, but which manifest in the deficit. Persons supposedly earning first degrees but unable to write formal letters.
It is still about ASUU strike.
There are divergent views I have heard expressed on the appropriateness of an ASUU strike this year. Some views are for the strike in the light of evidenced Government inaction with respect to previous agreements. Some views are against the current strike irrespective of its merit or otherwise considering the frequencies of the strikes. There is, however, one issue I have not heard much about. It is the IPPIS versus the UTAS.
Many persons familiar with reality of the use of the IPPIS have voiced evidence of its weaknesses, but people seem not to be taking note. There is also the view expressed that employee should not dictate payment mode for an employer. There is merit in that as a matter of principle. There is, however, the matter of government ab initio not emphasizing that point but agreed that ASUU should develop a payment platform. That is a glaring inconsistency, to lead someone on, while forgetting to say that what will be developed will not be used. This is something which I have elsewhere described as Policy Absentmindednessin Nigeria.
In this case, the encouragement to ASUU to develop a payment platform, and then the later argument that an employee should not dictate a payment platform, seem not to come from the same mind, or indeed a form of Policy Absentmindedness. This is aside from the Report of the Auditor-General of the Federation, which we have heard indicts IPPIS as well as the adverse testimonies of the users of the IPPIS. That again shows an intra-government divergence of mind or thought. And because there seems to be a deficit of citizens believability of government, the report that UTAS is inadequate seems not to be accepted by many persons.
Meanwhile, the days and months roll, and Nigerians are talking. You know Nigerians like to talk and, in fact, we are a country of all-citizens-as-experts on every matter. Nearly everyone is expert on football, security matters, economy, politics, international affairs, and just about any subject.
We discuss things we have never studied, researched nor investigated. We discuss persons we have never met. We know how much Messi and Ronaldo are paid, the most expensive cars in the world, what is happening in the kitchen of the Queen of England, and on and on. We discuss in our homes, on the road, in busses and planes, standing by free-newspaper corners, hair dressing salons, Beer parlours, and just about anywhere. We know it all, and we know better than everyone else.
Our universities are as much, reflections of our society. Rumours are churned out from very fertile and creative minds. As Vice-chancellor, I recognized the rumour mills as resources that should be channelled to some use, and so we started a creative writing competition. The idea was simple: Put these rumours into some organic manner and submit as entries to the creative writing exercises. Competent persons were invited to manage the process and in about three to four rounds, prizes were awarded for poetry, short stories, and drama. Nigerians are creative and it is not for nothing that we created a whole thriving industry on movies and our Nollywood. This has become a very important sector of the Nigeria economy, creating many jobs, directly and indirectly. And from nothing but just our creative minds, in which a whole lot comes from among others, our stories, gossips, and rumours.
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Is this comparative advantage? Not a bad idea for a country to build her development around resources we have in abundance and not what we learnt from the colonialist: development supposedly driven by resources we are short on, while we consume other people’s food, wear other people’s clothes, use medicines imported from others, and transport by means built by others, etc., and then complain about unemployment, poverty, and insecurity. In the more serious parts of the world the intellectual elite, the universities, and the research institutions, liaise with the state and the private sector and drive the direction of society. But our universities from the beginning were to train those who will be offered employment by others. It is called entrepreneurship. We have not been able to re-invent and adapt the idea and culture of the university to drive our society in the path that has become imperative. The Nigeria university system, especially her public universities are gradually becoming mired in emergent irrelevance.
Now, ask our academics to each suggest one entrepreneurship opportunity from his discipline which a young graduate can embark on, and not bother seeking for someone to employ him or her. May be those in the Anatomy programme will embark on Mortuary Business, certainly a sector not doing badly in Nigeria. Kenyantta University in Nairobi Kenya provides such excellent services in this area. Nigeria universities and even the private sector can learn from that. What about the others. So, we teach entrepreneurship? What is taught? Ok. Teach how to make beads, bangles, and cakes, etc. to all students? Those skills were obtained from the vocational schools of old. Why not challenge us to think deeper and broader, and locate entrepreneurship in each of the disciplines? When someone graduates with a BSc in Microbiology, Biochemistry, Zoology, Botany, Philosophy, English, Igbo, etc., what are the possible uses of the education obtained to entrepreneurial opportunities implied? May be some should get an Umbrella and a Chair and sell phone recharge cards. This is common in Nigeria today that you wonder if one needs four years in the university to end-up selling recharge cards by street corners. How can we develop start-ups relevant to what we have studied? What indeed is a country without a thinking (really thinking and not imagining we are thinking) elite? Elite across board – Political, economic, intellectual, financial, religious, etc. elites? What indeed is a country without a thinking elite?
Suppose we made these simpler.
What other options but strikes? We can borrow a leaf from the 1996 ASUU strike in the Abacha era. ASUU not only called off the strike but decided not to embark on a strike so long as so long as the government then was in power.
The days following Abacha, ASUU got better of what she had been striking about.
Yet on the 2022 ASUU strike.
It seems the politicians have moved ahead. The focus is on the 2023 elections, and governance may be a distraction to some. When you wink at a blind man, what do you seek to achieve? You are in a world of your own. Some kind of monologue.
Suppose ASUU calls off the strike for the sake of our children, indeed, with a historical position for the records. For our children.
Suppose ASUU takes front page adverts in say, 4 to 6 nationally circulating Newspapers, presenting her salaries as of 2015 compared to today, converted to Dollar, against an aspiration of a world class comparable university system. Suppose ASUU puts this as front-page adverts. Suppose ASUU puts a comparison with salaries at Afe Babalola University, or even Niger Delta University in Nigeria? Suppose ASUU publishes research grants available to lecturers in Covenant University (a private university in Nigeria), and compares that with any Federal University? Suppose ASUU puts up a comparison with salaries in some African countries such as Ghana or Togo or…? Suppose ASUU presents the salaries of Drivers and Gatemen in NNPC, CBN, etc, compared to our professors? The other side to this, is suppose ASUU looks at the date of commencement of Private Vs Public Universities each semester, lecturers, and students’ presence in classrooms from the beginning of a semester to the end of the semester, the quality of questions and quality of grading, the availability of results as students’ rights and not a favour done to students? Suppose ASUU insists on her members getting on globally visible platforms with their research so that some basic statistics used in ranking researchers and universities become available to ranking bodies, and our universities become better ranked? Suppose as some suspect that many of the colleagues have not much to offer on such global platforms?
Suppose ASUU appeals to the conscience of the ruling class. Suppose ASUU leaves-off other issues beyound the welfare of her members for now. Suppose ASUU insists on other issues outside her members’ welfare, goes on to examine the use of whatever she has achieved in the past by the political class and leadership of the universities? Suppose ASUU insists on each university respecting carrying capacities and our universities do not over admit students, and so deals with this matter of excess workloads? Suppose ASUU looks at data on students’ population submitted for accreditation and relate that to statistics presented for claiming excess workloads? Suppose ASUU moderates her position and supports additional charges by the universities on students and parents?
Would these lead to a better university system comparable to our neighbours in West Africa, Africa, and may be the global south, before our often-mouthed aspiration to world class? Suppose indeed?
…Prof. Chinedum Nwajiuba, was Vice-Chancellor of the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike
