The motivation to do this write-up is predicated on the perception that President Bola Tinubu is public-opinion sensitive and determined to take Nigeria to greater heights. He also seems to be committed to doing whatever can bring greater good to a greater number of Nigerians. From all indications, Tinubu, unlike his immediate predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, is more communicative and interactive with an obvious willingness to make life more bearable.
President Tinubu, who brands his government as an administration of “renewed hope,” comes across as a leader who is ready to right many, if not all the wrongs of the past, particularly the misdeeds of the last administration. Were it not so, what grammatical function is the adjective “renewed” performing in this context? Tinubu seems to be committed to uplifting the drooling spirits of Nigerians at this point in time. I hope I am right. He knows that all is not well with many aspects of our national life. It is against this background that one is persuaded to join many eminent Nigerians, in raising the issue of the public university system with him.
There is no controverting the fact that the system is currently tottering at the brink of collapse as it is dying of insipidity. Without being euphemistic about the poor condition of the system, it is unfortunate that many federal universities in their laboratories have resorted to using kerosene stove in place of Bunsen burner. In a metaphorical sense, the system is not only sick, it is in an intensive care unit, gasping for breath. During the Buhari administration, the system sweltered from crisis to crisis, as various campuses of universities became cloudy with so much aches and pains.
In response to the nagging problems of poor funding, decayed infrastructure, poor welfare of workers, campus-based associations, namely; the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, National Association of Academic Technologists, and Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, as usual, took on Buhari’s administration after shouting themselves hoarse, embarking on an indefinite strike.
Perhaps last year’s strike which began on February 14, 2022, and was called off on October 14, 2022, remains one of the longest with debilitating effects on the system. For eight months, the system was in complete paralysis and rigor mortis. With Buhari and his cunning and contemptuous silence style in charge, assisted by the education minister, Mallam Adamu Adamu, and labour minister, Dr Chris Ngige, the then government sadly provided leadership atrophy which clearly destroyed the system. It is unfortunate that the strike was allowed to drag on for that long.
However, irrespective of what may be perceived as the unions’ “excesses or offences,” no responsible government should have allowed a crisis to fester for eight months. And, after eight months of starvation, stress and distress, the government invoked the “no-work, no-pay” policy, thereby withholding payment of the striking workers! Who does that? Who says ASUU members did not work during the crisis? Many of them were still stealthily supervising theses and dissertations of their students with hunger in their stomachs. I know many students who completed their PhD programmes during the eight months of the strike.
Who says SSANU and NASU members were not working during the strike? Security men and women, who are members of these unions, were coming to work every day to protect the government’s property. Armed robbers could have invaded the campuses and wreaked havoc but for the services of our patriotic security personnel. Yet, Buhari’s government was audacious enough to say those who sacrificed so much to safeguard lives and property should not be paid! And they have not been paid up till now!
What Buhari and his ministers did to the university system was more than an equivalent of the coup d’etat in Niger. The way they handled the face-off amounted to a deliberate destruction of the system. Bad enough, it was as if Ngige had cheap scores to settle with academics in general and the ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, in particular. Ngige, displaying all the traces of tyranny and subtle sadism, was just being propagandistic rather than being genuinely interested in seeking solutions. One could see a glint of pride in his eyes with the aura of braggadocio. Nothing he said gave cause for cheers as it was all gestural utterances without positive impact.
Let me slice it a little thinner: Buhari handled the crisis with extreme apathy and unfriendliness. While Ngige, in a fit of vengeful hubris, was always presenting a phalanx of statistical inaccuracies, sarcasm, and negative innuendos, education minister Adamu appeared to be at a loss; standing so aloof with no creative solutions to the raging storm. At the end of the day, it was a triumph of politics over rationality, with a humongous spill-over effect.
Today, many academic and non-academic staff members have resigned and migrated abroad in search of the proverbial greener pastures. The political elite forced them to seek safety elsewhere. If there is any sector that has experienced “Japa” syndrome, it is the university system as workers resign on a daily basis in all the university campuses. Refusing to pay varsity workers in different categories for between four and eight months is an indiscretion that is currently hunting at a higher cost to the integrity of the system.
Indeed, if Buhari and his boys thought they defeated and decimated the campus-based unions, they only need to look back and see the backlash of their draconian decision. In a particular department in a university, only three lecturers are left behind as ten of them have resigned and migrated abroad, saying they could not withstand the indignity of begging to feed their families. Again, many of the young academics sponsored abroad for further studies by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund have refused to come back to the system.
Now, what is the way forward? This is where I invite President Tinubu to step forward and remedy this national disaster. If there was a government that inadvertently destroyed a system, there must be a government that should be credited with renewing and rebuilding. Tinubu should be able to bind the wounds inflicted on the system and dress its suppurating gashes. The first step in this regard is to pay the eight months withheld salaries of the academics and four months of the SSANU members. Forget about the court ruling upholding the “no-work, no-pay policy.” Tinubu shouldn’t be legalistic in this matter, rather he should be moralistic.
How much is the salary of a professor? An average professor goes home with a little above Four Hundred Thousand Naira. The payment is pittance and the wages are wretched in today’s economy. It is therefore heinous and heartless for any government to have withheld such a poor salary for eight months. Apart from the eight-month salary withheld, ASUU in its recent release claimed that the government had stopped paying promotion arrears since 2018. SSANU has also confirmed the same claim, adding that the government has never paid a 23 per cent salary increase implemented among other federal workers recently.
University is the resource base of the nation. It is the powerhouse of the future. It is very pivotal to the country’s growth. Developed countries such as Canada, Australia, Japan, Finland and the United Kingdom place much premium on their educational system and they are better for it. In Nigeria, the contrary is the case as knowledge is derided, scholarship is disparaged. Yet, we want our universities to rank among the best in the world. It is daydreaming!
However, it is a refreshing feeling to have Asiwaju as the President at this time. A leader has an uncanny ability to see far deeper, larger and longer than an ordinary man.
Tinubu, without doubt, possesses substantial native wisdom, potent enough to handle the crisis. The remediation option is simple: he should promptly order the Accountant General of the Federation to release the withheld salaries; interact with union leaders, and assuage their pains.
The mood of university workers, since last year, has been dour. From the recent strike, they have ended up with burns and blisters. The workers have paid the price of crucifixion in order to ensure that the system enjoys the glory of resurrection. The point cannot be overstated that they need healing. The healing they require urgently now is the payment of their seized salaries and other allowances. This is the road to recovery.
In all likelihood, one is hoping that President Tinubu, along with his education minister, Prof. Tahir Mamman, should be able to dislodge the siege of stagnation hovering over the university system in the country. This government should strive to inspire hope out of the current hopelessness in the system. This is the desired direction. Tinubu should save the system from intellectual haemorrhage. He should empower the remaining university workers who have not “japaed” as John Maxwell will say, “leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower”.
Interestingly, former President Olusegun Obasanjo came in 1999 and increased university workers’ salaries, thus writing his name in gold. It must not be said that President Tinubu perpetuates the leadership deficit foisted on the system by Buhari. Indeed, this wickedness against the university workers must not be sustained through inadvertence. The destruction of education is the destruction of the country. It is so demoralising for a professor to be begging to feed his family, while those who could not boast of five credits at the school certificate examination level are sharing billions in Abuja. Nigerians are watching and waiting.
Saanu writes via [email protected]
