Category: Education

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has clarified that the N1.1 trillion fund for the revitalisation of public universities was a commitment made by the Federal Government and not the union’s idea.

The chairman of ASUU, Niger Delta University chapter, Kingdom Tonbara, made the clarification during a phone-in programme on Rhythm 94.7FM, Yenagoa, on which he appeared alongside his secretary, Ebi Baraka, on Saturday.

This is as they insisted that ASUU-NDU would not pull out of the ongoing national strike, adding that the chapter’s involvement in the union’s previous struggles had resulted in the transformation of the Bayelsa State-owned university, which was hitherto described in some quarters as “a glorified secondary school”.

The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, had in August declared that the Federal Government would not borrow N1.1trn to end the ongoing nationwide industrial action embarked on by the national body of ASUU since February 2022 over the government’s failures to implement the 2009 agreement, among other issues.

Keyamo, who spoke on a national television, claimed that the union was trying to blackmail the government into borrowing the money while other sectors also need attention.

Tonbara said the N1.1trn revitalisation fund for public universities was proposed by the Federal Government in 2013 when the university teachers downed tools for six months to drive home the need for the government to save the institutions from infrastructure decay.

He noted that the government came up with the figure following a report submitted to the Federal Executive Council by a committee inaugurated by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration to visit all public universities to ascertain the level of decay in response to an earlier complaint by the union in 2012.
Tonbara said, “That report was presented to the Federal Executive Council where they looked at it and they shouted, from what we are told; that, that means Nigerian universities have completely decayed and that they needed to pump in massive funds into public universities to revitalise our universities.

“And they (Federal Government), not ASUU, came up with N1.1trn to be pumped into public universities; not ASUU. And they said they don’t have the money even though they have realised that from the assessment, they needed N1.1trn.

“It was ASUU that recommended to them that you can spread this (money) into six years and the payment is not going to be made to ASUU but it will be given to the administrators of the universities to develop the universities, both state and federal universities.”

The ASUU-NDU leader continued: “So, the then President, after agreeing, was unable to release this money. That’s why we went on strike in 2013 for six months. At the end of that six months’ strike, the President graciously released N200bn instead of the normal N220bn that we had agreed. He released N200bn.

“And you won’t believe it, for the first time, Niger Delta University got N3bn (from the money). Before 2013, Niger Delta University had not seen N1bn, and that was the era people were describing the NDU as a glorified secondary school.”

Tonbara explained that the N3bn was very useful to the management of the NDU as it was able to build brand new faculties of agriculture and arts, auditorium and two hostels while a library abandoned since 2004 was also completed and equipped.

He added: “From that N3bn, we were able to equip most of our laboratories. From that N3bn, we were able to send some of our colleagues abroad to do Masters and Ph.Ds. We agreed in that 2009 agreement (with Federal Government) that in three years’ time we will renegotiate the agreement. From 2009 till date, various governments have been deceiving us.”

So, I’ve been thinking about the government-ASUU standoff that resulted in the closure of Nigerian universities for more than six months. This is not a new phenomenon; anyone who has graduated from a Nigerian university has experienced the ‘ritualistic festivity’ known as the ASUU strike.

What exactly is the problem with Nigeria’s education sector, and why does ASUU enjoy keeping university students at home to engage in a protracted battle with the government? The reason is simple: our government’s double standards and lip service to the education sector are concerning.
Successive governments will rather score a cheap political goal by not allowing the universities to increase tuition fees and promise heaven and earth to the academic body only to push the responsibility to the next administration. Nigeria indeed lacks sincere people in government. People who will holistically identify the problem and hit straight at practicable solutions.

Interestingly, a few leaders who are passionate about the country’s education sector and are patriotic enough to lay the facts bare have suggested that children and wards of public office holders, from the president to National Assembly members, governors to even councillors at the local government level should all study in Nigeria.

In supporting this idea, I wish to add that children of civil servants should also be included in that category since their parents run the public sector, they should stay back to enjoy it. This is the example Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu is laying in the Sunshine State.

Unfortunately, our leaders who only pretend to care about the public sector and the children of the masses who attend these public institutions will not all such arrangements to stand.
The House of Representatives had recently rejected a bill seeking to regulate how children of public officers enrol in schools outside the shores of Nigeria.

The legislation is titled ‘A Bill for an Act to Regulate International Studies for Wards and Children of Nigerian Public Officers, to Strengthen Indigenous Institutions, Provide Efficient Educational Services for National Development; and for Related Matters.’

That was the second time within four years that the lawmakers would reject the bill sponsored by a member of the House, Hon Sergius Ogun from Edo State.

While leading the debate on the bill at the second reading, Ogun noted that the proposal would strengthen indigenous educational institutions to meet global standards; boost the economy by reducing cash flight and foreign exchange; reduce brain drain and institute good welfare conditions for indigenous academics, experts and professionals based abroad to come back home and develop their country with their skills and expertise.

The lawmaker added that it would build a better society by developing formidable educational institutions; and facilitate the realisation of the fundamental objectives and policies of the state as enshrined in Chapter Two of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) Cap C23, LFN, 2004.

“This bill is proposed against the background of fallen standards in our educational system and the need to bring the sector up to speed with global best standards. Unfortunately, as a result of the inability of the government to provide quality education in its public educational institutions, Nigerians have resorted to private schools and foreign schools for their education.

“The United Kingdom, United States of America, Ukraine, Ghana, Malaysia, Egypt, and South Africa, just to mention a few, have become choice destinations for Nigerians in search of quality education.”

Ogun is not alone in this call, a member of the 8th House of Representatives from Niger State, Hon Abubarkar Chika Adamu had described the incessant ASUU strike and the general decline in the public education sector as a moral burden on the Nigerian leaders. Chika who boasted about rejecting a 40 per cent scholarship for his daughter in a private university in Nigeria, insisted that those entrusted with making policies for the public good should not have their children abroad while children of the masses bear the brunt of bad policies.

The question is how many people in government have their wards in public universities? Does it mean they all don’t believe in the system they are managing? Why then do we blame ASUU?

On this matter, I stand with ASUU, all evidence pointing to rot in our universities abound, no Nigerian university is among the 1st 50 in the world; our universities are not research-driven and have not solved any problems in the last decades. It is so bad that employers of labour now complain about unemployable graduates. A graduate that can’t create jobs and is unemployable has succeeded in wasting time and resources including government subsidy on his university education. We all know this, we should not pretend just to give ASUU a bad name.

My greatest amusement in all this is that a national student leader who couldn’t differentiate between quack and crack is condemning ASUU, what a low! The government should rather concentrate on sanitising the national students body and return the leadership of NANs to the campuses for genuine students’ to lead rather than tinker with the idea of breaking the ranks of ASUU. ASUU is not the problem, government is.

The Minister of State for Education, Rt Hon Goodluck Nanah Opiah, has restated the reasons behind the position of the Federal Government on no work, no pay policy stance on the resolution of the industrial strike.

He disclosed that having done what the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, demanded, the government expected the university teachers to return to school unconditionally.

The minister, who stated this in a release on Saturday by his SA Media/Public Affairs, Kelechi Mejuobi, said that the Federal Government had done its best to resolve the crisis averred that the “no work, no pay policy” is a universal policy not peculiar to the country alone.
Opiah, who was on a working visit to the Federal University, Lokoja, Kogi State, while regretting that the strike has caused a setback in the education sector where the government, students, parents, and lecturers are the losers, he requested the pro-chancellors’ and chairmen of governing councils of universities to come into the matter and convince ASUU to reconsider its position.

He was full of praise for the management of the institution for the pace of development recorded so far. The minister called for continued harmony between the Governing Council led by the Pro-Chancellor, Senator Chris Adighije, and the management, adding that it will facilitate the needed development for academic excellence

The minister, who was in the university to access the level of development in the institution established 11 years ago, used the opportunity to look at the contribution of the intervention agency, TETfund in the infrastructural development of the school as well as security arrangements given the current situation in the country.

Earlier, the minister paid a courtesy visit to the state governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello where he disclosed the purpose of his visit to the state.

The minister debunked reports from some quarters that he had called ASUU members thieves, urging the public to ignore such reports.