This is the best question at this period of time when it seems the evil bedevilling education sector in Nigeria would never come to an end. Mallam Adamu Adamu, the minister of education is a onetime lover of ASUU’s resistance against the former governments’ bad policies towards education. He dedicated a whole column in the Daily Trust newspaper of the 15th of November 2013 to explain the reasons ASUU was always on avoidable but necessary strike, which was due to government lackadaisical and unwarranted attitude.
In his famous write-up, he posited with the “129 Universities, 100-odd polytechnics and 85 colleges of education, and a very I-don’t care attitude to higher education; Nigeria spends less than one per cent of its Gross National Income (0.85% precisely); while four of its smaller English-speaking African compatriot-states spend multiples of that Ghana (2.85%), Egypt (3.9%), Zimbabwe (5.4%), and South Africa (7%)”.
How time flies that the erstwhile critic has forgotten and cannot bring sanity to the same sector now that he has the opportunity to do so. That’s why it’s not enough to say but to practice. It’s almost an academic session that the lecturers of all Nigerian public universities have been on strike, in the same regime where Mallam Adamu Adamu holds sway as the minister of education and he is not only invisible as a person but also his policy towards greater education.
The ASUU strike, which has entered the ninth month has been made possible by the apathetic attitude of the government officials who are involved in negotiating with ASUU executives. As against the popular belief that the minister of education is the chief education officer of a nation and supposed to be at the forefront of the dialogue to ensure speedy resolution of the impasse, the reverse is the case in this current dispensation. The minister of state for education and minister of labour have been at the centre of the resolution.
These duos, however, have remained the cog in the wheel of resolution of this imbroglio. Instead of calling ASUU for negotiation during the COVID-19 pandemic to brainstorm on how the signed agreement will be implemented, they had side-lined the union leaders contemptuously. Even after the lockdown occasioned by the pandemic, the agents of government have continued to dribble the union with meeting upon meeting, without any concrete implementation strategy.
This was manifested in a way an agreement will be reached, and the ministers at different times will pronounce different things to the media. This hide-and-seek has continued severally until the parties agreed to sheath their swords and allow universities to resume academic exercises.
The government agreed to pay the withheld salaries during the strike on or before the 9th of December 2020, while ASUU also promised to suspend the strike once it observes the government has started the implementation of its promises. In a characteristic manner of this government, the day has passed and no implementation of just one of its promises. They, however, want ASUU to suspend the strike based on their usual and fathom promises.
They have forgotten they are products of these intellectuals from the ivory towers. Hopefully, this government will look back to the history of ASUU strikes and do the right thing in the interest of the masses.
Dr. Olawale Surajudeen Adebayo. Federal University of Technology, Minna.
