The ASUU – FGN face-off on non-implementation of a negotiated agreement with an in-built memorandum of action has lingered for over six months with no end in sight.
The FGN’s recalcitrant position with all the trappings of deceit and dishonesty is a deja vu. In the process, the patience of parents, guardians, students and well-meaning stakeholders has been overstretched. Understandably, it has evoked comments, informed and armchair, on the necessity or otherwise for the strike ab initio.
Listening to such comments on radio and television, particularly those holding ASUU to the task can be frustrating to us as members of the union. Not least are the vituperations of the Honourable Minister for Education and his advice to students to sue ASUU for time wasted on the strike.
On funding for revitalization of tertiary institutions, it bears elaborating on some specifics, particularly as they relate to programmes on science and science-based courses into which there is preponderant admission of students.
The expectation of parents and guardians of wards in the university is effective training, in theory, and praxis, in their various disciplines and to be found worthy, in learning and character, for the award of the respective degrees in the fullness of time. There is an a priori justification for the expectation, anchored on all things being equal.
It is not an exaggeration that many public universities have ill-equipped laboratories, workshops and other facilities that will conduce to effective training and hands-on experience for students. These include reagents and other appropriate consumable items without which there cannot be effective laboratories. There was the Direct Teaching and Laboratory Costs (DTLC) designed to cater for these items as a percentage of the overhead cost in federal government subvention.
Over the years there has been a gradual decline in the real value of the overhead cost allocation to universities and consequently, the DTLC. Thus, the science-based disciplines – the pure and applied sciences, engineering, medicine, agriculture, etc have been hamstrung, unable to deliver effectively on their curricula.
In light of the no-tuition fee policy of the federal government, the federal universities are over-subscribed with the admission of students over and above their carrying capacities, and overstretching facilities, resulting in overcrowded laboratories and indeed classrooms.
Where it is possible to conduct laboratory practicals, it is rendered difficult by epileptic electricity and water supplies. Anyone outside the university system, indeed even within the system but has no activity with students in laboratory and workshop services cannot appreciate the challenges of poor funding by the government.
The federal government does not fund postgraduate programmes except for the provision of the Tertiary Education Tax Fund for the training of a limited number of eligible academic staff and for limited research. Thus, for the most part, the postgraduate students in science-based programmes must provide for most of their needs including where necessary generating sets for steady electricity supplies.
More often than not, they do analyses of data outside of the university at great cost and more importantly at the risk of spurious results in the absence of effective supervision in this regard. Where the cost of analyses is prohibitive, and the student indigent, it raises a moral question as to the ground to subject him or her to extensive replicate studies, as is traditional to do, on the work.
Many indigent students have had to be assisted by lecturers in this regard. In all of this, the lecturer, as a soft target, gets the blame for the poor quality training of students, whereas, in truth, the government is the primary culprit. Clearly, it would be ethically irresponsible for academic staff to ignore these issues to the detriment of students and society at large.
There are as many private universities as public ones – state and federal. But the private universities do not have more than 5% of total enrolment because many Nigerians cannot afford the cost. Truth be told, there is poverty in Nigeria, and many Nigerians desire university education for their wards.
In many countries, public universities are funded by the government without prejudice to their right to charge tuition fees. Through this plus endowment and collaborative research and development with industry, the universities are able to discharge functional and effective education at all levels. In this regard, the universities constitute the engine of development and are coupled to national development objectives.
It is evident that this administration is averse to education and the symbolism of a certain donation to Afghanistan, known for its aversion to girl-child education betrays a mindset that is unsettling. The disposition of the Honourable Minister of education seeking to undermine a resolution of the ongoing face-off with ASUU is regrettable but not altogether unexpected for an administration that has many square pegs in round holes.
The question is: who is responsible for the protracted ASUU strike? A government that has not shown any sincerity of purpose in failure to adhere to an agreed memorandum of action with the union is one that turns around flagging ‘no-work-no-pay’ as a distraction from the fundamental issues pending resolution. ASUU cannot be detracted by such silly blackmail.
Admittedly, Nigeria is in the throes of multi-faceted security challenges and Nigerians are not unaware of the actions and inactions of the federal government in this regard. We pray and hope that whoever is (are) the architect of the current state of anomie and crime against humanity will not go scot-free ultimately. But beyond prayer, Nigerians need to rise above primitive sentiment and, in the exercise of their fundamental rights, choose men and women of character, capacity and patriotism in the 2023 elections to create a new order and to foster national re-birth.
Professor Eromosele is former deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta.
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