By SIMON EBEGBULEM
BENIN — Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, has expressed worries over the prolonged strike embarked upon by Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, and urged the Federal Government to hasten peace moves in the interest of Nigerian students.
PFN, in a statement by its National President, Rev. Felix Omobude, in Benin City, Edo State, yesterday, acknowledged the alleged failure of the Federal Government to honour the agreement reached with ASUU in 2009, and appealed to parties to find urgent solution to the problem so as not to destroy the university system.
He said: “While PFN salutes the spartan courage of the leadership of ASUU for its positive position on the urgent need to revamp and reposition the education sector, PFN is of the strong view that the need has arisen to bring into sharp focus, the crushing brunt the country is now being made to bear for the continued closure of the universities.
“PFN appeals to ASUU not to throw away the baby with its bath water but should return to class as soon as possible in the interest of parents, students and indeed, the country.”
It urged the Federal Government to treasure the integrity that goes with honouring agreements by implementing the said agreement with ASUU with candour and greater commitment as that will reposition and service the education sector on continuous basis, instead of waiting to be stampeded into action by strikes.
PFN called on “the three tiers of government to urgently address the issues of insecurity and unemployment currently posing serious threat to millions of Nigerians. We urge government at all levels to, as a matter of urgency, address the issue of unemployment in the country with particular emphasis on youth restiveness.”
Showing posts with label ASUU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ASUU. Show all posts
Thursday 5 September 2013
Tuesday 3 September 2013
ASUU and Abuja: ‘No agreement today; no agreement tomorrow’ (3)
By Rotimi Fasan
THERE are very practical but undesirable consequences to the terrible situation in our universities. The wrong people, staff and students, find their way into our universities, the very space in which we expect to train and provide leadership for the country’s quest for scientific and cultural rebirth and development.
What is more, government’s failure to provide necessary infrastructure that aids university education has led to the rise of a new crop of pseudo-academics whose primary vocation is ASUU unionism. They hibernate in the system and function more or less like primary school teachers and only lie in wait for when a strike would be declared before springing into action.
They are neither regular in class nor do they see the need for research of any kind. Some hold the highest degrees possible while others remain stuck on doctoral studies begun many years ago, victims of a skewed system and/or frustrated supervisors that derive wicked pleasure in consigning students into academic limbo. Being so brutalised these pseudo-intellectuals are often brutal to their students and the system.
They lack the clear-sighted apprehension of the challenges facing university education beyond desultory mouthing of empty slogans. Nor do they possess the intellection of ASUU leaders of a bygone era. Some have assumed cult status in their domains of influence. Their purpose is to cripple academic activities as soon as government makes another strike inevitable. These are the ‘struggle’ entrepreneurs and union warriors who have turned ASUU politics into private meal tickets. They profit from government’s lack of foresight and readiness to live up to its responsibilities by providing necessary and adequate funding for public universities.
The activities of these kinds of clowns could be curtailed if ASUU strikes could come without pay. But who is to enforce such no-work-no-pay rule where the very foundation for the short-changing of the system has been laid right from the very top by irresponsible governments and their officials whose greed and criminal pilfering has ruined everything? Yet, it cannot be denied that the fact that people get paid for job not done encourages them to be lazy and irresponsible and hurt the system they claim ‘the struggle’ is meant to protect.
In the last two months since the ASUU strike commenced, I have been at a South African university of just about 7,000- student population. But the facilities in this 109 years old university, its academic and maintenance culture, trump what you will find in any of the best Nigerian universities.
But in my local university, the ASUU was so enamoured of the ongoing strike that it opposed an academic event, a grant award organised by their own colleagues to honour some of their junior members on doctoral studies. Many of these individuals cannot embark on field trips to complete their studies for lack of funding. Yet an opportunity that came their way was spurned and thwarted by other members who claimed ASUU was on strike.
The same members ensured ASUU had no input in the conduct of the post-UTME exam for prospective students, leaving a purely academic matter in the hands of non-academic staff. I wouldn’t see what was wrong in ASUU allowing its members to conduct this event that would take just about five hours at the most. In no distant time, the same ‘aluta’ warriors would whine about the poor quality of students offered admission.
Like them, we have state officials who get paid for the wrong job or jobs not done at all. This is coming back to the case of our bloated bureaucracy of over 40 ministers in Abuja alone without looking at the states or local governments. Among the ministers are the likes of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala with double designation. There are also the substantive ministers and the (junior?) ministers of state- all serving the same president!
This bloated bureaucracy is a drain on the economy and makes any call for sacrifice from any sector of the Nigerian public hollow. Surely this can’t be a functional bureaucracy in which everybody earns what they are paid or Nyesom Wike, the Minister of State for Education, wouldn’t be fighting a proxy battle for President Jonathan and his wife in Rivers State, while Nigerian universities are on strike.
He has had no word to utter about the strike nor did we hear of his input all through the various negotiations. What is the justification for such a man remaining in the system? When the universities are shut down for months at a time, we have no right to complain about teachers who cannot read or graduates on national service who can’t fill out registration forms.
To conclude on a personal note: While on research sabbatical at the University of London earlier this year, a student I had known back in Nigeria came to visit. He was studying for his masters in a university in London. More than any need for a leisurely visit, he had very urgent obligations for which he needed assistance. He was having trouble writing an acceptable proposal for his dissertation.
Only a couple of months before, he had submitted his long essay which he couldn’t have done without writing a proposal. While working on his long essay, I had seen him on a number of occasions and whenever I asked he had assured me he was making progress with the essay. You can then imagine the irony of him being stuck writing, not his dissertation, but the proposal, his work plan, to put it in simple terms.
Among other things he told me, his lecturers had wondered how he got his degree given his obvious deficiencies. At the time he came to me, his supervisor had been so frustrated she had totally refused to offer further advice on or read his work until he made personal efforts of his own.
His confession and discomfiture told me he had been sufficiently chastened for me not to remind him of my warnings and questions only a few months before. Yet what he experienced, not necessarily in similar terms or to the same degree, is what even many of us academics face when we travel abroad.
This is the tragedy of university education in Nigeria, that we are neither creating competent manpower nor opportunities for the next generation. President Jonathan, as a former academic, can make his contribution to the reversal of this deplorable situation by acceding to the demands of ASUU and fulfilling the terms of the 2009 agreement between the union and Abuja.
THERE are very practical but undesirable consequences to the terrible situation in our universities. The wrong people, staff and students, find their way into our universities, the very space in which we expect to train and provide leadership for the country’s quest for scientific and cultural rebirth and development.
What is more, government’s failure to provide necessary infrastructure that aids university education has led to the rise of a new crop of pseudo-academics whose primary vocation is ASUU unionism. They hibernate in the system and function more or less like primary school teachers and only lie in wait for when a strike would be declared before springing into action.
They are neither regular in class nor do they see the need for research of any kind. Some hold the highest degrees possible while others remain stuck on doctoral studies begun many years ago, victims of a skewed system and/or frustrated supervisors that derive wicked pleasure in consigning students into academic limbo. Being so brutalised these pseudo-intellectuals are often brutal to their students and the system.
They lack the clear-sighted apprehension of the challenges facing university education beyond desultory mouthing of empty slogans. Nor do they possess the intellection of ASUU leaders of a bygone era. Some have assumed cult status in their domains of influence. Their purpose is to cripple academic activities as soon as government makes another strike inevitable. These are the ‘struggle’ entrepreneurs and union warriors who have turned ASUU politics into private meal tickets. They profit from government’s lack of foresight and readiness to live up to its responsibilities by providing necessary and adequate funding for public universities.
The activities of these kinds of clowns could be curtailed if ASUU strikes could come without pay. But who is to enforce such no-work-no-pay rule where the very foundation for the short-changing of the system has been laid right from the very top by irresponsible governments and their officials whose greed and criminal pilfering has ruined everything? Yet, it cannot be denied that the fact that people get paid for job not done encourages them to be lazy and irresponsible and hurt the system they claim ‘the struggle’ is meant to protect.
In the last two months since the ASUU strike commenced, I have been at a South African university of just about 7,000- student population. But the facilities in this 109 years old university, its academic and maintenance culture, trump what you will find in any of the best Nigerian universities.
But in my local university, the ASUU was so enamoured of the ongoing strike that it opposed an academic event, a grant award organised by their own colleagues to honour some of their junior members on doctoral studies. Many of these individuals cannot embark on field trips to complete their studies for lack of funding. Yet an opportunity that came their way was spurned and thwarted by other members who claimed ASUU was on strike.
The same members ensured ASUU had no input in the conduct of the post-UTME exam for prospective students, leaving a purely academic matter in the hands of non-academic staff. I wouldn’t see what was wrong in ASUU allowing its members to conduct this event that would take just about five hours at the most. In no distant time, the same ‘aluta’ warriors would whine about the poor quality of students offered admission.
Like them, we have state officials who get paid for the wrong job or jobs not done at all. This is coming back to the case of our bloated bureaucracy of over 40 ministers in Abuja alone without looking at the states or local governments. Among the ministers are the likes of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala with double designation. There are also the substantive ministers and the (junior?) ministers of state- all serving the same president!
This bloated bureaucracy is a drain on the economy and makes any call for sacrifice from any sector of the Nigerian public hollow. Surely this can’t be a functional bureaucracy in which everybody earns what they are paid or Nyesom Wike, the Minister of State for Education, wouldn’t be fighting a proxy battle for President Jonathan and his wife in Rivers State, while Nigerian universities are on strike.
He has had no word to utter about the strike nor did we hear of his input all through the various negotiations. What is the justification for such a man remaining in the system? When the universities are shut down for months at a time, we have no right to complain about teachers who cannot read or graduates on national service who can’t fill out registration forms.
To conclude on a personal note: While on research sabbatical at the University of London earlier this year, a student I had known back in Nigeria came to visit. He was studying for his masters in a university in London. More than any need for a leisurely visit, he had very urgent obligations for which he needed assistance. He was having trouble writing an acceptable proposal for his dissertation.
Only a couple of months before, he had submitted his long essay which he couldn’t have done without writing a proposal. While working on his long essay, I had seen him on a number of occasions and whenever I asked he had assured me he was making progress with the essay. You can then imagine the irony of him being stuck writing, not his dissertation, but the proposal, his work plan, to put it in simple terms.
Among other things he told me, his lecturers had wondered how he got his degree given his obvious deficiencies. At the time he came to me, his supervisor had been so frustrated she had totally refused to offer further advice on or read his work until he made personal efforts of his own.
His confession and discomfiture told me he had been sufficiently chastened for me not to remind him of my warnings and questions only a few months before. Yet what he experienced, not necessarily in similar terms or to the same degree, is what even many of us academics face when we travel abroad.
This is the tragedy of university education in Nigeria, that we are neither creating competent manpower nor opportunities for the next generation. President Jonathan, as a former academic, can make his contribution to the reversal of this deplorable situation by acceding to the demands of ASUU and fulfilling the terms of the 2009 agreement between the union and Abuja.
Wednesday 31 July 2013
ASUU strike: Bear with us, FG tells students, parents
Ben Agande, Abuja.
The Federal Government has expressed admitted worry at the distortion in school calendar as a result of the on going strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities saying that it is committed to the speedy resolution of the crisis for the sake of Nigerian students.
Minister of Information, Labaran Maku told state House correspondents at the end of Wednesday's Federal Executive Council meeting that government was committed to "serious negotiations" with the university lecturers.
The Minister appealed to the students and parents to bear with government and show more understanding as efforts are being made to resolve the contending issues very soon.
"The federal government has been far more worried than you think concerning the strike in tertiary institutions, because of the disruption of the school calendar and so government is concerned and very worried and since the onset of the strike government has been negotiating with ASUU through the Ministry of Labour and Productivity and the Ministry of Education.
"As at today we know that this negotiations are going on and it is our expectation that this strike will not get more protracted and that an understanding will be reached soon enough to enable our students return back to school. Government is very worried and concerned every time the school calendar is disrupted, it has its cost to the nation, particularly the idle time our children spend at home can lead to alot of social difficulties.
"We don't want school calendars to be disrupted and a lot of series of discussions have been going on and we believe we should record some progress soon enough for these schools to open and the Minister of Labour and education will be giving quarter briefing on the progress of these negotiation and I know that it has never cease.
"So we are appealing to our people particularly parents and children of this nation to bear with us, to show more understanding and we pray that this type of strike will not re-occur, because the public school system suffers a lot of damage with the perennial strikes. The universities have been relatively stable since the advent of this Administration. The outraged strikes that we inherited we have tried to resolve them, and if you notice in the last two years there has not been a lot of strikes until this unfortunate one and I believe we will overcome it and in the end both parties will appreciate the need to keep the school calendar stable for the progress of our country. So government is working hard to ensure we reach an agreement to resolve this problem so that or schools can re-open" he said.
Meanwhile, the Federal Executive Council Wednesday approved a contract of N2.99 billion for the rehabilitation/construction of the Calabar-Ugep section of the Katsina-Ala/Ogoja/Ugep/Calabar road.
The earlier section of the road which is already 80 per cent complete, was awarded for N4.6 billion, thus bringing the total contract sum for the entire road to N7.5 billion
Minister of State for Works, Bashir Yuguda, explained that the contractor, Piccolo Brunelli, which handled the first phase, was asked to continue with the extension since it was already on site and had done a very good job.
Yuguda recalled that "the first phase of the project aimed at addressing the heavily distressed sections of the road while other sections not captured in the original contract scope of works would be addressed when funds became available.
"This is to ensure that government and the public get the full benefits of the investment made on the roads in terms of improvement of the level of service" he said.
The Federal Government has expressed admitted worry at the distortion in school calendar as a result of the on going strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities saying that it is committed to the speedy resolution of the crisis for the sake of Nigerian students.
Minister of Information, Labaran Maku told state House correspondents at the end of Wednesday's Federal Executive Council meeting that government was committed to "serious negotiations" with the university lecturers.
The Minister appealed to the students and parents to bear with government and show more understanding as efforts are being made to resolve the contending issues very soon.
"The federal government has been far more worried than you think concerning the strike in tertiary institutions, because of the disruption of the school calendar and so government is concerned and very worried and since the onset of the strike government has been negotiating with ASUU through the Ministry of Labour and Productivity and the Ministry of Education.
"As at today we know that this negotiations are going on and it is our expectation that this strike will not get more protracted and that an understanding will be reached soon enough to enable our students return back to school. Government is very worried and concerned every time the school calendar is disrupted, it has its cost to the nation, particularly the idle time our children spend at home can lead to alot of social difficulties.
"We don't want school calendars to be disrupted and a lot of series of discussions have been going on and we believe we should record some progress soon enough for these schools to open and the Minister of Labour and education will be giving quarter briefing on the progress of these negotiation and I know that it has never cease.
"So we are appealing to our people particularly parents and children of this nation to bear with us, to show more understanding and we pray that this type of strike will not re-occur, because the public school system suffers a lot of damage with the perennial strikes. The universities have been relatively stable since the advent of this Administration. The outraged strikes that we inherited we have tried to resolve them, and if you notice in the last two years there has not been a lot of strikes until this unfortunate one and I believe we will overcome it and in the end both parties will appreciate the need to keep the school calendar stable for the progress of our country. So government is working hard to ensure we reach an agreement to resolve this problem so that or schools can re-open" he said.
Meanwhile, the Federal Executive Council Wednesday approved a contract of N2.99 billion for the rehabilitation/construction of the Calabar-Ugep section of the Katsina-Ala/Ogoja/Ugep/Calabar road.
The earlier section of the road which is already 80 per cent complete, was awarded for N4.6 billion, thus bringing the total contract sum for the entire road to N7.5 billion
Minister of State for Works, Bashir Yuguda, explained that the contractor, Piccolo Brunelli, which handled the first phase, was asked to continue with the extension since it was already on site and had done a very good job.
Yuguda recalled that "the first phase of the project aimed at addressing the heavily distressed sections of the road while other sections not captured in the original contract scope of works would be addressed when funds became available.
"This is to ensure that government and the public get the full benefits of the investment made on the roads in terms of improvement of the level of service" he said.
Friday 26 July 2013
ASUU may call off strike next Thursday
BY OKEY NDIRIBE
There are indications that the on-going strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities might be called off next Thursday.
Governor of Benue State, Mr Gabriel Suswam who dropped this hint Friday said ASUU and the Federal Government had reached agreements on all the contentious issues that led to the industrial action except two.
Suswam who was appointed as Chairman of the Needs Assessment Implementation Committee of the Federal Government said after next Thursday's deliberations between his Committee and the various agencies of government funding tertiary education, all the contentious issues would likely be resolved.
Speaking to news men in Abuja after attending a meeting between the Federal Government's delegation and ASUU, Suswam said that agreements had been reached by both parties on all issues except two.
Said he: "We reached agreements on all issues except two. These two issues are those of earned allowances of lecturers and intervention for the federal universities. These are the only issues that are still outstanding."
The Benue Governor further said he believed that by next week after his Committee would have arrived at an agreement on all the issues, ASUU would call off the strike.
He continued: "The SGF would meet with the leadership of ASUU on the issue of earned allowances by next Monday.
Then my committee which is dealing with the issue of the needs assessment of the universities would meet again next Thursday and take another look at all the infrastructural deficits which the federal universities are facing.
If you go to our universities, you would agree that they are facing infrastructural deficits and that is why my committee would meet with all the funding agencies next Thursday for the purpose of prioritizing all the projects that need to be executed. We are going to invite all the agencies that are involved in the funding of the universities including the Central Bank of Nigeria."
Suswam further stated that the issues on agreements have been reached include: those of retirement age for university lecturers- which has now been increased from 65 to 70 years; the constitution of the governing councils of the universities which has already been done by the Government; the setting up of a pension administrator and the issue of persuading companies operating in the country to set up research centers in the universities.
Said he: "As far as I am concerned, if the issues concerning intervention and earned allowances are resolved next week, then the strike could be called off"
Among those who attended the meeting were Secretary to the Government of the Federation Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, Minister of Labour, Hon. Emeka Wogu, Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayatu Rufai and President of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dr Nasir Fagge.
There are indications that the on-going strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities might be called off next Thursday.
Governor of Benue State, Mr Gabriel Suswam who dropped this hint Friday said ASUU and the Federal Government had reached agreements on all the contentious issues that led to the industrial action except two.
Suswam who was appointed as Chairman of the Needs Assessment Implementation Committee of the Federal Government said after next Thursday's deliberations between his Committee and the various agencies of government funding tertiary education, all the contentious issues would likely be resolved.
Speaking to news men in Abuja after attending a meeting between the Federal Government's delegation and ASUU, Suswam said that agreements had been reached by both parties on all issues except two.
Said he: "We reached agreements on all issues except two. These two issues are those of earned allowances of lecturers and intervention for the federal universities. These are the only issues that are still outstanding."
The Benue Governor further said he believed that by next week after his Committee would have arrived at an agreement on all the issues, ASUU would call off the strike.
He continued: "The SGF would meet with the leadership of ASUU on the issue of earned allowances by next Monday.
Then my committee which is dealing with the issue of the needs assessment of the universities would meet again next Thursday and take another look at all the infrastructural deficits which the federal universities are facing.
If you go to our universities, you would agree that they are facing infrastructural deficits and that is why my committee would meet with all the funding agencies next Thursday for the purpose of prioritizing all the projects that need to be executed. We are going to invite all the agencies that are involved in the funding of the universities including the Central Bank of Nigeria."
Suswam further stated that the issues on agreements have been reached include: those of retirement age for university lecturers- which has now been increased from 65 to 70 years; the constitution of the governing councils of the universities which has already been done by the Government; the setting up of a pension administrator and the issue of persuading companies operating in the country to set up research centers in the universities.
Said he: "As far as I am concerned, if the issues concerning intervention and earned allowances are resolved next week, then the strike could be called off"
Among those who attended the meeting were Secretary to the Government of the Federation Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, Minister of Labour, Hon. Emeka Wogu, Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayatu Rufai and President of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dr Nasir Fagge.
Tuesday 23 July 2013
We are still waiting for government - ASUU
Lagos - The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), says it is still waiting for another meeting proposed by the Federal Government, to discuss the way forward concerning the ongoing lecturers' strike.
The ASUU National President, Dr Nasir Fagge, said this in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Tuesday in Lagos.
ASUU had on July 1, embarked on what it described as a ``comprehensive, total and indefinite`` nationwide strike.
The lecturers are protesting the non-implementation of an aspect of the agreement they entered into with the federal government since 2009.
According to Fagge, the Minister of Education and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), after the last meeting they held with ASUU, promised to convene another one.
He said that they were waiting to hear from the government officials.
``We shall continue to wait for them until they are ready to put in place a lasting solution to the current issue, so that our children and the lecturers alike can go back to school.”
Fagge said that plans by other labour unions in the academic community to also embark on strike over non-implementation of agreements by the federal government would further jeopardise the sector.
``This is an indication that government is not doing what is right and until government starts looking at agreement as a product of collective bargaining, we shall keep having problems.” (NAN)
The ASUU National President, Dr Nasir Fagge, said this in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Tuesday in Lagos.
ASUU had on July 1, embarked on what it described as a ``comprehensive, total and indefinite`` nationwide strike.
The lecturers are protesting the non-implementation of an aspect of the agreement they entered into with the federal government since 2009.
According to Fagge, the Minister of Education and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), after the last meeting they held with ASUU, promised to convene another one.
He said that they were waiting to hear from the government officials.
``We shall continue to wait for them until they are ready to put in place a lasting solution to the current issue, so that our children and the lecturers alike can go back to school.”
Fagge said that plans by other labour unions in the academic community to also embark on strike over non-implementation of agreements by the federal government would further jeopardise the sector.
``This is an indication that government is not doing what is right and until government starts looking at agreement as a product of collective bargaining, we shall keep having problems.” (NAN)
Saturday 20 July 2013
ASUU STRIKE: Nigerian varsities may remain shut for a long time to come — Prof Iyayi
They went to laboratories where they found people using kerosene stoves instead of Bunsen burners to conduct experiments; they found specimens being kept in pure water bottles instead of the appropriate places where such specimens should be kept
PROF. FESTUS IYAYI is a former National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). In this interview, he explains why university teachers nationwide are on strike; saying the action is to compel the Federal Government to implement the agreement it reached with ASUU on funding of universities. Iyayi, currently Head of Dept, Business Administration, University of Benin, insists that the union members are prepared to stay at home for the next three to five years until the right thing is done. Excerpts:
BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE, BENIN
ASUU has gone back to the trenches with the Federal Government. Why are you on strike?
The short answer is this: Government believes that Nigeria should continue to be not just a second rate country but a third rate country because the quality of development, the kind of society you have depend on the kind of education that the people have and the quality of education that exists in the country. In 2009, ASUU reached an agreement with government on how to rehabilitate and revitalize the universities. That agreement was a product of three years of negotiation, from 2006 to 2009, and government agreed that it will provide funding for universities to bring them to a level that we can begin to produce graduates that will be recognized worldwide, and our universities can also be classified and rated among the best in the world. People keep talking about universities rating, but no Nigerian university features among the first 1,000 in the world because of the issue of lack of facilities.
So, from 2009 to 2012, ASUU waited for the Federal Government to implement that agreement and what government did was to believe and present the argument that what ASUU was looking for was money, and so, they implemented part of the salary component; they did not implement the agreement on funding. As academics, if you pay us N10million a month and we do not have the tools to work with, that money is worthless because we want to be able to conduct research, teach students the latest that is available in the world of knowledge. Those tools were not available and are still not available.
So, in 2011, precisely in December, ASUU went on strike to force government to implement the funding part of that agreement. What did the government do? They apprehended the strike in January 2012 and the Secretary to the Federal Government invited the leadership of ASUU for a meeting in his office. We went there, discussed with them on the basis of which on 24 January, 2012, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government under the title, “MEETING OF THE SECRETARY OF THE GOVERNEMNT OF THE FEDERATION WITH THE ACADEMIC STAFF UNION OF UNIVERSITIES “and signed by Prof. Nicholas A. Damachi, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education on behalf of the Federal Government. The most important of the items signed was 3.0, that is, “FUNDING REQUIREMENTS FOR UNIVERSITIES”. And this is what the Federal Government said it would do: “Government reaffirms its commitment to the revitalization of Nigerian universities through budgetary and non- budgetary sources of funds; government will immediately stimulate the process with the sum of N100billion and will beef it up to a yearly sum of N400billion in the next three years”.
As we speak now, not a Kobo, not an iota of intervention has taken place in the universities. Yet, government itself, in the various studies it has done, said it recognizes the pathetic state of the universities. In order to implement this agreement, government first gave a reason saying, ‘oh, for us to apply the funds, let us first of all identify the areas of priorities to which the funds will be applied’. Government also said, ‘we are not going to give the money to the universities, what we are going to do is to identify the projects, we will them call on government agencies such as the CBN, PTDF, ETF to deliver the projects to the universities that would then be estimated’. So the money is not coming to the universities, government will do the costing and get people to come and do all those things such as the rehabilitation of the laboratories, classrooms and a variety of other things.
[caption id="attachment_404994" align="alignnone" width="412"]
Prof. Fetus Iyayi[/caption]Needs assessment committee
Now what should be those things: Government set up a committee called the NEEDS ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE and it went round the universities and what it found was shocking. First, it found that the students – teachers ratio was 1-400 on the average instead of being 1-40. It found out that the classrooms were grossly inadequate and could accommodate only about 30 percent of the number of students that needed to enter those classrooms; they went round and found students standing in their lecture theatres with other students writing on their backs; they found lectures going on under trees in some of the universities; they went to laboratories where they found people using kerosene stoves instead of Bunsen burners to conduct experiments; they found specimens being kept in pure water bottles instead of the appropriate places where such specimens should be kept. They found chemistry labs without water; they found people doing examinations called theory of practicals and not the practicals and you will imagine what the practical ought to be. And when the report was eventually presented to President Goodluck Jonathan at the Federal Executive Council, we understand that Jonathan said that he was embarrassed and did not know that things were all that bad.
No intervention
It was on that basis that they said that this money should be spent. As we speak, the money has not been provided, no intervention has taken place and the academics are tired. We negotiated for three years, 2006-2009, we went on strike in December, 2011 and government apprehended that strike; we signed an MoU in January 2012, between then and now, nothing happened. That is why we are on strike. We are saying, ‘look, rehabilitate the universities’. As a reporter, you can go round our classrooms and you will see what our classrooms are like. In this era, it is the quality of knowledge that you acquire that will determine the position you occupy in any part of the world. We did this and government did not do anything.
A professor came from Bayelsa State recently to the University of Benin, looking for journals. We went to the library because we have an e-library and he could not do anything there because there was no light for two days in the library. If you go round here now, lecturers have generators in their offices to be able to work, every department has two or three generators to be able to do their work. Is that what a university should be like? If you go to the students’ hostels, they in a sorry state, they live 12 in a room; they are like piggery; they now have what they called short puts, they excrete in polythene bags and throw them through the windows into the fields because there are no toilets. If you come into this building (faculty building), there are no toilets and, if walk round, you will find faeces sometimes in the classrooms because students have no place to use. And it is like that in all other universities.
Enough is enough
Academic staff has said enough is enough, we cannot continue to work under these conditions, especially when government gave commitment in 2012 that this matter would be addressed but up till now nothing had happened. We had several meetings between 2012 and now and they will say ‘next week this one will happen; in two weeks time that one will happen, give us one month, this one will happen’, nothing has happened.
And when students leave here, they apply for progammes in the United Kingdom, United States and other countries for their master degrees, PhD or other postgraduate programmes and they are told that they cannot be admitted because their degrees are suspect. Shell here in Nigeria spent millions of dollars re-training graduates, people who made First Class and, when they test them, they found out that they have problems. How can you take an engineer who has not conducted an experiment, all he did is the theory of practical? He does not know how the equipment works? If you want a properly educated student population, you have to provide the facilities.
That is why ASUU is on strike. What government has done in the past is to say that we are on strike because of money, now they don’t have that excuse. It is true that part of the agreement we have with the government also talked about academic allowances, but academics are saying that we are not interested in that; we are saying that government should rehabilitate facilities and once they are rehabilitated and they are up to standard, we will come back to work. If you go to our classrooms, we use chalk boards, the situation of the 1960s but people are using multi-media facilities, mark boards where you can download information.
That is not available here and government is not interested in that. No country developed without a sound educational system and the foundation is not the primary school incidentally, it is at the university level because it is the university that trains other levels. For instance, if you want to teach in primary school, you need people who attended the Colleges of Education; if you want to be teacher at the Colleges of Education, you must have a degree from the university; so, the university provides the manpower for other levels of education and that is why you must concentrate efforts on the university education. If you don’t do that, other levels of education will suffer and that is what has been happening in Nigeria.
Against this backdrop, of your complaints more private universities are being approved by government. Will this help to solve the problem?
Even the National Universities Commission (NUC), which is licensing private universities, has now drawn attention to the crisis of quality in many of these private universities. You know what government does: We have refineries in Port-Harcourt and Warri; I was just talking with some people recently and they said, oh, Port-Harcourt refinery is in a state where it can refine whatever amount of crude oil sent to it; its plants are all now working,’ but, as at today, government has not send crude oil to it and they cannot process anything because they want to import. Nigeria is the only OPEC member country that sells crude oil to its refineries at the international price? Does that work? It doesn’t work, but they use international price to sell crude oil to refineries, to make it impossible for the refineries to process crude and then they go to Spain and other countries to import refined products.
So, what is happening is that government wants to kill the public universities just as it has killed its own enterprises so that it can invite people to come and buy over the public universities? Unfortunately, it will not work because universities are not like enterprises. In the UK, most of the universities there are public owned; in the US, most of the universities are state owned; the one you hear about, HARVARD, is a private one, but most of the universities in the world are owned by government because education is a social service; the revenue and tax collected by government comes from the people, the commonwealth, that is the fund that is used in funding education.
And what the government is doing is to under-fund public universities, give them a bad name and provide an excuse to license private universities many of which borrow lecturers from public sector universities, many of which do not have the equipment which public universities ought to have. And many of the private universities focus on the social sciences, law and arts; they do not go into engineering, medicine or sciences because you need a lot of capital outlay, you need to spend a lot of money building laboratories. I went to Oxford University last year and they showed me a laboratory that was built last year, a huge building where people from different parts of the world went there to conduct experiments. It cost billions of pounds and no private sector person will like to invest such money because the returns on investment cannot be recouped. So, private sector universities are gimmicks by government to say that they are better than the public sector universities, but then, how many people are there how much fees do they pay and how many people in Nigeria can pay the sum of N350,000 and above paid in private universities? Those universities are not meant for the children of ordinary Nigerians and development has to be about the ordinary people, it cannot be about the rich. So, there is no way, not in this century, not the next or in a life time that private universities will become more important than public universities.
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Prof. Iyayi[/caption]So what is The Way Forward?
The way forward is that the ruling elite in Nigeria must be sure of what they want. We have an example; many years ago, Ghanaians were here; they flooded our universities; when the Ghanaians rulers saw what was happening, they took a step back and said, lets us change direction’. They closed down the universities for three years or so, rehabilitated all the facilities in the universities and brought the students and the lecturers back. Now, the CBN Governor Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi disclosed that Nigerians spent about N62billion paying school fees for 75,000 Nigerian students in Ghanaian universities. Our people are in South Africa paying fees there, but who are those going there; they are the children of the rich. Ghanaians are in Ghana universities but they are not paying what Nigerians are paying there. So, the way forward is that government makes up its mind that Nigerians must have a place under the sun and that place under the sun can only be guaranteed with a sound university system.
It must make up its mind; is it to close down the university system for three years or so, do what should be done and then invite students and lecturers back? For instance, in the University of Benin, you don’t have a foreign student and if you go to other universities in Nigeria, I don’t think there are foreign students. When I came to the University of Benin, I was interviewed by Prof. Smith, a Briton who was the Dean at the time and many people from different parts of the world were here as teachers and students. But, right now, they are not in Nigeria; instead, Nigerians are everywhere. That shows that the system has collapsed. When we went to the National Assembly, Sen. Uche Chukwumerije and his colleagues told us that they were on their knees begging us to recall the students because they are on the streets posing dangers and problems, and we said, it is better for them to be on the streets than on the campus of universities learning ignorance. You cannot teach ignorance to people or half knowledge to the people because they will be more dangerous to the society.
‘Not asking for money for ourselves’
If you have a doctor that is not well trained, and you say ‘go and remove an appendix’, and he goes to remove your heart because he doesn’t know where the appendix is; it is better not to have doctors than the one who will go and remove your heart than the appendix. That is what the Nigerian government wants us to do and the academics in universities are saying no, for once, let us do the right thing; we are prepared to stay at home for between three and five years until these problems are resolved. We are not asking for money, facilities must be provided to make the universities truly what they ought to be.
In terms of how to solve the problems in the universities, when the financial crisis broke out in 2007 and banks declared that they were in trouble, government brought out N3trillion to bail out the banks. First, they gave the banks N239billion, another N620billion and N1.725trillion making a total of N3trillion.
Then the aviation sector said that it was in distress, they gave the sector, N500billion and they gave even NOLLYWOOD billions of Naira. These sectors are important, but they are not as important as the fundamental which is the education sector. If you can give the banks N3trillion and all the universities are asking for is about N1.5trillion, the same way in which they sourced the money which they gave to the banks which they are now saying that they should not pay back, they should be able to do more for education. So, nobody should come to us and say that government has no money.
If they can bail the banks with N3trillion, banks owned by the private sector, they cannot tell us they cannot fund the education sector because the World Bank told them that Africans do not need higher education, that what Africans need is middle-level technical education; that is what the Okonjo-Iwealas and Goodluck Jonathan are for. So, let them do what they did in the case of the banks to education and if they do that, the problems will be solved.
Tuesday 9 July 2013
Strike: Varsity, Poly students protest in Lagos, block roads
Hundreds of students of various higher institutions have taking to the streets in Lagos over the lingering strike embarked upon by academic unions in polytechnic and universities.
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Protesting students[/caption]
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Protesting students[/caption]
Eyewitnesses told Vanguard that the placard carrying students barricaded Ikorodu Road at Onipan area bemoaning their fate as they have been compelled to, yet again, sit at home due to the strike actions embarked upon by the lecturers.
The protest has however, brought traffic on the ever busy Ikorodu road to a halt as the students danced and played football in the middle of the highway.
Are you at Palmgroove, Onipan area on Ikorodu road? Are you involved in the protest, kindly send us eye witnesses accounts, photos and videos to : citizenreport@vanguardngr.com
[caption id="attachment_402933" align="alignnone" width="412"]
Protesting students[/caption][caption id="attachment_402934" align="alignnone" width="412"]
Protesting students[/caption]Eyewitnesses told Vanguard that the placard carrying students barricaded Ikorodu Road at Onipan area bemoaning their fate as they have been compelled to, yet again, sit at home due to the strike actions embarked upon by the lecturers.
The protest has however, brought traffic on the ever busy Ikorodu road to a halt as the students danced and played football in the middle of the highway.
Are you at Palmgroove, Onipan area on Ikorodu road? Are you involved in the protest, kindly send us eye witnesses accounts, photos and videos to : citizenreport@vanguardngr.com
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