By Lillian Okenwa
The Casualties
Are not only those
Who have journeyed to
The great beyond
They are well out of it.
The casualties
Are also those
Whose journey of life continues
Waiting for the call of
The great beyond
When they too shall step
Into the good night.
The casualties
Are all of us
Caught in the clash of
Life’s heavy blows
None can escape
We are all casualties
Big or small
Living or dead.
That was the great Nigerian Poet John Pepper Clark.
For nearly six months, half of the year, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been on strike to protest the Nigerian government’s failure to implement the agreements it entered with the union. ASUU commenced its strike on 14 February 14, 2022.
Days ago, ASUU President, Professor Victor Osodeke, revealed that many lecturers in Nigerian Universities have left the country to pursue their careers abroad as the Federal Government failed to resolve the lingering crisis in the education sector.
“When we were on the strike,” he said, “lecturers in the United Kingdom went on strike, it didn’t take two days for them to resolve it, the Ghanaians went on strike and they resolved it. But here, they felt nonchalant and you know why? Because they do not commit, their children are not here, they are not Nigerians, their children are abroad, and their families are abroad.”
As the face-off continues, the Minister of labour and employment, Dr. Chris Ngige has said the government does not have the money to pay ASUU what they are demanding which amounts to about N1.3trn.
ASUU had expressed grievances over the failure of the Federal Government to fulfill some of the agreements it made as far back as 2009. ASUU had on November 15, 2021, given the Federal Government a three-week ultimatum over the failure to meet the demands. The lecturers threatened to embark on another round of industrial action following the alleged “government’s unfaithfulness” in the implementation of the Memorandum of Action it signed with the union, leading to the suspension of the 2020 strike action.
After the union’s National Executive Council meeting at the University of Abuja on 13 and 14 November 2021, ASUU President, Prof. Osodeke, raised concern that despite meeting with Dr. Chris Ngige, on October 14, 2021, on issues, including funding for revitalisation of public universities, earned academic allowances, University Transparency Accountability Solution; promotion arrears, renegotiation of 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement, and the inconsistencies in Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System Payment, none of its demands had been met.
Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State since said the Nigerian government cannot borrow N1.1 trillion to meet the demands of the striking university lecturers. Similarly, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, SAN, announced that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government cannot borrow to offset the debt.
It is worthy of note that when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Monday 16 May 2022 stated on their official Facebook that it had apprehended the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) Mr. Ahmed Idris in Kano in connection with diversion of funds and money laundering activities to the tune of N80 billion, Nigerian lawyer, author, and social media influencer, Reno Omokri on his Twitter handle @renoomokri tweeted: “Dear ASUU: If the Accountant General of the Federation can steal N80 billion, you have no reason to end your strike. Ask Buhari to use the stolen N80 billion to pay you and keep the change. After all, the money ASUU is asking is not even up to N80 billion.”
The sum of N80 billion might be below ASUU’s demands but public affairs analysts maintain that if the federal government had been intentional about paying off the contentious debts without having to dole out N1.3trn at once, the question of ASUU strike would not have arisen.
Weeks into the strike, Nigeria’s government made a $1 Million donation to the Taliban government of Afghanistan. The Nigerian Tribune in its 4 April 2022 Editorial, titled: Buhari’s $1 Million Gift To Afghanistan held thus: “FOR an administration that is not exactly short on examples of moral violation, the decision of the Muhammadu Buhari government to donate the sum of $1 million to the Humanitarian Trust Fund for Afghanistan will go down as one of its most unsettling and, frankly, thoughtless acts. Instructively, Nigerians would not have known of the donation but for the statement by the Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Hissein Brahim Taha, commending the Nigerian government for its apparent generosity.”
While Nigerians are still smarting of this donation, groaning over the long-drawn strike, hunger, and security concerns, President Muhammadu Buhari’s government confirmed that it donated N1.14billion to the Republic of Niger. The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed that the donation was to aid Niger in the acquisition of some operational vehicles. Like most Nigerians, The Nigerian Tribune in a recent Editorial —FG’s Car Gifts To Niger had very strong views about the donation. Part of it reads:
“It is strongly believed in some quarters that President Muhammadu Buhari is too laid-back and aloof to have a full grasp of the enormity and complexity of the socioeconomic challenges bedeviling Nigeria. And, sadly, it is becoming increasingly difficult to dismiss such insinuations with a wave of the hand because many of his decisions and actions truly tend to give him away as someone whose approach to governance is, to put it mildly, lackadaisical. Or how else do you situate a government that runs an economy marred by an accumulation of huge local and foreign debts turning itself to a Santa Claus and dolling out money to other sovereignties as if it and its citizens are comfortable? A while ago, many Nigerians only read or heard it in the news that their president had donated $1 million to the Taliban, an ultra-conservative Islamic sect that currently calls the shots in Afghanistan.
“The president could not be bothered by the fact that he presides over a secular state where religious sensitivity is highly recommended in order not to be misconstrued as tilting the balance of advantage in favour of any religion at the expense of others. He donated money that the country did not have, as it were, to Afghanistan, a pariah state ruled with an iron fist under draconian Islamic laws. And as if that was not disturbing enough, some N1.141 billion has reportedly been approved to procure vehicles for the Republic of Niger! The official rationale for this controversial act which borders on insensitivity and profligacy was that the vehicles were meant to help Nigeria’s neighbour to beef up its security. Ironically, there is massive insecurity in Nigeria…”
Ultimately, the Federal Government might want to consider Associate Professor Aliyu Barau’s article: ASUU strike and the country of Stockholm syndrome. “The prosperity of China, Singapore, and South Korea is not unconnected with their huge investments in universities and the research and development sector. God forbid, should the Nigerian government disengage employees in a number of other sectors, it would be easier to replace most of them from the reserve army of job seekers from within Nigeria. But it would be tall order to do the same with a university system. Assuredly, even professors from neighbouring Sahelian countries (Chad, Mali, Niger) would flatly reject Nigeria’s current university pay and working conditions.”
