ASUU Strike And Keyamo’s Slanted Arguments -By Jerome-Mario Chijioke Utomi

Parents, students, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and of course the entire nation were on Friday, August 5, 2022, dazed with disbelief over statement credited to Festus Keyamo, minister of state for labour and employment., while in an interview on Channels Television , over ASUU srike which commenced February 14, embarked upon by the Group to protest government’s inability to implement their demands on salaries and allowances of lecturers, and improved funding for universities.

In his response to a question on the “manner” the federal government has handled the strike issue, among other things said that ASUU’s demands are related to overhead cost, and that the federal government doesn’t have the funds to implement the union’s request.

“The moment they went on strike, we intervened. What is the manner again beyond that? The moment they declared the strike, even before the strike began, we called them to a meeting,” he said. “What manner is more than that? It’s not that we left them to go on strike first and we were sleeping, and three months later, we said ‘can we start talking?’ The moment they declared, we immediately called them and said ‘let us start talking’. And as the talks started, they still went on strike. “You cannot allow one sector of the economy to hold your jugular and blackmail you to go and borrow N1.2 trillion for overheads, when our total income is about N6.1 trillion, and you have roads, health centres to build, and other sectors to take care of. “Let them go back to classes. They are not the only ones in Nigeria. They are not the only ones feeding from the federal purse. The nation cannot grind to a halt because we want to take care of the demands of ASUU.” He concluded.

Essentially, while Nigerians are still shocked in disbelief that a Federal Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria could make such a declaration, there are even more reasons, in the opinion of this piece, to conclude that Keyamo current outburst did come as a surprise but qualifies as regular music hall firm gravitating towards recurrent decimal. .

There exist some particulars to support the above claim.

In March 2020,, during the Ministry of Labour and the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU), meeting with the leadership of the House of Representatives over a similar strike action, It was reported that the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, who represented the Federal Government, in his submissions got more preoccupied with establishing the illegality inherent in the strike than telling the gathering the effort the Federal Government was making to find real and lasting solution to the warning strikes embarked upon by ASUU.

Quoting the Trade Dispute Act which requires that ASUU give 15 days’ notice before embarking on any strike, Keyamo stressed that since the ministry has not received any notice of strike from ASUU, the FG remain officially unaware of the demands of ASUU.

But like the present circumstance, Keyamo’s asymmetrical argument could not hold water as it was faced with embarrassing fact from Professor Abiodun Ogunyemi, the now out gone National President of ASUU.

On that day, at that time and in that place, Ogunyemi going by media reports, disclosed that Federal government was routinely informed of every development. He stated that; on February 7, 2019, a Memorandum of Action was signed between ASUU and FG. He averred that on January 9, 2020, the union met with President Buhari and the ministries where he asked the ministers to look into the issues raised, noting that there had been meetings with the Minister of Education and ASUU. He added that ASUU had written to the Minister of Labour informing him of the strike.

The most serious loss of the argument on the part of the FG that further blew fresh wind to the Minister’s position came through Ogunyemi’s submission that the 2019 agreement is the originating document and, till date, the agreement has not been met, adding that the union is at loggerheads with the government over the directive to members of ASUU to enroll in the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS) which the government made compulsory for all civil servants, because it is not in line with the best global practices and capped with capacity to further reduce the ranking of Nigerian universities.

What does all these mean to Festus Keyamo and the Federal Government? Can truthfulness and creativity be taught or cultivated consciously?

Whatever the true position may be, I believed and still believe that from the ASUU’s well chiseled positions, the first reaction that comes to mind is; what prevented the Federal Government from abiding with the terms of the Memorandum of Action entered with ASUU since 2019? Why has FG demonstrated a very high level of timidity in implementing such accord and similar ones in the past?

Even as these reactions from bewildered Nigerians continue, there are indeed facts that Keyamo and the President Muhammadu Buhari led Federal Government as a whole must commit to mind.

First is that globally, ‘the relationship between employers/employees is always strained, always headed toward conflict. It is a natural conflict built into the system. Unions do not strike on a whim or use the strike to show off their strength. They look at strikes as costly and disturbing, especially for workers and their families. Strikes are called as last resort. And any government that fails to manage this delicate relationship profitably or fails to develop a cordial relationship with the workers becomes an enemy of not just the workers but that of the open society and, such society will sooner than later find itself degenerate into chaos.

Secondly, a glance at the news headlines across the world points to the fact that getting the children off the streets and making quality and affordable education available for them is one of the cardinal steps that must be taken by government to achieve such a programme.. This is in addition to the fact that education is the bedrock of development of any nation, there is an accompanying belief that the streets are known for breeding all sorts of criminals and other social misfits who constitutes the real threats in the forms of armed robbers, drug addicts, prostitutes, drunkards and other social ills that gives a society bad name.

Thirdly is the new awareness that other nations, including educationally advantaged countries, are re-doubling their investments in, and finding traditional progressive solution to education. In fact, education has recently been discovered to have extremely valuable strategy for solving society’s problems. So why can’t Nigeria?

Very key, FG must find ways to creatively end perennial under funding of the public universities and other strategic failures which consequentially; impedes lecturers from carrying out scholarly researches, truncates academic calendar with strike actions by the Academic staff Union of Universities(ASUU),and the Nion Academic Staff of Universities(NASU), lace Nigerian universities with dilapidated and overstretched learning facilities with the universities producing graduates devoid of linkage with the manpower demand by the nation’s industrial sector.

Most importantly, even when it is evident that educational development, particularly at the tertiary level is not what government alone can shoulder as it is both capital intensive and requires productive collaboration. That fact notwithstanding, the FG must not lose sight to the effect that with sound educational institutions, a country is as good as made -as the institutions will turn out all rounded manpower, FG must recognize that not finding real and sustainable solution to strike actions and other rots in the academic system could be likened to a horse shaking off flies with its tails oblivious of the fact that as soon as it stops to flail its tail, the flies will come back more determined to snipe.

To catalyze this process, what I would expect from Keyamo as a former activist is not logic but to encourage the Federal Government see how they can comply with the United Nation Educational Scientific, and Cultural Organization [UNESCO] budgetary recommendation on education sector.

Utomi Jerome-Mario is the Programme Coordinator (Media and Public Policy), Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), A Lagos-Based Non Governmental Organization (NGO). He could be reached via Jeromeutomi@yahoo.com/08032725374.