Varsity Suggests  Ways to End Incessant ASUU Strikes

Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja

As part of efforts to put an end to  incessant strikes by  the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), a University don  and Deputy  Vice Chancellor, Federal University ,Lokoja ,Professor  Mohammed Suleiman Audu, has urged the federal government to look into all the critical grey areas causing  the  dispute between the ASUU and government.

Professor Audu gave this advice while speaking as guest speaker at the 50th birthday celebration of the Rector of Kogi State Polytechnic,Lokoja Dr. Salisu Ogbo Usman in Lokoja yesterday.

In a paper titled “The Federal Government of Nigeria and ASUU Imbroglio: Interogating the issues and the way forward,” he observed that it is apparent that university education in Nigeria is heading towards doldrums as a result of financial predicament.

“I wish therefore, to proffer a way forward from this bleak future of our education system.

 Financing university education in Nigeria is being matched with other competing sectors of the economy.

The concurrence status of education and its financing modes as contained in the constitution of Nigeria, 1999 as amended are being threatened by the nation’s financial precariousness. 

In the same vain, if Nigeria is to improve upon her economy with determination and sincerity of purpose, the current ASUU’s demands and funding requirements are germane and should be appraised by government given the various financing options to ensure sustainability in the public universities.

Professor Audu pointed that most developing nations, who in the last 10 years were spending between one  and  two per cent of their budgets on education now spend between four, five  and six  per cent. 

While those that spent less than 10 percent of their annual budgets in the last ten years are now spending between 15, 20 and 25 percent of their budget on education. Nigeria must be able to adopt the funding methods of these developing nations to save her public universities.

“Indeed in the last seven years of Buhari’s administration, the government has spent a total of N4.68 trillion on education. This is not up to UNESCO recommendation of up to 15-20 percent of annual budget to public education.  A breakdown of allocation to education in the last seven years of Buhari’s Administration shows:”In 2016, the Nigerian budget for education was 7.9 per cent. In 2017, it was 6.1 per cent. In 2018, it was 7.1 per cent. In 2019, it was 8.4 per cent. In 2020, it was 6.5 per cent. In 2021, it was 5.6 per cent. In 2022 it is 5.4 per cent. This is a clear indication that Nigeria education sector is struggling to survive. It is true that the reality of today’s public finance challenge is universal. It is also true that there are competing needs that government must address.

It is also true that allocation of efficiency of government resources has integrity question in Nigeria. In whichever way the thought goes, it is incumbent that certain essential sector like education must be given a priority.

“The time has come for government to seek appropriate means of recruitment of academics. The public universities are grossly bereft of qualified academics with requisite doctoral certificates. Many programs have been established over the years without corresponding manpower. The current practice of embargo on employment of academic staff in our universities should be stopped. University system is a peculiar institution that desires continuous exchange of ideas, research collaboration and peer review mechanism. It is not a civil service structure that is guided by public service rules that are imperialistic in thought and capitalistic in action.

“ Universities should be allowed the autonomy of recruiting its staff as the needs arise. The current system where universities make do with what is available in terms of manpower requirements, for teaching and research is not tenable in a healthy clime. 

“Most Nigerian universities today cannot boast of foreign scholars on their employment profiles. Nigerian universities are constrained to local contents only as it were.

“So, the concept of universality of scholarship and global visibility of Nigerian universities will continue to be an illusion if the present statuesque is maintained. Do we not worry that out of the 30,000 universities in the world today 1,799 were qualified for 2023 global ranking by the Times Higher Education (THE),  a recognized global ranking platform. University of Lagos came 478 in the ranking metrics.

“That is the only university in Nigeria that satisfied the calibrated ranking metrics of Teaching, Research, Knowledge transfer and international outlook. The top five are Oxford, Harvard, Cambridge, Stanford and MIT, “he noted

He stated that government should take a second look at the payment platform called IPPIS. As integrated as the platform appears, there seems to be gaps in terms of capturing the peculiarities of university teachers.

“While government has acceded to the obvious flaws inherent in the IPPIS payment platform, there should be concerted efforts to assimilate the grey areas as enunciated in the ASUU developed UTAS. After all, government herself recognised that all the payment platforms including IPPIS failed NITDA’s integrity test, but acknowledged ASUU’s UTAS as taking the lead in terms of credibility, acceptability and integrity. Government should be bold to harness all the available payment platforms and adopt a workable platform that will be in the interest of Nigeria,”  Audu posited.