ASUU Strike 2013 Four Months Commemoration

In three days, we commemorate the four month milestone of the ASUU 2013 strike action. This brings to a total of at least 8months an engineering, agriculture, and medical sciences students have spent at home from 2009-2013. I am one of such students and I am spiffed beyond measure. However, I won’t be completely emotive in what I am saying.

Today, I watched the ASUU president on AIT talking on the 2009 FG-ASUU Agreement, NEEDS assessment report and 2012 Memorandum of Understanding. The NEEDS assessment report and 2012 MoU were sponsored by the government. It is important to note that the 2009 agreement resulted in a 1.5trillion naira settlement spread over three years for 24 Federal Universities (according to Dr. Fagge). It also had what I would call an outrageous wage and allowance structure (see Table 2). This agreement which ASUU seeks to be enforced was signed after a four month strike in October, 2009. Strikes can be likened to hostage situations and I believe such an agreement can be invalidated by the law courts on count of signing under duress. I am not a student of law so I cannot give a legal term for it.

The ASUU president responded to an earlier claim by the Senate of incompetence on the part of the FG negotiators led by Gamaliel Onosode. He stated that intellectuals and Professors were on the FG team. From Page 2 of the agreement you can see the FG negotiation team is composed of a majority of Past Pro-Chancellors of Universities (look up the role & appointment of a Pro-Chancellor).

**Does this mean the government’s team didn’t know enough about the government’s financial status and policy to negotiate appropriately? **

I believe so. He claimed that the present President, who was Vice President at the time, endorsed the 2009 agreement. No proof of this was made public. In delegation of duties, a level of trust is placed on the delegates to do what is required of them. This can be likened to the role of an editor and a publishing administrator. The administrator would not read everything brought before him but would endorse what the editor brought. This, I believe, was the case with the 2009 agreement. My stand would change only on provision of evidence to the contrary by ASUU.

The 2012 MoU which I have tried to access to no avail from the ASUU website had a 1.3trillion naira settlement proposed for 61universities. Details on the implementation structure are unavailable as yet.

Now, to the crux of the matter. Students nationwide have had many situations where they were taught by corrupt, incompetent lecturers. I have had my fair share of them. ASUU as a body seeks to not just protect these incompetent lecturers but give them higher wages. Students, assess your lecturers and think, do they deserve the wages and allowances stated in the agreement? What checks does ASUU proffer in checking their incompetence and excesses? None! Yet they claim their strikes are to improve our standards of Education.

Furthermore, after losing 8 months to strikes, the FG would subject you to a compulsory year of NYSC. The time spent on strike is enough National Service/Slavery/Suffering in my opinion. I need to have a level of control on my life. The goals I set have been skewed and I daresay I have a right to compensation. To this end, I call for a change or an outright scrap of the NYSC. This would save the government unnecessary expenditure. You can join in this if you are interested, I believe you’ve paid enough time to say #NoNYSC or #BoycottNYSC.

Finally, I know that without students there would be no teachers. The original structure of universities had them run by students. The students yield a level of power, not just in numbers. The students can decide who is worthy to be their lecturer and who is not. Students should perform lecturer assessments and not ASUU/FG.

I hope this brings up more questions, and opens up a realistic conversation.

DISCLAIMER: This was written in the heat of the moment. Please pardon any errors. We can engage in the comments section.