How ASUU Strike affects Nigerian Students Studying in a Public University

Almost every academic year, students in public universities encounter the unending loop of disagreements between the two elephants that can bring academic activists to a halt.

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Most times these students are stuck between the conflict heralded by the two major determining powers of their academic journey: The Federal Governmen (FG)and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for quite a long time that some of them lose interest in academics.

The Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities are considered the major determinants of academic journey in Nigeria because they possess regulatory powers.

It can, however, be discovered that the ASUU strike, which is a due to series of unsettled conflicts between these powers has handicapped the future of most students by slowing down the (academic) journey of undergraduates in public-owned Nigerian universities.

Amidst this intermission that breeds uncertainty, the contention of whom to blame is not usually debated as both parties are at fault.

ASUU started operation in 1978 as a body of intellectuals in Nigeria’s federal and state universities.

However, beyond being an association, it has found an unofficial way to regulate education in Nigeria.

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Prior to 2009, ASUU embarked on strikes, therefore, to state that the 2009 FG-ASUU agreement was the nascent cause of the recurring strikes.

This is laughable and yet unbelievable that these two bodies will choose to continuously play snakes and ladders with their children's futures over conflicts that have vivid solutions.

But the question remains 'Even if FG settles debts owed to the body, wouldn’t they still find reasons to keep the 'strike cycle' running?"

The 2009 FG-ASUU agreement, a deceptive tool that lacks ingenuity is said to be the reason for the strike.

The agreement which is said to include: improved welfare, revitalisation of public universities and replacement of Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) with the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS) was breached, hence the recurrent strike actions.

In rational reasoning the terms of the agreement is not too much to demand as it aids the academic activities in the country, but it seems the Federal Government thinks otherwise.

I believe the main reason for the strike is the long due debt. However, where has this debt come from?

Is ASUU stacking up annual excuses to milk money from FG in the name of debts or is FG refusing to release allocations meant for the upkeep of the educational sector in Nigeria? Let's find out from the records below.

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In 2015, when the current President Muhammdu Buhari was elected, it met a provision stating that 10.7 percent of the national budget was earmarked for education by the former President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

This amount remains the highest in the last decade because ever since, it has faced a decline in allocation.

According to Premium Times, "as of the year 2016, the allocation was recorded to be N369. 6 billion or 7.9 percent of the total budget; N550. 5 billion in 2017 representing 7.4 percent of the total budget; N605.8 billion in 2018 or 7.04 percent; N620.5 billion or 7.05 percent in 2019 and N671. 07 billion or 6.7 percent in 2020".

Meanwhile, the range of allocation before 2015 was around 9 to 10 percent; “In 2011, education got N393.8 billion or 9.3 percent of the total budget; N468.3 billion or 9.86 per cent in 2012; N499.7 billion or 10.1 percent in 2013; N494.7 billion or 10.5 percent in 2014; and N484.2 billion or 10.7 percent in 2015.”

Under Buhari’s administration, the highest allocation to the education sector is 7.9 percent of the 2022 total budget of 16.39 trillion.

The 1.29 trillion allocated to the sector still remains behind the 15 to 20 percent the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recommended for developing countries; it is even less than 10 percent after a 50 percent increase of the 2021 allocation.

In 2021, out of the N13.08 trillion budget, only N742.5 billion or 5.68 percent was allocated to the sector remaining the lowest in the decade.

The above report shows that FG is to be held responsible for not fulfilling it's end of the agreement which led to the most recent strike action which commence in February 2022.

It is obvious that the allocation made to education is usually petty and wouldn’t cover the necessary things.

For example, if the allocation made to education is at least 15 per cent or more, there’ll only be less debts to cover and in fact, ASUU wouldn’t go on strike if they notice the Federal government’s effort.

Before the agreement, ASUU had gone on several strike actions. In 1999 for five months; 2001 for three months; 2002 for two weeks; 2003 for six months; 2005 for two weeks; 2006 for three days; 2007 for three months and 2008 for one week.

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In May 2008, it held two one-week “warning strikes” to press a range of demands, including an improved salary scheme and reinstatement of 49 lecturers who were dismissed many years earlier (in the University of Ilorin).

This proves there are certain times the union embark on strikes which is not debt oriented, however, the union has always employed strike action to express their grievances.

By rational assessment, it is unfair to not have salaries of these individuals paid.

As much as ASUU is a union, it is constituted of individuals who also need to earn income like any other regular individual.

However, ASUU’s persistent policy of strike is demeaning and destructive because students who have had a planned future would find it hard to move on with an uncertain calendar.

In fact, many Nigerian university undergraduates are leaving their schools to pursue a better education in privately owned universities and other countries of the world striping Nigeria of intellectuals needed to develop the country further.

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Youths have been left with little or no hope for what the future they once had planned out looks like anymore.

As if it's not enough that a lot of students find themselves studying courses totally abstract and different from what they had envisioned, the fact that the duration of the study takes longer than normal is something very demoralising.

It has caused a lot of youths who are students to tread on the wrong path. It has forced them to take decisions they wouldn't have considered on a norm.

This mentality most youths developed of school na scam is as a result of having to spend up to 7years in school for a 4-5 years course.

People now go to school these days to only acquire the certificate and we have ASUU to thank for instilling that ideaology into students because how possible is it that a student is told to sit at home for 6months+.

Sometimes a year and later to return to school with a fresh knowledge of everything he or she was taught prior to the strike?

There's this saying that if you leave your books for one day, it leaves you days longer than one day. This is the case here.

The government on its own part is not doing enough to alleviate issues.

For more than 10 years, the union’s debt hasn’t been sorted out despite their aggressive clamour even to the extent of staking students’ future.

Is it not safe to say the administrations since 2009 have been inconsiderate and uncaring about education in Nigeria?

I always heard about ASUU strike even before I finished my secondary school education and yet, the government is proving incapable to settle the demands of the union.

In a bid for a better education sector, ASUU should find other means to express its grievances instead of staking the future of students.

If only the Federal Government will sit up to its responsibilities of providing enough for the educational sector, then 90% of strike actions would be averted.

The sad truth is these allocations are squandered by those in power and will continue being squandered as long as corruption rules therefore causing an epileptic educational system where years of study are lost because of a problem that can be solved.