USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series Jonathan offers no plan to resolve ASUU crisis

"For a developing country like Nigeria, education is a national security issue - or should be -  and  hence should not be subject to the massive national disruptions that we experience.  Right of association - yes.  Collective bargaining - yes. Short-term local disruptions - very short term, very local - yes, but not eight-month strikes like we experienced in 2002/2003, or since July 2 as we are experiencing now.  That would be in the spirit of university autonomy, albeit not independence. Government should be sensitive to that, and unions should be sensitized to that too."

- Professor Bolaji Aluko

1. Government [should] commit the minimum investment of 26% of annual budget (as recommended by UNESCO)...and make sure the funds are judiciously used (Nigeria is a rich country; and I cannot see why we cannot invest, say, one in every three naira we earned towards educating our citizens);

 

2. ASUU [should] be de-centralized....that is, each campus has its own local union that addressed local issues (and solely focused on working with the varsity admin to set up and maintain a culture of academic excellence, ethics, academic integrity on campus; they, of course, will also promote/defend the interests of their local members, vis-à-vis interaction with their varsity administrators/management); government to ban nation-wide closure of varsities.

 

3. Varsity administrators [should] focus exclusively on two things: (a) setting up and maintaining a culture of academic excellence b) raising the funds they need to make their campuses financially viable (via endowments, donations, research grants, consultancy, appropriate fees etc.) [U]nless the systemic problems (government meeting its funding obligations and varsities allowed to charge competitive tuition fees), it is quite difficult for any VC to truly set a culture of academic excellence on his/her campus (this entails hiring and retaining quality academics; having well-equipped modern libraries, labs, ICT technologies; unlimited power and water supply... (T]he government now needs to convene a meeting of all stakeholders (ASUU, NUC, varsity administrators, industry folks, student organizations, labour unions, community leaders etc.) to essentially determine the kind of education system we want and map out strategies to fully implement it.
        
- Professor Abba Gumel  

 

Excellent points, Abba and Bolaji. Bolaji, a high quality education for its citizenry is a matter of national security for any and all nations, more so for a developing nation like Nigeria. What ASUU is doing is unsustainable and will kill off Nigeria. If we had a government with a head on her shoulders, now would be the time to kill off ASUU at the national level and protect her members. We have mistakes in power, and as you always say, Bolaji, we may be stuck.

Along the line of thought by Abba, Moses Ochonu and many others on this forum and elsewhere, the ongoing war on the poor children of Nigeria by ASUU and a clueless government can be halted by a forced decentralization to the each university of bargaining units. As a matter of extreme priority, there ought to be a Marshall Plan for rescuing education from decay in Nigeria. A massive infusion of money to each university for operating and capital expenses MUST be accomplished - and accompanied by the Federal government divesting itself of responsibility for running the universities. Give the funds to each university, make them autonomous and allow unions to flourish in each university, tailored to the unique needs to the university. Each university should be really truly autonomous in its hiring and firing decisions, etc.

It is criminally insane that each time ASUU sneezes the entire educational system in Nigeria catches malaria. This unitary system is a hold over from ancient days when we only had a handful of universities. ASUU has not changed any since its inception, certainly not in a structurally substantive sense. Instead it has imbibed a culture of entitlement, privilege and abuse just to get what it seems to need every other year. Infusion of funds should be accompanied by an infusion of competition among the institutions.

I wish I could say that all we are saying is going to make a difference. I think not. We have no leaders. We have executioners. My heart goes out to the children of the poor.

- Ikhide