The threat to shut down public universities by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), and the Joint Action Committee of Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), is a multiple Whammy that all stakeholders must take necessary steps to avoid. We therefore urge the Labour unions to withdraw their threats, and the federal and state governments to dialogue with each union over its demands, to avoid another strike in our public tertiary institutions.

We note that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration had promised to do all that is necessary to avoid the rampant strike in our universities, and so far the government has substantially kept to its promise. The most recent action was the quick response of the Federal Government to the controversies surrounding the constitution of the universities’ governing councils. But, for state universities, ASUU alleges that they have ignored their demand to reconstitute their governing councils, and that forms one of the grievances of the union, for which they have threatened strike.

According to the Zonal Coordinator, ASUU, Benin Zone, Prof Monday Igbafen, “while the Federal Government has hastily reconstituted controversial governing councils of federal universities after 11 months of their illegal dissolution, some state governments have remained adamant to the contrary. The absence of governing councils in the universities has led to unthinkable aberrations, with the introduction of obnoxious policies that are antithetical to university culture.”

We urge the state governments to reconstitute the governing councils where they don’t exist.

On their own part, the NASU and SSANU, in a letter to the Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman, also threatened industrial action. The unions said: “The deafening silence of government and failure to pay the withheld salaries is creating a high level of agitation and contentions among our members in the universities and inter-university centres such that we can no longer guarantee industrial peace and harmony on university campuses”.

While we cannot hold court for the federal and state governments or the ASUU, NASU and SSANU over the threat to industrial peace, we appeal to the Labour unions, on behalf of the Nigerian Students, to sheath their swords. We note that the minister has met with the leadership of ASUU, led by Prof Emmanuel Osodoke, over the pending issues. The ASUU President confirmed that “we had discussions on all the issues that we previously presented to the government, and we have received some responses from the government officials”.

The minister should also dialogue with NASU and SSANU, to find solutions to the issues they have raised. But the unions in our universities must also understand that the answers to the many problems confronting the universities cannot be solved by resort to incessant strike. Strike should only be the last resort. The penchant to resort to strike to force the government to accept conditions it cannot fulfil in the long run, does not help any party in the dispute.

We urge all stakeholders to isolate the universities from incessant industrial actions, as they affect the quality of the graduates they produce. In a highly competitive global environment, our university products must be able to compete with their peers across the world. We cannot be producing mediocre graduates and hope to compete with the best across the world.

The university stakeholders know that it is ‘garbage in, garbage out’. If the students and teachers are at home instead of in the classes and at their research tables, they can only produce mediocre products. And this is not good for the country.

Update news