Still On ASUU Strike

BAYO ADEYINKA

ASUU has been onstrike since March. That’s 8 months now. I’m pondering a few questions and I’m seeking honest answers without prejudice.

Are the academic staff paid while on this strike? Or their salaries are withheld by the Government? Why should State-owned universities join Federal universities on strike when they don’t have the same employer?

Why are they against the use of IPPIS that much when other public sector workers are on the payment platform? Should an employee insist on the type of platform an employer must use to pay his/her salary? Are state universities on IPPIS too? Are strikes effective nowadays?

Can there be alternative ways of resolving industrial disputes rather than strikes?

Is anyone thinking of the fate of students who have been home for 8 months? I know the pandemic and subsequent lockdown was part of this period but many private universities migrated to online learning.

Was there any State or Federal University that migrated to online teaching? Oops, they were on strike.

I had a conversation with an undergraduate of a state university this evening. She told me those who were admitted to private universities a year after she was admitted at her state university are having their convocations now. Yet, she is still in 400 Level.

She has another year to go as she’s studying a 5-year course. In her words, ‘ I’m planning to see if I’ll graduate next year or early 2022 instead of 2020’. Then she’ll go for the one-year mandatory youth service.

Is anyone considering the impact of these incessant strikes on the future of our youth? A young chap who secures admission at 20 in 2015 for a 5 year course is now 25 years old but still in 400L in 2020- with a year to go.

If he/she is lucky, he’ll graduate in 2021 and be mobilized for NYSC in 2022. By then, he’s 27 and way past entry-level age for many private sector organisations who have a hiring cap of 25 or 26 years for fresh hires.

He has become a latecomer in the race of life and now has to play catch up- not due to any fault of his.

I entered the university in 1992 at the age of 17 for a 5-year engineering course. That means I should have graduated in 1997. During my time, we had incessant strikes- the June 12 strike led by PENGASSAN, Abacha strike and many others.

I graduated in 1999 without having any extra year- 7 years after I was admitted for a 5-year course. Two years of my life were donated to ASUU strike. I guess I was lucky because I still graduated at 24 and was mobilized for NYSC almost immediately.

Many are not as fortunate. They still have to spend more than a year waiting for their call up for national service. Yet they are expected to compete with their peers from the private universities and foreign ones.

The only outlier here is Unilorin which broke away from mainstream ASUU for years now. Has that university and her graduates not fared better?

I think we should have a discussion around the effectiveness of strike actions especially for Universities. I don’t pretend to have the answers and I’m not playing any blame game. I’m just having a sincere introspection.