BY TOLU OGUNLESI
The Academic Staff
Union of Nigerian Universities has been in the news a lot, courtesy of a strike
action that has now entered its third month and shows no signs of ending any
time soon.
There have been lots of heated arguments and debates, displays of emotion, and name-calling. Perhaps, it is really a complicated matter, as some would like us to believe; perhaps not. I’ll leave that to the “experts”. What I want to do in the first part of this article is share my general thoughts about the matter.
One. Insanity, they say, is doing the same thing and expecting different results. I left the University of Ibadan in 2004, almost a decade ago, and it’s somewhat puzzling to see that ASUU’s tactics has not changed from what it was when the body kept me at home for nine months in 2001/2002. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. We all know the sort of government we have, so there are no points to be earned by ASUU for trying to scream louder than the rest of the country that we have a useless, dishonest government. We already know that; what next?
Two. It seems to me that ASUU, by prolonging the ongoing strike, is managing to accomplish only one thing: It is making the victims pay for the failings of the oppressors. ASUU’s qualms are with the Federal Government, but somehow, it’s the students – and their parents and guardians – who are at the receiving end of ASUU’s frustrations. Somehow, it doesn’t make sense to me. A strike action seems to me a rather lazy and unimaginative approach. I don’t see how ASUU expects those people that should be its key supporting constituency – students and parents/guardians – to take its side in this battle.
Three. ASUU seems to be trying to make us believe that the government is the sole problem, and that if we can just solve the funding and autonomy problems thrown at our universities by our admittedly irresponsible government, all will be well. ASUU seems keen on portraying itself as the helpless victim of an irresponsible government’s scheming. While that is to a large extent true, it’s not the entire story. The level of decay that we see in our universities could not have happened without the active participation of vice-chancellors and DVCs and university Senates and HODs, etc.
I believe that ASUU should be holding university administrators (and many of them are drawn from ASUU’s constituency) accountable to the same degree with which it is trying to hold the government accountable. For example, there’s no amount of funding that will tame sexual harassment – which is far more common in our universities than we like to admit – if our university administrators are themselves not keen to end it.
That many of our universities seem to be doing little or nothing to aggressively raise funds outside of “Abuja Allocation”, is a shame.
That many of our universities have been left behind in the internet age – disgraceful looking university websites, absence of on-campus Wi-Fi for staff and students, absence of automated transcript application systems, absence of computerised alumni lists – is less a funding problem than a vision and competence problem.
No amount of fresh funding will solve those kinds of issues. So, it seems to be that while fighting the government for more money and attention, ASUU also has a duty to fight itself and its members – the ones in administrative positions in the Ivory Towers – for greater demonstration of administrative competence and financial intelligence.
Without that, no amount in funding increases will make a difference.
Four. If ASUU’s intention is to fight for the salvation of the university system, it’s not doing a very good job of communicating this. ASUU seems to be doing a rather poor job of stating its case for the benefit of the general public. And in that failing, it is losing a lot of the potential public goodwill that could translate into heightened moral power. And it’s difficult to not assume that this strike action, like the innumerable ones before it, is yet another ill-considered, self-serving campaign, without any real regard for an overwhelming structural change in the way our universities are funded and run.
THIS WRITE-UP WAS SENT BY OUR CORRESPONDENT MAXWELL ADEYEMI ADELEYE
There have been lots of heated arguments and debates, displays of emotion, and name-calling. Perhaps, it is really a complicated matter, as some would like us to believe; perhaps not. I’ll leave that to the “experts”. What I want to do in the first part of this article is share my general thoughts about the matter.
One. Insanity, they say, is doing the same thing and expecting different results. I left the University of Ibadan in 2004, almost a decade ago, and it’s somewhat puzzling to see that ASUU’s tactics has not changed from what it was when the body kept me at home for nine months in 2001/2002. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. We all know the sort of government we have, so there are no points to be earned by ASUU for trying to scream louder than the rest of the country that we have a useless, dishonest government. We already know that; what next?
Two. It seems to me that ASUU, by prolonging the ongoing strike, is managing to accomplish only one thing: It is making the victims pay for the failings of the oppressors. ASUU’s qualms are with the Federal Government, but somehow, it’s the students – and their parents and guardians – who are at the receiving end of ASUU’s frustrations. Somehow, it doesn’t make sense to me. A strike action seems to me a rather lazy and unimaginative approach. I don’t see how ASUU expects those people that should be its key supporting constituency – students and parents/guardians – to take its side in this battle.
Three. ASUU seems to be trying to make us believe that the government is the sole problem, and that if we can just solve the funding and autonomy problems thrown at our universities by our admittedly irresponsible government, all will be well. ASUU seems keen on portraying itself as the helpless victim of an irresponsible government’s scheming. While that is to a large extent true, it’s not the entire story. The level of decay that we see in our universities could not have happened without the active participation of vice-chancellors and DVCs and university Senates and HODs, etc.
I believe that ASUU should be holding university administrators (and many of them are drawn from ASUU’s constituency) accountable to the same degree with which it is trying to hold the government accountable. For example, there’s no amount of funding that will tame sexual harassment – which is far more common in our universities than we like to admit – if our university administrators are themselves not keen to end it.
That many of our universities seem to be doing little or nothing to aggressively raise funds outside of “Abuja Allocation”, is a shame.
That many of our universities have been left behind in the internet age – disgraceful looking university websites, absence of on-campus Wi-Fi for staff and students, absence of automated transcript application systems, absence of computerised alumni lists – is less a funding problem than a vision and competence problem.
No amount of fresh funding will solve those kinds of issues. So, it seems to be that while fighting the government for more money and attention, ASUU also has a duty to fight itself and its members – the ones in administrative positions in the Ivory Towers – for greater demonstration of administrative competence and financial intelligence.
Without that, no amount in funding increases will make a difference.
Four. If ASUU’s intention is to fight for the salvation of the university system, it’s not doing a very good job of communicating this. ASUU seems to be doing a rather poor job of stating its case for the benefit of the general public. And in that failing, it is losing a lot of the potential public goodwill that could translate into heightened moral power. And it’s difficult to not assume that this strike action, like the innumerable ones before it, is yet another ill-considered, self-serving campaign, without any real regard for an overwhelming structural change in the way our universities are funded and run.
THIS WRITE-UP WAS SENT BY OUR CORRESPONDENT MAXWELL ADEYEMI ADELEYE
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