Another ASUU Strike--phew!

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

ASUU is at it again. It never disappoints. Every four years (2009, 2013, 2017), it embarks on its ritual of national strike, aka blackmail. It has declared what it calls a "total, comprehensive, and indefinite strike" effective Sunday, August 13, 2017. 

It is demanding--wait for it--some 1.1 trillion Naira, being the amount it claims to be outstanding from 1.3 trillion Naira that government promised it in a 2013 MoU. Yes, ASUU is asking for the release of 1.1 trillion Naira!!!! The national executive should be given a sanity test.

This laughable, ill-conceived action would be a comic outlet for a beleaguered populace were it not tragic for our students, their parents, and out nation.

Please go and read the so-called communique that announces the strike. It is riddled with elementary grammatical errors and other howlers that, together, provide accidental, unintended, and depressing evidence of what I've been arguing: that those who are teaching our young ones in public universities how to communicate in English in an Anglophone world need vigorous remedial linguistic interventions in their own lives. But they will probably wax defensive with the nonsense that grammar and communicative skills are not integral to knowledge. They may even put on their faux pan-Africanist hat and declare that English is the colonizer's language! Yeye dey smell.

Imagine! They''re are announcing a strike action but they would not even be bothered with basic grammatical and communicative niceties in authoring the primary public document announcing the said strike action. And yet they expect to be taken seriously. And yet some people expect graduates of our public universities to demonstrate skills of self-expression and analysis. 

How can ASUU activists--many of them professors--release such a grammatically challenged communique and expect not to be ridiculed as having unwittingly provided exhibit A of their unpreparedness for and non-commitment to the rigors of intellection and scholarship? Well, the ridicule has begun on Nigerian social media, and it is brutal.

We are in 2017 but you have an ASUU that is modeled on 1960s-1980s modes of workplace organizing, unwilling, unable, and too lazy to rethink its increasingly sterile and ineffective weapon of making demands: holding students, parents, and government to ransom for perennial handouts while refusing to hold itself accountable to the barest expectations of pedagogical and scholarly productivity.

And no. I won't even bother with the labor of posting the communique here. It is everywhere on Nigerian cyberspace, the latest documentary evidence of the acute dysfunction in our higher education system--and the latest point of departure for hilarious and mocking social media memes and commentaries. Our ASUU goons are being skewered in Nigerian cyberspace by vigilant, perceptive young citizens, victims of ASUU's long-running con. And I have no sympathy for them. They will stew in the self-ridiculing mess they've created.

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Moses:

You always like suspense...don't you?

Bolaji Aluko

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ASUU Strike Bulletin #1 For August 2017

14/08/2017  

Recall that ASUU had to go on a six-month strike between July and December 2013, and the ASUU strike was suspended when Government signed an MoU with the Union, after a 13-hour meeting with the then President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Of all the items contained in the MoU, only N200 billion, out of the N1.3 Trillion PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES REVITALIZATION (Needs Assessment) fund was released.

The union also embarked on a one week warning strike in November 2016 to press for the implementation of 2013 MoU. However government did not implement the understanding reach between the union and Federal Government base on the intervention by the leadership of Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“The union has also met with the 2009 Agreement Implementation Monitoring Committee, IMC, and had written several letters press releases and communiqués on the outstanding issues to no avail.

“The National Executive Council, NEC, of ASUU then met at the University of Abuja on August 12 2017 to consider the result of a referendum from all branches in a bid to ascertain ways of convincing government to implement outstanding aspects of the 2009 and the MoU of 2013”.

The Key Outstanding Issues Include:

i) Payment of fractions / non-payment of salaries.

ii) Non-payment of Earned Academic Allowance (EAA)

iii) Non-Release of operational licence of NUPEMCO

iv) Non-implementation of the 2014 Pensions Reform Act with respect to retired Professors and their salaries.

v) Removal of University Staff Schools from funding by Government.

vi) Funds for revitalization of public universities (implementation of Needs Assessment Report).

vii) Poor funding of State Universities, and proliferation of universities by their visitors.

 

The result of the referendum showed that an overwhelming majority of the branches of our Union voted in favour of the strike.

In the light of the foregoing, and having exhausted all avenues to get Government to implement the 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement, and the 2013 MoU as well as related demands, resolved to embark on a total, comprehensive and indefinite strike action commencing Sunday, 13th August 2017.

What To During This ASUU Strike:

i) Do not teach any course whatsoever.

ii) Do not attend any statutory meeting: Departmental/Faculty, Board, Senate, Congregation or Council etc.

iii) Do not conduct or supervise any examination at any level.

iv) Do not engage in supervision of projects or theses at any level.

v) Do not force any academic to teach, supervise projects or theses at any level, or attend meetings Department, Faculties, Senate, Congregation, Council etc during the ASUU strike.

vi) The ONLY source of information on the strike action is your Branch Chairperson.

 

Remain Resolute!

United We Bargain, Divided We Beg!!

 

Biodun Ogunyemi
President
On behalf of the ASUU National Strike Coordinating Committee
August 12th, 2017.

-=======================

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Felix 'Sanjo OLATUNJI]

Good morning, dear Prof. The attention of one of our POs had been drawn to those errors in the bulletin. Thanks a lot. But on other comments concerning the relevance of the strike, individuals have the right to judge but one cannot feel the pains unless such individuals are involved. Thank you, Sir.

> --
> Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

> To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
> To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com

> Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
> Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Chidi Anthony Opara]

Moses,
Your reaction here is more dramatic than Professorial.

CAO.

[Chidi Anthony Opara]

Let us not vilify the government and/or ASUU, let us all intervene to abort the impasse.

CAO.

[Shola Adenekan]

I'm always with Moses on most issues. And again, I'm with him on this.  I used to refrain from commenting on ASUU's affairs simply because people always get angry. Now, agitation over of academic salary is universal. In my own department at University of Bremen, some of my colleagues (almost 50 percent) earn less than 1500 Euros per month. Out of this 1500, they have to pay rent of about 700 Euros and then food and money for children's school fees, if they have kids going to Kita. In Britain, some of my academic friends working as Teaching Fellows earn about the same after tax, and they have similar commitments as my German colleagues. Academics deserve good pay but ASUU needs to rethink its priorities, given the state of higher education in Nigeria.

ASUU members are on strike again. No, they are not going on strike because of crowded classrooms, not because their students are living in dirty and overcrowded hostels, not even because some non-academic staff members earn as little as 20,000 Naira per month. I mean, how do you survive on 20,000 Naira in a month? Nigerian university lecturers are on strike because they want more money.  ASUU as a union should stop being selfish and should be fighting for world-class teaching facilities, better living conditions for students and better salary for non-academic staff. Some ASUU members - professors in managerial positions - are worse than politicians: money meant for improvements on many university campuses is being stolen by people who should be speaking truth to power.

Ire o!

Shola

On 15 August 2017 at 09:11, Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Let us not vilify the government and/or ASUU, let us all intervene to abort the impasse.

CAO.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Regards,

Dr. Shola Adenekan

African Literature and Cultures

University of Bremen

Editor/Publisher:
The New Black Magazine - http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com

[Kenneth Harrow]

It is the same story in the u.s., as everyone knows. The salaries paid to faculty who are not tenure track, temp faculty, are not only scandalously low, but often without benefits.

ken

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

har...@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Adeshina Afolayan]

"ASUU members are on strike again. No, they are not going on strike because of crowded classrooms, not because their students are living in dirty and overcrowded hostels, not even because some non-academic staff members earn as little as 20,000 Naira per month. I mean, how do you survive on 20,000 Naira in a month? Nigerian university lecturers are on strike because they want more money.  ASUU as a union should stop being selfish and should be fighting for world-class teaching facilities, better living conditions for students and better salary for non-academic staff. Some ASUU members - professors in managerial positions - are worse than politicians: money meant for improvements on many university campuses is being stolen by people who should be speaking truth to power." Shola Adenekan

This has always been the core of my intervention on this irritating ad depressing ASUU issue. The way it is constituted, ASUU is not and cannot be concerned with the state of the Nigerian universities or with higher education. This is because sanitizing higher education will also mean going against some heinous practices of its members. I am not sure ASUU is ready to take the necessary steps. In the final analysis, ASUU is concerned more about its members and their dues and welfare than it is about the universities and the students. If ASUU fails to resolve this inner contradiction in its own rhetoric, then it will continue to be the most vilified trade union in Nigeria. I doubt we can even say there is a contradiction sef. ASUU has always protected its own. C'est fini. 

I have no problem with a trade union whose modus operandi, universally, is to fight for the welfare of its members. That's what trade unions do. It becomes complicated with a trade union fighting for the welfare of lecturers and making the unconscionable claim that it is also fighting for the betterment of higher education while blatantly refusing to take actions that should lead to the sanitization of the universities. I will not bore us here with the horror of academic practices in Nigerian universities--lecturers refusing to go to classes, sex predation, grades-for-money, and other unprofessional practices which ASUU has refused to stand against. 

As per rethinking its outdated methodology of strike as the only option in industrial action, that is one scandal that is depressing. Too depressing for contemplation. It is so bad that even when we can identify some worthy cause in the list of demands, the strike option neutralizes everything and reduces them to money money money. In the Nigerian consciousness, ASUU equals blatant egoism/egotism.

This is all so wearisome.  

  

 

Adeshina Afolayan, PhD
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan

+23480-3928-8429

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Gbolahan Gbadamosi]

The problems with ASUU and their weapon of strike as a solution to the challenges of higher education in Nigeria is a mystery to me personally. One may try but will probably never be able to make all the points that one needs to and want to in any one write up. For me it oscillates from pity and empathy to anger and frustration.

Common sense will suggest that if you are fighting a cause using a style and weapon for so long and you keep losing that fight, the sensible thing to do is to attempt an alternative strategy or weapon. Periodic World Cup Strikes (every 4 years), and particularly this penchant for “indefinite strike” has never yielded positive results for the fundamental change in higher education which ASUU claims to advocate. Perhaps one of the biggest ASUU strikes in recent memory is the 1992 one which lasted about 7 months! If indefinite strikes can make ASUU’s request materialise that is the one that should have done so and solve ALL problems in higher education in Nigeria. At the end of every strike, ASUU members get some individual palliatives which help their personal purse and they immediately go back to work. Government has seen through this ASUU trick of “we are fighting to better higher education in Nigeria”. Government negotiators have come to realise that all they have to do is make some financial concession in terms of salaries and allowances. Where is that one strike in the history of ASUU strikes that have insisted this time it is not about us as individuals, this is one for the system? None!

One would, therefore, imagine that if these strikes have not changed the system, which they make us believe they clamour to change, ASUU would change strategy and try something else! When ASUU critics then claim it is all a selfish strike I wonder why they get agitated and cry foul.

But then I digress. My personal intervention for this particular strike is to stay on the side of the larger system (higher education) and perhaps, the students and their parents. I argue that it is government’s fault that ASUU has always got away with long strikes. I have made out this call on this forum before. We have an existing law of no work, no pay. Government needs to implement our laws for the first time since they usually don’t. Academic staff strike is not a monopoly of ASUU, academics strike all over the world. Unions generally strike for defined periods or time – a couple of days at a time. Government needs to pull this plug on ASUU strikes. A 6-7 months strike without pay is not sustainable by members unless everybody in the system survives on corrupt money. ASUU’s roof is leaking, they need to fix it. Those who have been long in Nigeria tertiary education system will remember that in the past the general public usually get involved in ASUU’s strike and often support them. Nowadays ASUU is lonely, all alone almost all the time. The Yorubas have an interesting way of summarising this scenario: “Omo yi ma pa mi, omo yi ma pa mi.” Nowadays, it is simply, “Omo yi ma pa ara e” for ASUU. Literally: a naughty child with a penchant for behaving badly who has been persistently cautioned by parents at some point is just left alone, ignored! To the Nigerian public the message I seem to get is that ASUU is on its own – alone!

I do not want to be misunderstood as advocating for government with my stance. It is clear that we do not have good governance in Nigeria. Most of our governments, past and present, have no clear policy on higher education. What government is doing or not doing in higher education is a whole different debate for me. But then ASUU is registered as a trade union not a political party the last time I checked. 

Gbolahan Gbadamosi

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Chidi,

Exactly. I was shooting for the dramatic. Your statement indicates that I succeeded. Who has time to be professional--whatever that means--when ASUU is busy destroying the futures of our young ones and making itself an obstacle to much needed reform in the university sector. 

ASUU is on an ego trip as usual. We can predict the end of this strike from the beginning. The pattern is discernibly familiar. Every new ASUU president has to earn his stripes as a commander in ASUU's quadrennial striking ritual. How will the new president have a legacy without leading his colleagues into a long, punishing strike to blackmail the nation?

After a few months of pain for students and their parents, the restless students and parents will put pressure on government, thought leaders, traditional rulers, and religious figures. Several delegations of these prominent citizens will visit the national executive of ASUU and plead with them to enter into a new round of negotiations with the government. The delegations will shower copious flattery on the ASUU folks, telling them that they are indispensable to the nation, that our nation would go to waste without them, etc. 

Their fragile, insecure egos thoroughly massaged, the ASUU honchos will declare that they are willing to negotiate. A government delegation will then meet and dine the ASUU executive and pour on more flattery and pretend genuflection to the gods of knowledge, a ritualized exercise in patronage. The government officials, knowing the game and playing to the elaborate script, will throw some financial benefits at the ASUU officials, who at this time will be feeling the heat from an unsympathetic and increasingly hostile public and looking for a face saving resolution to the strike. ASUU will jump at the offer to pay some "outstanding allowances," grateful that they can save face with the public by pointing to something they gained for wasting everyone's time and subjecting their students and parents to untold anguish. 

To further save face with their members and a public disdainful of their antics, the ASUU negotiators will wrangle some unrealistic, fantastical promises from their government interlocutors about future releases of billions or trillions of Naira to fund projects and pay more so-called "earned allowances." Both sides know that these promises are not worth the paper they are printed on, but that is part of the charade. It is also part of the process of setting up the next strike for the next president of ASUU. For when he takes over, he will reach for the MoU signed to end the 2017 strike since he is too lazy to initiative new, progressive programs of his own. He will of course "discover" that the government has not fulfilled its promises regarding the MoU of 2017. There will be several choreographed warning strikes until the four year mark is reached in 2021. ASUU will then declare another strike to shake down the government for more money. 

And on and on it will go until some common sense prevails in ASUU's ranks, until some neutrals succeed in getting them out of their juvenile aluta bubble to see that they have lost all public sympathy and empathy and are now the punchline of jokes and ridicule. Until someone succeeds in getting the ASUU people to eschew their tone-deaf elitism and see how their actions hurt students, parents, and the nation. Until someone convinces them to actually begin to do their jobs and earn all the monies they already get from government. Until someone succeeds in making them accept the value of responsibility, accountability, and self-critique. Until they realize that doing the same thing over and over again and getting a similar outcome is the very definition of stupidity. Until they somehow realize that the jig is up with their propaganda of fighting to save university education, a hollow, deceptive rhetoric that has now run its course, and that no longer has any purchase with students, parents, and the public. Only then will this nonsense stop.

These guys are professional shakedown artists. They have no care for students, for standards, for their jobs, and for higher education. 

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Gbolahan,

Thanks for standing courageously against the tyranny of this organizationally outdated academic union. It takes courage to do so. It takes courage to go against the grain of the ASUU orthodoxy. On Facebook, where a similar discussion is going on, a few ASUU members have turned to their favorite tactic of silencing critics, especially ones in the diaspora. One rhetorically asked Shola Adenekan why there would be many Nigerian academics in the diaspora if the pay was good at home. That is pure emotional blackmail. Where do you begin with such an ignorant statement of contrast? Do you tell this colleague that many Nigerian academics in the diaspora are actually relocating to Nigeria? Do you tell them that many are trapped abroad by their family obligations and existential and logistical entanglements? Do you tell them that the standard of living of the average Nigerian professor is higher than that of the typical Nigerian academic in North America (we spend the money where we make it) regardless of appearances to the contrary and popular belief? Do you tell them that in North America you actually have to do the work for which you're paid instead of staying away from class, neglecting your mentoring, supervisory, and other duties, and shunning research? Do you tell them that in North America you are not paid separate allowances for supervising graduate work, for proctoring (invigilating) an exam, for sitting in departmental or other institutional meetings (sitting allowance), and for other routine jobs of an academic? This is the kind of uninformed contrast that tends to fuel the unreasonably delusional demands of ASUU, and the tendency of its members to routinely bemoan their condition as a way of currying undeserved pity and as a tactic of defense and silencing.

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Bolaji,

 I like the reference to suspense, a fitting motion picture metaphor. Indeed this a familiar movie we tend to see every four or five years. The plot is always the same, as is the outcome, and encore. That's how unimaginative ASUU is. They don't even vary their rhetoric, but it could also be that they've exhausted the deceptive talking points in their rhetorical toolbox. When you make unreasonable, insensitive, and selfish demands on a regular basis without demonstrating any appreciation for the big picture challenges of higher education and without a willingness to hold yourself accountable as a critical player in the higher education sector, what you deserve is the derision and hostile reception that have trailed the latest strike announcement. Sad, as the one who shall not be named likes to say.

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Adeshina,

Thanks as usual for your courage. From the day we began discussing ASUU and their antics on this forum, you've been a voice of reason and courageous truth-telling. Your current post builds on that personal tradition. In your succinct and eloquent post, you've captured what I've been struggling to say in longwinded, rambling posts for several years. I wish I had my way with words like you. 

When Toyin Adepoju was excitedly asking home-based colleagues to come and defend themselves and to come and offer their own perspectives on the horrors being perpetrated on students and parents by many Nigeria-based academics, I laughed, knowing that if our conscientious Nigeria-based colleagues were to intervene in the conversation, they may send Toyin into a deep bout of depression and disillusionment. Be careful what you wish for is a popular saying. Where is Toyin Adepoju to challenge the perspective of Adeshina, who teaches at UI and cannot be cheaply attacked, as he has attacked me, as lacking an insider experiential perspective.

We have a scandal and a crisis on our hands but some people only care about protecting feelings and puny egos.

ASUU has long overplayed its hand. It has lost all credibility. It has lost public support. Students now consider ASUU a byword for "enemy" and "pampered, egotistical brutes." This could all have been avoided if ASUU had been humble enough to engage in a little bit of introspection and self-examination.

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Moses:

Yes,  but there is enough blame to go around.

After two ASUU proscriptions (1988, 1992) , five Agreements and MOUs signed by Government with ASUU (1992, 1999, 2001, 2009 and 2013), and ten strikes (of varying lengths) by ASUU - the current one being the eleventh:

   (1)  Government should not sign Agreements with CLAUSES that it is unwilling, unable or incapable of fulfiling; 

   (2)  ASUU should not get/force Government to sign such clauses; 

   (3)  ASUU should not go on these episodic strikes, knowing that each new strike adds on NEW DEMANDS from the earlier unfulfilled Agreements, making it EVEN HARDER to fulfil the new agreements.

   (4) everyone should realize that there are now 40 Federal Universities, 44 State Universities, and 69 Private Universities in Nigeria  - in addition to Ghanaian and other neighboring-country universities -  so both Staff and Students now have choices if they are really dissatisfied with their present conditions.

Every one needs a re-set, a re-boot - for the sake of the country.

Bolaji Aluko

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

A CHRONOLGICAL HISTORY OF ASUU ACTIVITIES*

(Adapted from Wikipedia, ASUU website and other sources by NigerianMuse.com (2017))

Pre-Military Era

 

1965 - Nigerian Association of University Teachers formed 

 

Second Republic Era

 

1978 – Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) formed

 

Military era Association strikes

 

1988 -  National Strike to obtain fair wages and university autonomy.  

7 August 1988 - ASUU proscribed on and all its property seized.

1990 – proscription lifted

1991 – negotiations with IBB government; suspended May 30, 1991

May 14, 1992 – one-week strike

July 20, 1992 – strike resumed

23 August 1992  – ASUU proscribed again

3 September 1992 -  agreement reached that met several of the union's demands including the right of workers to collective bargaining and the need for periodic review of the funding needs of the universities.

1994  - strike

1996 – strike protesting the dismissal of staff by the Sani Abacha military regime. Duration:  six months

 May 25, 1999 – government signed an Agreement with ASUU intended to be an interim palliative measure to enhance the income of academics, without prejudice to a comprehensive negotiation at a future date

 

Civilian era strikes

.

October 26, 1999 – Asiodu government negotiating committee formed

July 31, 2000 – Ayo Banjo government negotiating committee formed, with Negotiations beginning August 28, 2000

June 30 2001 Agreement – not fully implemented

December 29, 2001 – strike begins

June 2003 – strike suspended

2007 -  strike for three months

May 2008, -  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

June 2009, an indefinite strike   Duration: three months

October 2009 - ASUU and other staff unions signed an MOU with the government and called off the industrial action (The 2009 Agreements)

 

1 July 2013 -   strike which lasted 5 months and 15 days was called off on 16 December 2013 with ASUU signing 2013 MOU with Government . Claims made by ASUU in regards to the strike were centered largely on funding and revitalization of Nigerian public universities as well as a certain earned allowance which it claims to be in an arrears of 92 billion naira.  

 

November 2016 – one-week warning strike to press for implementation of 2013 MOU

 

August 13, 2017 – indefinite strike declared

* NM will appreciate firm dates being provided were missing

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Jibrin Ibrahim]

Conversation With My ASUU Comrades: Let’s Get Real   Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy Column, Daily Trust 13th October 2013   This is a difficult conversation for me given my history of active engagement in ASUU, especially during its formative years. My comments might be dismissed as the words of an ASUU renegade. To attempt to prevent this this type of response, let me start with my CV. As a young lecturer in Ahmadu Bello University in 1980, I was already in the progressive caucus when Biodun Jeyifo, (BJ everybody calls him), and Uzodinma Nwala, newly elected pioneer President and Secretary of ASUU, stormed our Samaru campus to bring the good news. The transformation has occurred they proclaimed, by the law of 1978, the Nigerian Association of University Teachers, then existing in the five pioneer universities was dead and from its grave has emerged the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), a trade union. We were in exquisite excitement as BJ explained to us that intellectuals can now join the working class struggle as trade unionists and bring our intellectual support to the larger struggle to improve the educational system, but even more important, make our contribution to creating a progressive Nigeria.   I was in the team that dashed off to the Department of Electrical Engineering to inform Buba Bajoga, the last head of the association that a new regime has arrived. We organised elections and George Kwanashie and Raufu Mustapha emerged as the first leadership of ASUU in ABU, the bedrock of campus radicalism in Nigeria. We immediately engaged in organising the first ASUU strike and in 1982, I spent months in the Ibadan headquarters providing support for the ASUU negotiating team. In 1983, I became the secretary of ASUU in ABU with Yahaya Abdullahi as Chairman and the struggle continued. That was the year I defended my masters thesis. My examiner, the late Claude Ake commended me on a good thesis but told me off for spending five years writing a mere masters thesis. I was upset with him and mumbled that I had been spending all my time with the ASUU struggle and had little time for the thesis and as a comrade; he should understand the urgency of the ASUU struggle. He offered me an advice, get your PhD he told me, and you will be surprised that the struggle will still be there waiting, and you will be better equipped for it.   My Head of Department, Ibrahim Gambari, looked at me and smiled. Shortly thereafter, Gambari called me and gave me a scholarship letter to pack my bags and go to France for postgraduate studies. I told him bluntly that I was not going because the ASUU struggle had reached a critical stage and ABU was its cerebral base so I had to stay and continue my coordination role. Secretly in my mind, I was afraid of going to France because Mrs Waldron, my French teacher in Barewa College had sent me out of her class on the basis that I was incapable of learning French. God bless Gambari, he just told me I must go or he will sack me, I succumbed to the threat. The Caucus was of course very upset with me for jumping ship at a time in which we believed we were successfully cornering President Shagari to grant all our demands and finally create a university system with full autonomy and sufficient resources. My response was that the reason we operated in a caucus was not to depend on an individual.   I went to France, successfully learnt French and started the postgraduate programme but came back two years later to find out we were exactly where we were before my departure. A year later, I went back to France to finish the doctoral programme and returned to find the ASUU struggles was still where I had left it. The lesson for me is that our history teaches us that there is no formula for a final resolution of the ASUU struggle.   Through the 1990s, I continued with the ASUU struggles but with a more realistic vision that we need to have a more incremental approach to the struggle until I was forced out of the university system. Subsequently, as Country Director of Global Rights, an organisation engaged in facilitating legislative advocacy, I contacted the ASUU caucus both during the three-month old 2001 and six-months old 2003 ASUU strike that they should focus on the National Assembly and lobby them for sufficient funding rather than focus on President Obasanjo. They dismissed me as a renegade trying to dissipate their energies. We will force Obasanjo to deliver and eventually, the deal was signed, AND OF COURSE NOT IMPLEMENTED. We are still there today.   ASUU is strong. It has the capacity to carry out long strikes, keep students at home and get them to pressurise their parents to pressurise the President to sign a deal. Presidents through the ages have all been forced to sign, but signing is the simple issue, implementation has always been the bane of policies in Nigeria. ASUU is weak because its too focused on grandiose victory that often yields little in real results. The fact of the matter is that the Nigerian Government is irresponsible and never fully implements deals it signs. The struggle for a responsive and accountable government is a much larger one and goes far beyond the ASUU struggle. ASUU must go into introspection and learn what every trade unionist knows, gains in the struggle are never total, they are always incremental.   The key question in the faceoff is finance and financial matters are addressed in budgets. The President proposes budget estimates but our Constitution gives power to the National Assembly to make the budget. Let’s reflect on Nigeria’s budgets. Budgets are laws, which our Constitution says must be fully implemented by all governmental agencies. We know however that since 1999, no budget of any government ministry, department or agency (MDA) has ever been fully implemented. The Federal Universities are government agencies and their expectations that the agreement they have, which is not even a law, must be fully implemented, is correct in principle but does not reflect current practices. It is despicable that Government signs without any intention of full implementation but we need to start asking ourselves whether strikes will change the course of Government business.    In 2004, President Obasanjo introduced a new fiscal policy based on what is called the “oil price rule”. Each year, the government sets a pre-determined price for petroleum at a level that would be certainly lower than the market price. The government then saves the difference between the pre-determined price and the actual price to build foreign reserves and create confidence in the economy. Based on this criterion of fiscal prudence, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) authorised its Policy Support Instrument (PSI) for Nigeria in October 2005. The agreement with the IMF on fiscal policy was done surreptitiously and Parliament was not consulted. The Obasanjo regime therefore made commitments on significant cuts to public expenditure without the accord of the Nigerian people. This treacherous act of the regime in cutting funds for social expenditure is celebrated in many IMF and World Bank reports.   It is the on-going policy that no appropriation shall be fully disbursed and implemented. President Goodluck Jonathan brought back a certain Ngozi Okonjo Iweala to continue this policy. The fact of the matter is that the macro-economic policy framework of the Presidency is to continue to curb investment in the social sector, in particular, on education and health. Progressives must engage this struggle with zeal and on a wider front but its resolution cannot be the basis of re-opening our universities.   The prognosis of the ASUU struggle is clear, Government will eventually be forced to commit to full implementation, ASUU will go back to work and receive arrears for the months of work not done and Government will once again renege at the level of full implementation. It will take ASUU two more years of massive mobilisation to get lecturers back on strike and the cycle continues. ASUU must start a conversation about a profound change in tactics. More minimalist and attainable targets must be set and advocacy must be broadened to address the National Assembly and other institutions. My ASUU comrades, the struggle is our life but this does not mean that we cannot get real. Did BJ not tell us in 1980 that there are two struggles, one for the university system and another for a progressive Nigeria?     Conversation with my ASUU Comrades – II   Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy Column, Daily Trust, 21st October 2013   In my column last week, I called for a broader strategy by ASUU including taking the National Assembly more seriously as an Institution that can help meet some of their demands. In his response, Mohammed Husain wrote on my Facebook wall that: "Had the ANC, followed such an advice to follow through its case in South African parliament; apartheid would still be firmly in place. So let us eagerly await the writer's strategy to achieve ASUUs noble objectives through the oil baron cabal executive and Farouk Lawal archetypal corrupt-ridden parliament! Incredibly amazing how this brilliant writer's analysis is made in a vacuum of the decaying character of the state at this point in time. A 'conversation' for piece meal concessions, he says. I say *lols* to that." This type of attitude is unhelpful because all governmental institutions are corrupt so why try to negotiate with the Presidency, are they cleaner. To come back to his example, the South African transition occurred precisely because there was a leadership that was ready to negotiate and compromise rather than fight it to the end, Nelson Mandela and Frederik de Klerk.   The attitude of the Presidency is also unhelpful because they are now engaged in a concerted effort to stampede ASUU to surrender. The rent a crowd show in which women were paid to parade as market women demonstrating against ASUU is despicable and can only worsen the faceoff. In addition, the leadership of ASUU is being harassed by security agencies. The fact of the matter is that ASUU is suffering from reputational erosion and government is trying to ride on that to give the organisation a fatal blow. Precisely because of this delicate situation, ASUU needs to think out side its “normal” box that the answer is always an interminable strike. ASUU must start addressing the root causes of its reputational decline.   Over the past two decades, the compulsory sale of handouts to students by some lecturers and the sexual harassment of female students have become constant topics for musical lyrics and beer parlour jokes. More importantly, there is a significant part of university professors whose promotion has been on the basis of self publication rather than peer review and many professors in Nigerian universities today have not got a single peer reviewed journal publication in their CV. This means that we have a growing percentage of fake professors in our universities who cannot stand up and get respect among their peers in the international context. ASUU demands to receive remuneration of international standards without a struggle to ensure that the quality of their members is also international can only lead to increased reputational erosion.   I followed with keen interest the debate spearheaded by Okey Ideduru on Toyin Falola’s “USA-Africa Dialogue listserve. During his sabbatical in Nigeria, he had participated in six NUC accreditation panels and was shocked to find out that universities routinely recruit mercenary professors uniquely for the accreditation exercise. Okey had started the debated by challenging the common and pervasive but fraudulent practices that the NUC’s Quality Assurance Department has to contend with is the use of “academic mercenaries” by universities during accreditation exercises. Programmes that have been staffed for 3-4 years by an army of full and part-time assistant lecturers would suddenly list full-time and/or part-time associate professors/readers and full professors in order to meet the NUC staffing mix requirements. The worst culprits he says are the private religious universities. Okey also challenged the propriety of the common practice of demanding upfront monetary payment from prospective authors by supposedly peer-reviewed academic journals. He expressed his surprise at the virtual absence of policies or discussions about quality assurance regarding scholarship outputs in the university system. According to him most of the scholars he met had never heard of Google Scholar, and its citation counts for every published journal article, including those published IN NIGERIA, let alone other (sometimes controversial) measures of quality, such as Web of Science/Word of Learning and Pearson’s annual reports of “Impact Factor” of journals and academic publishers.   Most Nigerian scholars therefore do not live in the world of the international academy where peer review matters and are the basis of assessment. Of course Nigerian universities still have some scholars that are respected internationally but they are now a tiny minority. As Okey put it “it should worry us that an academic that boasts 50-100 “professional papers” cannot equally boast of ONE citation count on Google Scholar! … More than than 90 percent of the CVs I reviewed listed as publication outlets “Volume 1, Number 1” or Departmental journals or self-published books or books whose publishers’ names and addresses are more innocuous and lesser known than the remotest streets in Ajegunle, Lagos or Ekeonunwa Street, Owerri. I concede that “writing for themselves” is not unique to Nigeria, but most scholars elsewhere don’t engage in this kind of massive inflation of output that is clearly indefensible.”   Should the Nigerian Government decide today to grant all the financial demands of ASUU, our universities will continue to be outside to top 1000 universities in the world because of the internal rot that has destroyed them from within. ASUU has to get real and start addressing these internal problems so that we will know that the struggle is not just about money but also about having real universities in the country. There has been an incredible expansion of universities without a commensurate expansion of quality staff. We have therefore been expanding mediocrity in the university system. Most universities have a majority of junior faculty as staff and most of the few senior faculties are of doubtful quality. This means that there is no academic leadership. One of the revelations in Okey Iheduru’s write up is about a household name in Political Science who has become notorious for serving as SUPERVISOR to several PhD candidates in more than SIX universities at the same time! His mass-produced protégés have the appellation of “Pure Water PhDs.” ASUU must become more comprehensive in its struggle and attack not only the neglect by government but also the rot within the university system. It must place on its agenda the importance of rigorous external review of portfolios for promotion to professorships. It must challenge its members who moonlight simultaneously in numerous universities where everybody knows they are paid to satisfy NUC and not to perform.  ASUU must challenge many of its members who award marks to their students without reading the scripts because they have too many to mark or do not give a damn. My ASUU comrades can only demand for justice if they come to equity with clean hands. We all know that our development objectives cannot be met without building a solid educational infrastructure for the country. To do this however requires serious internal reform. One aspect of the ASUU struggle that was won was that of academic freedom. The universities now appoint the Vice Chancellors without external interference from the Presidency. All my conversations with my comrades in the universities however tell me that the expectation that the quality of academic leadership will improve with the application of this principle has proved completely false. Professors with dubious academic qualifications have been winning the struggle to be vice chancellors. There is massive evidence of systematic plagiarism and as more academic leadership falls to the category of those with doubtful credentials, the real battle to save the universities is lost from within. I completely agree with ASUU that the Nigerian State must significantly increase its support to higher education. However, this support can only bear fruit if ASUU itself, as the major player within the system, broadens its struggle to address issues of quality and standards within the system. Interminable strikes cannot in and of themselves constitute the solution. Indeed, ASUU stands the risk of deepening its reputational erosion and singing the dirge song of the university system in tandem with the Presidency.

Ire

 

Professor Jibrin Ibrahim

Senior Fellow

Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja

Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17

On 15 August 2017 at 15:45, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com> wrote:

Adeshina,

Thanks as usual for your courage. From the day we began discussing ASUU and their antics on this forum, you've been a voice of reason and courageous truth-telling. Your current post builds on that personal tradition. In your succinct and eloquent post, you've captured what I've been struggling to say in longwinded, rambling posts for several years. I wish I had my way with words like you. 

When Toyin Adepoju was excitedly asking home-based colleagues to come and defend themselves and to come and offer their own perspectives on the horrors being perpetrated on students and parents by many Nigeria-based academics, I laughed, knowing that if our conscientious Nigeria-based colleagues were to intervene in the conversation, they may send Toyin into a deep bout of depression and disillusionment. Be careful what you wish for is a popular saying. Where is Toyin Adepoju to challenge the perspective of Adeshina, who teaches at UI and cannot be cheaply attacked, as he has attacked me, as lacking an insider experiential perspective.

We have a scandal and a crisis on our hands but some people only care about protecting feelings and puny egos.

ASUU has long overplayed its hand. It has lost all credibility. It has lost public support. Students now consider ASUU a byword for "enemy" and "pampered, egotistical brutes." This could all have been avoided if ASUU had been humble enough to engage in a little bit of introspection and self-examination.

[profoy...@yahoo.com]

Your various comments are noted and I want ask a few questions . Where were you when politicians who are elected to various positions at state and federal levels serve for four years but get paid severance allowances worth ten or more years their basic pay and other benefits? Where were you when university lectures were being paid 50% of their salaries but each National Assembly member bought cars/SUVs at N40million each and bullet proof vans.Where were you when departments in our universities had to limit student intake because classrooms were not large enough? Please take a look at the Needs Assessment of Universities before you start to slam ASUU  down

Sent from my HTC

----- Reply message -----
From: "Moses Ebe Ochonu" <meoc...@gmail.com>
To: "USAAfricaDialogue" <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Another ASUU Strike--phew!
Date: Tue, Aug 15, 2017 3:45 PM

Adeshina,

Thanks as usual for your courage. From the day we began discussing ASUU and their antics on this forum, you've been a voice of reason and courageous truth-telling. Your current post builds on that personal tradition. In your succinct and eloquent post, you've captured what I've been struggling to say in longwinded, rambling posts for several years. I wish I had my way with words like you. 

When Toyin Adepoju was excitedly asking home-based colleagues to come and defend themselves and to come and offer their own perspectives on the horrors being perpetrated on students and parents by many Nigeria-based academics, I laughed, knowing that if our conscientious Nigeria-based colleagues were to intervene in the conversation, they may send Toyin into a deep bout of depression and disillusionment. Be careful what you wish for is a popular saying. Where is Toyin Adepoju to challenge the perspective of Adeshina, who teaches at UI and cannot be cheaply attacked, as he has attacked me, as lacking an insider experiential perspective.

We have a scandal and a crisis on our hands but some people only care about protecting feelings and puny egos.

ASUU has long overplayed its hand. It has lost all credibility. It has lost public support. Students now consider ASUU a byword for "enemy" and "pampered, egotistical brutes." This could all have been avoided if ASUU had been humble enough to engage in a little bit of introspection and self-examination.

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Jibrin Ibrahim]

Exactly Prof Aluko

Professor Jibrin Ibrahim

Senior Fellow

Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja

Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

That is your first, enduring, and fatal error--comparing yourself and other Nigerian university lecturers to thieving politicians. So, because politicians are are helping themselves illicitly to our commonwealth, that justifies the regular ASUU shakedown that compounds rather than solve the problems of our university sector; is that your contentions? The only group of people more despised than ASUU members are politicians, so your comment is revealing on a Freudian level. 

Even if ASUU has a few valid grievances, can't it see that the strike method has lost its power and does more harm than good to ASUU's long term interest while causing students and parents perennial nightmares?

On Tue, Aug 15, 2017 at 10:36 AM, 'profoy...@yahoo.com' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Your various comments are noted and I want ask a few questions . Where were you when politicians who are elected to various positions at state and federal levels serve for four years but get paid severance allowances worth ten or more years their basic pay and other benefits? Where were you when university lectures were being paid 50% of their salaries but each National Assembly member bought cars/SUVs at N40million each and bullet proof vans.Where were you when departments in our universities had to limit student intake because classrooms were not large enough? Please take a look at the Needs Assessment of Universities before you start to slam ASUU  down

Sent from my HTC

----- Reply message -----
From: "Moses Ebe Ochonu" <meoc...@gmail.com>
To: "USAAfricaDialogue" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Another ASUU Strike--phew!
Date: Tue, Aug 15, 2017 3:45 PM

Adeshina,

Thanks as usual for your courage. From the day we began discussing ASUU and their antics on this forum, you've been a voice of reason and courageous truth-telling. Your current post builds on that personal tradition. In your succinct and eloquent post, you've captured what I've been struggling to say in longwinded, rambling posts for several years. I wish I had my way with words like you. 

When Toyin Adepoju was excitedly asking home-based colleagues to come and defend themselves and to come and offer their own perspectives on the horrors being perpetrated on students and parents by many Nigeria-based academics, I laughed, knowing that if our conscientious Nigeria-based colleagues were to intervene in the conversation, they may send Toyin into a deep bout of depression and disillusionment. Be careful what you wish for is a popular saying. Where is Toyin Adepoju to challenge the perspective of Adeshina, who teaches at UI and cannot be cheaply attacked, as he has attacked me, as lacking an insider experiential perspective.

We have a scandal and a crisis on our hands but some people only care about protecting feelings and puny egos.

ASUU has long overplayed its hand. It has lost all credibility. It has lost public support. Students now consider ASUU a byword for "enemy" and "pampered, egotistical brutes." This could all have been avoided if ASUU had been humble enough to engage in a little bit of introspection and self-examination.

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Oyekanmi,

That is your first, enduring, and fatal error--comparing yourself and other Nigerian university lecturers to thieving politicians. So, because politicians are are helping themselves illicitly to our commonwealth, that justifies the regular ASUU shakedown that compounds rather than solve the problems of our university sector; is that your contention? The only group of people more despised than ASUU members are politicians, so your comment is revealing on a Freudian level. 

Even if ASUU has a few valid grievances, can't it see that the strike method has lost its power and does more harm than good to ASUU's long term interest while causing students and parents perennial nightmares?

On Tue, Aug 15, 2017 at 11:05 AM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com> wrote:

That is your first, enduring, and fatal error--comparing yourself and other Nigerian university lecturers to thieving politicians. So, because politicians are are helping themselves illicitly to our commonwealth, that justifies the regular ASUU shakedown that compounds rather than solve the problems of our university sector; is that your contentions? The only group of people more despised than ASUU members are politicians, so your comment is revealing on a Freudian level. 

Even if ASUU has a few valid grievances, can't it see that the strike method has lost its power and does more harm than good to ASUU's long term interest while causing students and parents perennial nightmares?

[Adeshina Afolayan]

I am shocked, truly. You know, i was about to send a mail saying that we would soon see the usual line of argument comparing ASUU's meagre pay to those of the politicians. And here it is! Why do we keep making this kind of argument, for goodness sake? It's so so shocking. I feel depressed already.

 

Adeshina Afolayan, PhD
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan

+23480-3928-8429

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

It seems to me that the two people on this thread so far who grasp what is at stake are Bolaji Aluko and Jibrin Ibrahim.

They demonstrate a grasp of the nitty gritty of the situation, its existential realities, its genuine challenges and complexities. Thus, they are not engaging in facile and unrealistically sweeping condemnations. They are also presenting proposals that look realistic.

Their presentations suggest that what needs to be done to avoid strikes is  a profound reorientation in the  relationships between the  govt and ASUU, what Jibril describes as the need to rethink and expand ASUU's advocacy strategy and Aluko portrays as the imperative  for ASUU and govt to be realistic in their expectations and promises.

I am struck by Jibril's insistence that ASUU should also address the inadequacies in the structuring of Nigeria's academic culture,particularly as evident in the shortcomings of its members, in addition, I would add, to the union's customary advocacy on behalf of  better funding for tertiary education, evident in the demands justifying the current strike.

Thanks

Toyin

[Chidi Anthony Opara]

Moses,
I said "professorial" not "professional".

Anyway, for those of us whose houses would be filled with idle and angry undergraduates this weekend, this issue is neither academic nor drama.

CAO.

[Gbolahan Gbadamosi]

Jibrin Ibrahim,

Thank you for re-posting the two-part articles which were published in 2013. I read both then and I have read both again. They could have been written yesterday.

So where is the progress that has been made? 

If I child is as stubborn in approach as ASUU has been, that child would be suspected of mental retardation.

Time will tell.

Gbolahan Gbadamosi

[Adeshina Afolayan]

Dear Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim, may you prosper, and, to borrow from the elders on this forum, may your tribe increase too! To think you wrote these pieces five years ago! And of course i am not surprised that you earned the, to me, commendable reputation of a "renegade" comrade. I love that! 

Several things are clear to me, from your reflections. First, there is a critical disjuncture between the early ASUU and the craft of our current strikers. Second, the current ASUU is now almost irretrievably dissociated from the earlier and ideologically sound struggle. I like the understanding of that struggle as being two-in-one: the struggle for the soul of the university system and the struggle for a progressive Nigeria, and, most crucially, the link of the one to the other. We have definitely lost this understanding of the struggle. It is very hard today to even imagine ASUU being connected to any dimension of the struggle. Third, the strike methodology is now so outdated and puerile because it has been brutally disconnected from its ideological basis in the evolution of a progressive Nigeria. And finally, it is very hard to imagine what has really been gained since this strike business commenced. And we should not reflect too long: ASUU has turned the struggle inward into a self-serving dynamics. Like i have argued before, i have no problem with that. But ASUU must be humble enough to let Nigerians know that it is no longer an ideological body fighting hard for the soul of Nigeria. On the contrary, we also want to partake of the sharing of the Nigerian Treasury!

O pari! C'est fini!  

 

Adeshina Afolayan, PhD
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan

+23480-3928-8429

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Gbolahan Gbadamosi]

Prof Oyekanmi,

 

I hear you loud and clear and I can appreciate the anger and frustration of a system not working even when some individual stakeholders, like yourself, are putting their very best and perhaps contributing more than their fair share. I can feel your pain.

 

Regarding your questions, I suppose we were all here when those events you asked about happened. We watched, we made comments and often protested as much as we can.

 

However, the ongoing ASUU strike is not about any of those things you asked if we are honest. When the present strike will be eventually called off, none of those things you asked about would have changed. Remember we have been here before. This didn't start today and none of those strikes have changed the damaged state of our higher education. Which is what brought about my question and confusion? Can there not be another way of getting the desired results especially as the strike option have always invariably only ended with financial concession to ASUU members personal bank accounts? Nothing more!

 

Bolaji just provided us with the statistics of the strikes. It is shocking to say the least!

 

If ASUU will like to become a political party, perhaps they have an option potentially. ASUU is a trade union as of today and it is abusing his trade union powers and privileges. It has consequently lost sympathy and empathy. For every new strike ASUU loses one more member of the public who hitherto had given them support. ASUU is begging to even lose its own members!

 

Let me paint another scenario I dreamt about beyond my no work, no pay submission in my earlier post. If a member of the National Assembly prepares and proposes “A Bill of National Emergency in Higher Education” today and presents it before both houses of parliament. If in the bill they propose that ASUU be proscribed for 10 years until such a time universities would have been revitalised and ASUU de-proscription revisited, I promise you that bill may pass all required readings and potentially awaiting Presidential ascent in 6 months. If the President does not sign it then it will be easily pass by a two-third majority of both houses. Members of the public will not protest to support ASUU and ASUU membership will disintegrate.

 

These are all in my dreams because as it was about to happen I just work up!

On 15 August 2017 at 16:36, 'profoy...@yahoo.com' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Your various comments are noted and I want ask a few questions . Where were you when politicians who are elected to various positions at state and federal levels serve for four years but get paid severance allowances worth ten or more years their basic pay and other benefits? Where were you when university lectures were being paid 50% of their salaries but each National Assembly member bought cars/SUVs at N40million each and bullet proof vans.Where were you when departments in our universities had to limit student intake because classrooms were not large enough? Please take a look at the Needs Assessment of Universities before you start to slam ASUU  down

Sent from my HTC

----- Reply message -----
From: "Moses Ebe Ochonu" <meoc...@gmail.com>
To: "USAAfricaDialogue" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Another ASUU Strike--phew!
Date: Tue, Aug 15, 2017 3:45 PM

Adeshina,

Thanks as usual for your courage. From the day we began discussing ASUU and their antics on this forum, you've been a voice of reason and courageous truth-telling. Your current post builds on that personal tradition. In your succinct and eloquent post, you've captured what I've been struggling to say in longwinded, rambling posts for several years. I wish I had my way with words like you. 

When Toyin Adepoju was excitedly asking home-based colleagues to come and defend themselves and to come and offer their own perspectives on the horrors being perpetrated on students and parents by many Nigeria-based academics, I laughed, knowing that if our conscientious Nigeria-based colleagues were to intervene in the conversation, they may send Toyin into a deep bout of depression and disillusionment. Be careful what you wish for is a popular saying. Where is Toyin Adepoju to challenge the perspective of Adeshina, who teaches at UI and cannot be cheaply attacked, as he has attacked me, as lacking an insider experiential perspective.

We have a scandal and a crisis on our hands but some people only care about protecting feelings and puny egos.

ASUU has long overplayed its hand. It has lost all credibility. It has lost public support. Students now consider ASUU a byword for "enemy" and "pampered, egotistical brutes." This could all have been avoided if ASUU had been humble enough to engage in a little bit of introspection and self-examination.

[Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth]

At the time of the ASSU ideological struggle perhaps there was no nolly wood and satellite  TV not very common in homes.i can guess like the British psychologist oliver  james  in his book AFFLUENZA that television might have changed the nature of the ASUU struggle.viewing the lifestyles  of the rich and powerful  in nolly wood , bollywoood and Hollywood.  And so materially  and financially ASUU members have become increasingly  dissatisfied  with their lives.not only ASUU members.many television/ video addicts.lecturers are only human

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Dear All:

I mis-wrote:  actually, the current ASUU strike is the 13th strike - not the 11th strike as I previously wrote.  I inadvertently omitted one of the two strikes called in May 2008, and another strike of July 2013.

13 times unlucky....just to keep the facts straight.

I have also taken a look at the growth of the NUS relative to the strikes, and note  the escalation of expectations from both Government and the NUS as the number of federal and state universities - as well as of private universities -  increased from decade to decade. (See Table below).   We now have 40 Federal Universities, 45 state universities and 68 private universities (Monday July 24 Bulletin of the NUC), but it took Federal Universities 55 years to grow from 2 to 40; state universities 35 years to grow through the same numbers, but private universities only 10 years!   

That is some awesome growth, that has put quite a lot of stress on public university system.

Bolaji Aluko 

			TABLE1: Growth of  the Nigerian University System (NUS) - 1945-2017 (Nigerianmuse.com 2017)
S/N	End of Year	Federal	State	Public	Private	Total	Comment
		A	B	A+B	C	A+B+C	FU(T)(A) - Federal University (of Technology, Agric)
1	1945	0	0	0	0	0
2	1950	1	0	1	0	1	UI in 1948 (College of U of London)
3	1955	1	0	1	0	1
4	1960	2	0	2	0	2	UNN added in 1960
5	1965	5	0	5	0	5	5 FirstGen FUs: UI, UNN, Unife, ABU, UniLag (last three in 1962)
6	1970	6	0	6	0	6	Uniben added as sixth FirstGen in 1970
7	1975	11	0	11	0	11	ASUU Formed 1978
8	1980	14	2	16	0	16	4 FUTs between 1980 to 1982
9	1985	18	7	25	0	25	1st ASUU Strike 1988
10	1990	22	8	30	0	30	3 FUAs between 1988 and 1992;  1992 Agreement reached
11	1995	25	11	36	0	36	1999 Agreement reached
12	2000	25	17	42	3	45	2001 Agreement reached; Longest ASUU strike (Dec 2001 to June 2003)
13	2005	26	26	52	22	74	NEEDS assessment 2007; 2009 Agreement reached
14	2010	27	35	62	40	102	12 New FUs added 2011/2013; 2013 MOU reached with FGN
15	2015	40	40	80	60	140
16	Aug. 2017	40	45	85	69	154	Latest ASUU Strike (13th Strike)

 

[Ibukunolu A Babajide]

Moses,

Our elders say, "A Judge who rules without listening to all sides of a matter is an evil Judge," perhaps you should also analyse the claims of these Lecturers and juxtapose their demands with the insane and obscene remunerations idle National Assembly members take home daily, monthly and annually.

Thereafter tell me if you do not wish to join them in this very much justified protest.

Cheers.

IBK

_________________________

Ibukunolu Alao Babajide (IBK)

(+2348061276622)
ibk...@gmail.com

[Toyin Falola]

IBK: 

Moses can defend himself, so this is not on his behalf.

Here is a question for you: Why can’t you and I, all teachers, all unions say that our fight is to stop the “insane and obscene remunerations idle National Assembly members take home daily, monthly and annually.” Why must you and I, all teachers, say “give me the same remunerations” bearing in mind that there is a pool that the nation can use to generate development for you and I. I am always broke but the drug dealer is always fine—should I be a drug dealer?

If the roads are good and your car can last ten years; if there is electricity and you can store food; if the libraries and laboratories are good; if the hospitals are good; if food is available and protein is accessible, who needs a lot of salary? What do you want to do with that salary?

TF

Toyin Falola

Department of History

The University of Texas at Austin

104 Inner Campus Drive

Austin, TX 78712-0220

USA

512 475 7224

512 475 7222 (fax)

http://sites.utexas.edu/yoruba-studies-review/

http://www.toyinfalola.com 

http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa  

http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs 

http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue   

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

I read a good no here pillorying the ASUU use of strikes.

The only people who have suggested a strategy that is directed at improving the relationship between ASUU and the govt  and thereby hopefully reducing the likelihood of relationships breaking down to the level of strikes are Aluko and Jibrin.

I am yet to read any analysis of the practicability of Aluko and Jibrin's proposals.

Am I correct, therefore, in stating that condemnations that do not address the question of options to strikes do not demonstrate understanding of how to mobilize opinion and enable action when dealing with relations between employer and employee?

I am also reading condemnations claiming that ASUU does not care about the Nigerian university system, yet those condemnators seem uninformed that tertiary education funding has always been at the core of ASUU's demands, and is evident in the demands made in the latest strike.

Are these people aware that the idea of a wealth fund set aside by the govt for education funding, what is now known as TETFUND, is an ASUU originated idea, one of its demands from its numerous struggles?

Are these people aware of the fact that ASUU struggles elevated Nigerian academics from penury to people with some wage decency?

Am I  correct therefore, in describing much of what I am reading here as uninformed?

I am also reading some stating that ASUU is complicit in the misbehavior of its members in discharging their duties but I am yet to read descriptions of how the trade union is complicit. A contributor described as a Nigeria based academic claims he does not believe ASUU will cooperate in relation to the disciplining of erring members but I don't recall reading how he came to this belief.

I have read some good ideas on improving the quality of the academic work force and on discipline of erring academics.

It is valid to argue that ASUU should expand its remit to include issues normally outside the scope of a trade union, issues dealing with administration and discipline. It is not fair, though, to condemn ASUU for not having done so.

Another view holds that ASUU has made itself terribly unpopular, and a menace in the eyes of many by its strategies, leading to my puzzlement on encountering the plethora of perspectives on ASUU, a significant number from non-academics in support of the union, and others from academics debunking what they described as misinformation in the post in response to a 14th August Facebook post by the social and literary and  critic Ikhide Ikheloa, a longstanding critic of ASUU quoting a writer denigrating ASUU without qualification. It seems the views that depict ASUU as a villain in the Nigerian consciousness might not be correct.

Finally, these are not pepper soup joint issues. Its not about leadership at the level of your domestic space. Its about carving a space for academia in an environment that is significantly destructive to academic culture.

Its not simply about how loudly one can shout, how much verbal outrage you can project.

Do you have workable ideas to  move the situation forward? What do you have to say about attitudes of Nigerian governments to education and how to work in the light of those attitudes? As a Nigeria based academic, what is your commitment to the drive for improvement, ranging from your personal accountability to the determination to publicly advocate  and work  for a better academic culture?

These are my summations from a quick read of the contributions

thanks

toyin

 

On 16 August 2017 at 18:34, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

IBK: 

Moses can defend himself, so this is not on his behalf.

Here is a question for you: Why can’t you and I, all teachers, all unions say that our fight is to stop the “insane and obscene remunerations idle National Assembly members take home daily, monthly and annually.” Why must you and I, all teachers, say “give me the same remunerations” bearing in mind that there is a pool that the nation can use to generate development for you and I. I am always broke but the drug dealer is always fine—should I be a drug dealer?

If the roads are good and your car can last ten years; if there is electricity and you can store food; if the libraries and laboratories are good; if the hospitals are good; if food is available and protein is accessible, who needs a lot of salary? What do you want to do with that salary?

TF

Toyin Falola

Department of History

The University of Texas at Austin

104 Inner Campus Drive

Austin, TX 78712-0220

USA

512 475 7224

512 475 7222 (fax)

http://sites.utexas.edu/yoruba-studies-review/

http://www.toyinfalola.com 

http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa  

http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs 

http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue   

[Ayotunde Bewaji]

National Alert:
For those who do not understand "Why ASUU is on strike" - Please read this and share widely.....

1. Less than 10% of the universities have Video Conferencing facility.

2. Less than 20% of the universities use Interactive Boards

3.More than 50% don’t use Public Address System in their lecture OVERCROWDED rooms/theatres.

4. Internet Services are non-existent,or epileptic and slow IN 99% of Nigerian Universities

5. Nigerian Universities Library resources are outdated and manually operated. Book shelves are homes to rats/cockroaches

6.No university library in Nigeria is fully automated. Less than 35% are partially automated.

7. 701 Development projects in Nigerian universities 163 (23.3%) are abandoned 538 (76.7%) are PERPETUALLY on-going projects

8. Some of the abandoned projects in Nigerian universities are over 15 years old, some are over 40 years old.

9. 76% of Nigerian universities use well as source of water, 45% use pit latrine, 67% of students use bush as toilet

10. UNN and UDUS have the highest number of abandoned projects (22 and 16 respectively).

11. All NDDC projects across universities in Niger Delta States are abandoned. About 84.6% of them are students’ hostels

12. 77% of Nigerian universities can be classified as "Glorified Primary Schools" Laboratories are non existing

13. There are 8 on-going projects at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi. None of them is funded by the State Government

14. 80% of Nigerian Universities are grossly under-staffed

15. 78% of Nigerian Universities rely heavily on part-time and visiting lecturers.

16. 88% of Nigerian Universities have under-qualified Academics

17. 90% of Nigerian Universities are bottom-heavy (with junior lecturers forming large chunk of the workforce)

18. Only 2% of Nigerian Universities attract expatriate lecturers, over 80% of Ghanian Universities attract same

19. 89% of Nigerian Universities have ‘closed’ (homogeneous staff – in terms of ethno-cultural background)

20. Based on the available data, there are 37,504 Academics in Nigerian Public Universities

21. 83% of the lecturers in Nigerian universities are male while 17% are female.

22. 23,030 (61.0%) of the lecturers are employed in Federal universities while 14,474 (39.0%) teach in State Universities.

23. The teaching staff-students ratio is EMBARRASSINGLY very high in many universities:

24. LECTURER STUDENT RATIO: National Open University of Nigeria 1:363 University of Abuja 1:122 Lagos State University 1:111

25. (Compare the above with Harvard 1:4; MIT 1:9; Yale 1:4, Cambridge 1:3; NUS 1:12; KFUPM 1:9; Technion 1:15).

26. Nigerian Universities Instead of having 100% Academics having PhDs, only about 43% do so. The remaining 57% have no PhDs

27. Nigerian University medical students trained in the most dangerous environment, some only see medical tools in books

28. Only 7 Nigerian Universities have up to 60% of their teaching staff with PhD qualifications

29. While majority of the universities in the country are grossly understaffed, a few cases present a pathetic picture

30. There are universities in Nigeria which the total number of Professors is not more than Five (5)

31. Kano University of Science and Technology Wudil, established in 2001 (11 years old) only 1 Professor and 25 PhD holders.

32. Kebbi State University of Science and Technology, Aliero, established in 2006 has only 2 Professors and 5 PhDs

33. Ondo State University of Sci & Tech Okitipupa, established in 2008, has a total of 29 lecturers.

34. MAKE-SHIFT LECTURING SYSTEM: Out of a total of 37,504 lecturers, only 28,128 (75%) are engaged on full-time basis.

35. 9,376 (25%) Nigerian Lecturers are recycled as Visiting, Adjunct, Sabbatical and Contract lecturers.

36. In Gombe State University, only 4 out of 47 Profs are full-time and all 25 Readers are visiting

37. In Plateau State University, Bokkos, 74% of the lecturers are visiting.

38. In Kaduna State University, only 24 out of 174 PhD holders are full-time staff.

39. 700 EX-MILLITANTS in Nigeria are receiving more funds anualy than 20 Nigerian universities under 'Amnesty Scam'

40. 80% of published journals by Nigerian University lectures have no visibility in the international knowledge community.

41. No Nigerian academic is in the league of Nobel Laureates or a nominee of Nobel Prize.

42. There are only 2 registered patents owned by Nigerian Academics in the last 3 years.

43. Numerically more support staff in the services of Nigerian universities than the teaching staff they are meant to support

44. More expenditure is incurred in administration & routine functions than in core academic matters in Nigerian Universities

45. There are 77,511 full-time non-teaching staff in Nigeria’s public universities 2 Times number of academic staff

46. University of Benin, there are more senior staff in the Registrar cadre (Dep. Registrars, PARs, SARs) than Professors

47. Almost all the universities are over-staffed with non- teaching staff

48. There are 1,252,913 students in Nigerian Public Universities. 43% Female 57%Male

49. There is no relationship between enrolment and the tangible manpower needs of Nigeria.

50. Nigerian Uni Horrible hostel facilities, overcrowded, overstretched lavatory and laundry facilities, poor sanitation,etc

51. Except Nigerian Defence Acadamy Kaduna, no university in Nigeria is able to accommodate more than 35% of its students.

52. Some universities (e.g. MOUAU),female students take their bath in d open because d bathrooms are in very poor condition.

53. Laundries and common rooms in many universities have been converted into rooms where students live, in open prison style.

54. In most improvised cage called hostels in Nigerian Universities, there is no limit to the number of occupants.

55. Most State universities charge commercial rates for unfit and unsuitable hostel accommodation

56. In off-campus hostels, students are susceptible to extraneous influences and violence prostitution, rape, gang violence

57. Nigerian University Students sitting on bare floor or peeping through windows to attend lectures

58. Over 1000 students being packed in lecture halls meant for less than 150 students

59. Over 400 Nigerian University students being packed in laboratory meant for 75 students

60. University administrators Spend millions to erect super-gates when their Libraries are still at foundation level; Expend millions to purchase exotic vehicles for university officers even though they lack basic classroom furnishings; Spend hundreds of millions in wall-fencing and in-fencing when students accommodation is inadequate and in tatters; 

61. Govt interested in spending money on creation of new uni instead of consolidating and expanding access to existing ones; Keen to award new contracts rather than completing the abandoned projects or standardizing existing facilities; Expend hundreds of millions paying visiting and part-time lecturers rather than recruiting full-time staff

62. Govt spending hundreds of millions in mundane administration cost instead of providing boreholes and power supplements; Govt hiring personal staff, including Personal Assistants, Special Advisers, Bodyguards, Personal Consultants, etc.

Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)

To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@ googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/ group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/ conferences/africa/ads/index. html

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/ optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Tf:

Exactly... My maxim for salaries has always been Not how much you are paid, but how much you get to keep discretionally.   I will be happy with less of my salary if I know that the cost of what I know that I  must spend to live minimally comfortably can be shared with others so that I can retain more of that lower salary. 

And the rain started to beat Academics in Nigeria when

  (1) in the late 70s/early 80s, they started to demand salaries and allowances "like the Civil Service"   I remember my father's famous "Include me out... I am not a poor lecturer" denunciation of NAUT's position then.   He was perhaps Nigeris's first academic grey-leg and turncoat! 

  (2)  when, before achieving academic zenith, they accepted political positions at federal and part icularly state levels,  particularly from the Military, who used them as adornments, and made it difficult for a number to return to the classroom after a period of relative financial  comfort. 

  (3)  when, as a result of some early ASUU victories, the salary / allowance gap between academic and non-academic staff widened.  A cycle of demands and counter demands ensued, leading to a backlash that ended in the Joint Actions of ASUU  SSANU, NAAT and NASU.   An academic association thereby became fully transformed into a labor union. This also meant that Government could not come to an agreement without looking at the broader consequences in the ENTIRE tertiary system - universities, polytechnics (ASUP) and Colleges of Education. 

And there, my people, we had it. 

Bolaji Aluko 

On Wednesday, August 16, 2017, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

IBK: 

Moses can defend himself, so this is not on his behalf.

Here is a question for you: Why can’t you and I, all teachers, all unions say that our fight is to stop the “insane and obscene remunerations idle National Assembly members take home daily, monthly and annually.” Why must you and I, all teachers, say “give me the same remunerations” bearing in mind that there is a pool that the nation can use to generate development for you and I. I am always broke but the drug dealer is always fine—should I be a drug dealer?

If the roads are good and your car can last ten years; if there is electricity and you can store food; if the libraries and laboratories are good; if the hospitals are good; if food is available and protein is accessible, who needs a lot of salary? What do you want to do with that salary?

TF

Toyin Falola

Department of History

The University of Texas at Austin

104 Inner Campus Drive

Austin, TX 78712-0220

USA

512 475 7224

512 475 7222 (fax)

http://sites.utexas.edu/yoruba-studies-review/

http://www.toyinfalola.com 

http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa  

http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs 

http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue   

[Ibukunolu A Babajide]

My Lord (and my master),

That you take notice of lowly me is a great honour.  I will therefore humbly respond thus, taking the rear part of your powerful argument first.  Sir, you wrote:

"If the roads are good and your car can last ten years; if there is electricity and you can store food; if the libraries and laboratories are good; if the hospitals are good; if food is available and protein is accessible, who needs a lot of salary? What do you want to do with that salary?"

The roads will never be good, and there is no car that will last.  The electricity went with the colonial parasites who left their cronies in charge, and the laboratories are defunct because empty unlived-in houses were bought in Potomac, USA and Bishop's Avenue, Hampstead UK with monies that should equip them.  So the hospitals are moribund and the protein is not accessible so the only way to remain sane is to in the immediate seek a living wage.

Now to embrace your real issue:

"Why can’t you and I, all teachers, all unions say that our fight is to stop the “insane and obscene remunerations idle National Assembly members take home daily, monthly and annually.” Why must you and I, all teachers, say “give me the same remunerations” bearing in mind that there is a pool that the nation can use to generate development for you and I. I am always broke but the drug dealer is always fine—should I be a drug dealer?"

From the early 70's we have fought for social conscience!  I was still a teenager when I joined the fray with "Ali Must Go," and with the death of Akintunde Ojo and several others and the shedding of the innocent life-blood of we who dared to protest, we were suppressed.  Some like you and I escaped from perdition by seeking greener pastures!  Now what you ask me that is the right approach has not worked because the masses are ground and bludgeoned into dust.  The evil politicians clad in khaki and their collaborators in mufti have sucked out the soul of civic protest.

Our society is ruled by cynics created by the evil of the wicked winning over the good.  That is why the model you suggest will not work and ASSUU must seek redress by placing the obscene and inhumane remuneration of these evil politicians against theirs to contrast the Nigerian tail wagging the Nigerian dog.  I have never subscribed to anarchism but the madness that is Nigeria today pushes me in that direction and like Samson did, let us bring the whole greed driven polity down!

Cheers sir!  Love to Yeye and your lovely children.

IBK

_________________________

Ibukunolu Alao Babajide (IBK)

(+2348061276622)
ibk...@gmail.com

On 16 August 2017 at 13:34, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

IBK: 

Moses can defend himself, so this is not on his behalf.

Here is a question for you: Why can’t you and I, all teachers, all unions say that our fight is to stop the “insane and obscene remunerations idle National Assembly members take home daily, monthly and annually.” Why must you and I, all teachers, say “give me the same remunerations” bearing in mind that there is a pool that the nation can use to generate development for you and I. I am always broke but the drug dealer is always fine—should I be a drug dealer?

If the roads are good and your car can last ten years; if there is electricity and you can store food; if the libraries and laboratories are good; if the hospitals are good; if food is available and protein is accessible, who needs a lot of salary? What do you want to do with that salary?

TF

Toyin Falola

Department of History

The University of Texas at Austin

104 Inner Campus Drive

Austin, TX 78712-0220

USA

512 475 7224

512 475 7222 (fax)

http://sites.utexas.edu/yoruba-studies-review/

http://www.toyinfalola.com 

http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa  

http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs 

http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue   

[Ayotunde Bewaji]

Dear all,

When news was floated that the Federal Government was planning to start a new Federal University of ICT in Abuja, the Minister of Communications and the former Executive Secretary of NUC were there basking in their five seconds of fame of the media circus, I raised the questions about why there was need for this Black Elephant project. None of the members on this forum joined issues with me or them about the necessity for such an insane venture. Now everyone is vilifying ASUU for going on strike. I have reposted ASUU contentions. Can any of out juggernauts here see the wisdom of their silence - probably hoping Aluko will become the new VC or the former Exco Sec will be so appointed and the gravy train may flow in their direction. My period of Fellowship at UI last year was indeed an eye opener, which shall remain for ever etched in my memory. While we may hate ASUU as much as we like, is there any sensitivity in the corridors of power - Presidency and Executive, NASS, State Government and Assemblies - regarding our collective predicament as a people? When persons descend in their hoards on ASUU, are they serious? Can we at least temper our high handed lambasting of ASUU with some principle of charity? I was visiting professor to CUNY a few years back, when increments were paid to their salaries, years later I got a call that a check was due to me. This was mailed without fuss to an address I provided. How many of our colleagues get their salaries as at when due, or know when it will be paid, not to mention those who survive to become pensioners?

Yet our VCs are gods unto themselves, with salaries tripling those of their former teachers. I guess since NASS does whatever it likes with out treasury, they are also entitled to their own share. When they finish their stint, the become pimps in Abuja! Why? Because the professorial pay will not cut it with them any longer.

I have watched all kinds of discussions here regarding the state of our Universities, before ASUU strike, and some are realistic, most holier than thou and cloud nine type of hypocrisy. Anyway, how much our Andrews can say about the condition of those at home is a matter of conscience. Let us realistically temper our comments with the principle of charity. 

Ire ni o.

Tunde. 

[Olayinka Agbetuyi]

Toyin:

Let me come in quickly on this one having been off for a few days to keep a self imposed project deadline to a few on the forum.

I note your Westminster-like third person alactrity not to join issues personally with anyone with unpalatable consequences with deserving commendation.

Many on the forum (including yours truly) seem inadequately informed about  ASUU's struggles and travails with governments over the decades.  Aluko's contributions ( being a recent VC whose insights the forum is blessed with) as well as Jibrin and Bewaji's have been very educating. 

 Without Bewaji's intervention many would have been misled into thinking ASUU is only fighting for salary increase in this round of strike.

Jibrin has widened the discourse to enable us appreciate the wider political berth originating in OBJ II's commitment to meeting the Bretton Wood institutions' conditionalities and thereby shortchanging the university system's demands for funding.

Giving the trajectory from which OBJ toik office (the IBB/ Abacha looting years OBJ"s strategy is understandable as an ad-hoc palliative measure to enable fiscal stabilisation but cannot be elevated to a permanent givermental creed.

UK government had to forcibly take the same pill in the 70s when its economy was in the doldrums;  the difference between the UK then and Nigeria now is that parliamentarians were not at the same time awarding themselves obscene pay rises and stealing govt funds in large doses.

The reason why the UK rescue effort succeeded and Nigeria's hasnt lies precisely in this verity.

On how to look at options to strike my view is that strike is a legitimate weapon but timing is of essence.

Rather than strike for seven months and expect to be paid for not working why not complete all work conduct all exams and then embark on their strike and hold on to results until govt does the right thing? Govt cannot boast its education program is in order if there is no result to show for it can they?

And if ASUU says its members are prepared to teach the whole of the succeeding session without releasing the result of the previous session how can the govt programmes move forward in terms of manpower resources if no graduation ceremonies are concluded even though academic sessions have been successfully concluded?

Would that not compel government to reappraise its strategies regarding funding and elevation of standards without depicting ASUU as evil?

And ASUU can continue that game ad infinitum until all goals are met seriatim in a carefully worked out plan of attainable strategic goals with firm periodic benchmarks of progressive affordability subject to financial constraints (taking on board Jibrin's view of negotiated settlements) without the body being blamed for insensivity to the plight of the students and not caring for general teaching and educational standards.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>

Date: 16/08/2017 18:19 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Another ASUU Strike--phew!

This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (toyin....@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info

I read a good no here pillorying the ASUU use of strikes.

The only people who have suggested a strategy that is directed at improving the relationship between ASUU and the govt  and thereby hopefully reducing the likelihood of relationships breaking down to the level of strikes are Aluko and Jibrin.

I am yet to read any analysis of the practicability of Aluko and Jibrin's proposals.

Am I correct, therefore, in stating that condemnations that do not address the question of options to strikes do not demonstrate understanding of how to mobilize opinion and enable action when dealing with relations between employer and employee?

I am also reading condemnations claiming that ASUU does not care about the Nigerian university system, yet those condemnators seem uninformed that tertiary education funding has always been at the core of ASUU's demands, and is evident in the demands made in the latest strike.

Are these people aware that the idea of a wealth fund set aside by the govt for education funding, what is now known as TETFUND, is an ASUU originated idea, one of its demands from its numerous struggles?

Are these people aware of the fact that ASUU struggles elevated Nigerian academics from penury to people with some wage decency?

Am I  correct therefore, in describing much of what I am reading here as uninformed?

I am also reading some stating that ASUU is complicit in the misbehavior of its members in discharging their duties but I am yet to read descriptions of how the trade union is complicit. A contributor described as a Nigeria based academic claims he does not believe ASUU will cooperate in relation to the disciplining of erring members but I don't recall reading how he came to this belief.

I have read some good ideas on improving the quality of the academic work force and on discipline of erring academics.

It is valid to argue that ASUU should expand its remit to include issues normally outside the scope of a trade union, issues dealing with administration and discipline. It is not fair, though, to condemn ASUU for not having done so.

Another view holds that ASUU has made itself terribly unpopular, and a menace in the eyes of many by its strategies, leading to my puzzlement on encountering the plethora of perspectives on ASUU, a significant number from non-academics in support of the union, and others from academics debunking what they described as misinformation in the post in response to a 14th August Facebook post by the social and literary and  critic Ikhide Ikheloa, a longstanding critic of ASUU quoting a writer denigrating ASUU without qualification. It seems the views that depict ASUU as a villain in the Nigerian consciousness might not be correct.

Finally, these are not pepper soup joint issues. Its not about leadership at the level of your domestic space. Its about carving a space for academia in an environment that is significantly destructive to academic culture.

Its not simply about how loudly one can shout, how much verbal outrage you can project.

Do you have workable ideas to  move the situation forward? What do you have to say about attitudes of Nigerian governments to education and how to work in the light of those attitudes? As a Nigeria based academic, what is your commitment to the drive for improvement, ranging from your personal accountability to the determination to publicly advocate  and work  for a better academic culture?

These are my summations from a quick read of the contributions

thanks

toyin

 

On 16 August 2017 at 18:34, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

IBK: 

Moses can defend himself, so this is not on his behalf.

Here is a question for you: Why can’t you and I, all teachers, all unions say that our fight is to stop the “insane and obscene remunerations idle National Assembly members take home daily, monthly and annually.” Why must you and I, all teachers, say “give me the same remunerations” bearing in mind that there is a pool that the nation can use to generate development for you and I. I am always broke but the drug dealer is always fine—should I be a drug dealer?

If the roads are good and your car can last ten years; if there is electricity and you can store food; if the libraries and laboratories are good; if the hospitals are good; if food is available and protein is accessible, who needs a lot of salary? What do you want to do with that salary?

TF

Toyin Falola

Department of History

The University of Texas at Austin

104 Inner Campus Drive

Austin, TX 78712-0220

USA

512 475 7224

512 475 7222 (fax)

http://sites.utexas.edu/yoruba-studies-review/

http://www.toyinfalola.com 

http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa  

http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs 

http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue   

[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

 ASUU is a trade union. Trade unions all over the world negotiate salary increases  and improved standards of living for their membership. Similarly the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is an active organization engaged in seeking  incremental salary increases and  improved conditions of work. Strike action is a recognized negotiation strategy. It is a common procedure in industrial relations for negotiations to take place periodically. For example the Connecticut State University System  has just come out of a round of periodical negotiations to cope with some proposed cuts by the administration. Every three or four years we renegotiate the terms of engagement.

Live and let live.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
www.africahistory.net

www.gloriaemeagwali.com

www.ccsu.edu/afstudy/archive.html

Chief Editor- "Africa Update"

www.vimeo.com/user5946750/videos

Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries on

Africa and the African Diaspora

8608322815  Phone

8608322804 Fax

---

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Ibukunolu A Babajide <ibk...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2017 9:34 AM
To: USAAfricaDialogue

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Moses Ochonu]

OPINION: The Other Issues ASUU is Ignoring

--------------------------------

By: Amir Abdulazeez

.

Last year around October, the Senate passed a bill seeking to stop sexual abuse of female students in Nigerias tertiary institutions. The bill, titled: Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Education Institution Prohibition Bill, 2016 sponsored by Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, prescribed a 5-year jail term for lecturers and educators convicted of sexual harassment of their male or female students. The bill also recommended expulsion or suspension for students whose claims of being serially abused by lecturers or educators are found to be false by any competent court. In the alternative, the bill also proposed a fine of N5 million in the event that the accused person is convicted by a competent court of law even as it made provisions for lecturers and educators who may be falsely accused by their students to seek redress.

.

Now, that a condition overwhelmingly exists which warrants the passage of a bill like this one is very disgraceful not only to the Nigerian academia, but to the Nigerian morality in general. But, the worst part of it is that the bill may never be able to address the smallest fraction of indecency and sex abuse going on in our tertiary institutions. In fact, students-teachers sex relationship driven by both silent and open threat is gradually and subconsciously becoming normal and legal in our universities.  

.

The general reactions from the Nigerian academia when this bill was passed were at best silence, and at worst condemnation towards the bill and its sponsors. At the moment, there is hardly any place dirtier than Nigerian universities and other tertiary institutions when it comes to sex scandals. Our institutions have been turned into hallmarks of prostitution and sexual harassment. The integrity of the system has been eroded to the extent that even its topmost hierarchy is guilty of this. These are some of the issues you seldom or never hear ASUU vigorously fighting to correct. The very system the union is seeking external intervention to correct infrastructural-wise is already internally rotten moral-wise. Again, ASUU is on strike for the same old but many reasons, but the moral degradation imposed by some of its members on the system isnt one of them.

.

“Our members across the country were getting increasingly frustrated, distracted and disenchanted were the reported words of the National President of ASUU, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi when declaring the just commenced nationwide strike. While briefing journalists, Ogunyemi listed ASUUs outstanding issues with the Federal Government to include; payment of fractions/non-payment of salaries; non-payment of earned academic allowances, non-releases of operational license of NUPEMCO; non implementation of the provisions of the 2014 pension reform act with respect to retired professors and their salaries, removal of universities staff schools from funding by government and funds for the revitalization of public universities among others.

.

Problems like moral degradation of the system, internal socio-administrative corruption bedeviling universities, many lecturers’ nonchalant attitude towards their jobs, inadequate or non-existent monitoring and evaluation of lecturers’ performance mechanism, unethical academic practices, nepotism and favouritism in employment are not among the major problems ASUU is concerned with. These are problems caused and promoted by lecturers, many of whom are also ASUU members as well as by university administrators who once were. The union must make efforts within its control to see that we first have a cleansed system, before we can talk of improving it.

.

As is common with many government agencies, universities are now some of the most visible symbols of financial corruption and mismanagement. The little scarce resources sent to the universities from the government are not well managed by the university administrators from top to bottom. It is very common these days to hear of vice chancellors, bursars and other university principal officers standing trial for corruption cases. Stories of lecturers collecting bribes from students and their parents to award marks are also heard everywhere. The union must emphasize on internal honesty, transparency and accountability which is largely lacking. 

.

ASUU should also be concerned with how many universities are hiding under the excuse of inadequate funding from the government to introduce aggressive and in many cases, easy, dubious and exploitative revenue generation methods with little or nothing to show for it. Some of these methods tend to portray the universities as revenue generation agencies rather than institutions of learning. In a bid to bridge the wide funding gap, many Nigerian universities have resorted to charging exorbitant and in some cases ridiculous application, processing and registration fees for their undergraduate and more significantly post-graduate programmes. Such exorbitant fees are been hiked regularly with any slight opportunity. In some universities, students are forced to pay high sums for the use of facilities which are built and maintained by public money. With these sorts of easy, unearned and exploitative revenue generation policies, many Nigerian universities are tilting towards commercialization.

.

ASUU should be concerned with the quantity of our universities. The number of federal, state and private universities operating in Nigeria and registered by the Nigerian Universities Commission stands at about 135 which rose from 51 in 2005. While ASUU members are busy taking advantage of the large number of universities to serve as visiting lecturers, the union itself appears to be indifferent to this. The union still wants efficiency and at the same time it doesnt discourage its members from picking up visiting appointments in 2 to 3 other places apart from their primary places of work thereby largely neglecting their primary universities and underperforming in their visiting ones. The union should discourage state governments from flouting political universities and the Federal Government against issuing licenses to many of the private universities largely considered incompetent.

.

Isnt ASUU worried that in a university system boasting of more than 2500 living professors, academicians are still hiding under the guise of inadequate government sponsorship for their failure to produce any ground breaking research of the Nobel-prize nomination grade over the last 30 years? With the decent amount of external and non-governmental research funding coming into the Nigerian university system plus the little government intervention, how much have we even came close to achieving that?

.

Granted that all ASUU demands deserved to be looked into and we must put substantial part of the blame on the Federal Government for the stagnation of our education system, but in all honesty and sincerity, how much have Nigerian universities themselves able to achieve, initiate and innovate to compellingly motivate government enough to invest more? How much of a potential have they shown to attract private and corporate national and international organizations to invest in them?  How much value has our academia independently added to our society? Do we really think that the strongest universities in the world were actually made what they are by their governments?

.

Nigerian academic researches conducted by some ASUU members are dominated by plagiarism and other violations of ethical and professional considerations. The union will do a great job if tries to address many of issues like this.  

.

ASUU have been seeking a rise in education quality from without more than it is seeking it from within. Isnt the union aware of how recruitment of lecturers has now been dominated by nepotism and favouritism? While this has resulted to the system becoming replete with incompetent hands, how much has the union tried to stop university administrators from doing this? How is the union working towards mounting a mechanism that will expose the incompetent members among its ranks who are the main drivers of poor quality education in the country due to their poor teaching?

.

Our primary and secondary education systems are more than rotten; they are ten times worse than our tertiary education system. If ASUUs objective is quality of education, it must also be concerned with this as there will be no proper tertiary education without a solid foundation from the bottom. 

.

ASUU should also be concerned with how many of its former members picked to serve in government in various positions and at various times have largely failed to make a significant impact either on the education sector in particular or the general progress of the country in general. Lest we forget, Goodluck Jonathan and Yemi Osinbajo were once ASUU members.

.

Twitter: @AmirAbdulazeez

Sent from my iPhone

[Kayode J. Fakinlede]

THE NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY SYSTEM – THE FUTURE
It is year 2040, there is a university or a tetiary institution in every town in Nigeria. Some major towns and cities have two or three of them. The real purpose for going to a university is now known. The quest for knowledge and the betterment of life have replaced jobs and employment opportunities as the raison d’étre for acquiring a university education. Years before this, several research and life experiences have proven beyond doubt that getting a university education does not make one rich. As a matter of fact, those whose primary purpose in life was to make money did not even bother to go to the university.
As a matter of fact, most of our universities are run by people and organizations who have one inerest or another to push. Many of these have science and technology as their primary objective, some business, some religion while others exist to promote Africanism.
What happened between now (2040) and the year of the umpteenth univesity strike (2017) to get us to where educational opportunities are now open to everyone? Not much. About ten years before, the government realised that its obligation is not to the professors and lecturers but to the students who want to have university education. Money is handed over directly, and as a matter of right, to all students who want to go to the university, to attend the university of their choice, and to study whatever it is that tickles their fancy as long as they passed the school certificate examination and the UNIVERSITY’S own entrance examination. NUC is gone!!! Thank God.
Did I say NUC is gone? Yes. And ASUU is now also history. NUC – that big white elephant, and ASUU, the other big white elephant whose incessant fights have left our students suffering and made our country non-competitive in the global market have been relieved of their tusks, their collision and trumpeting have become entertainment to the ears of the students, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
The government has washed his hands clean of paying professors and teachers and in creating universities. Many of the universities that were once the pride of regions (OAU, ABU, UNN) and several otthers have managed to extricate themselves from the stranglehold of the government, with the single purpose of forstering academic excellence. Quite a few of these have now begun to be counted as some of the best academic institutions in the world.
O yes! Fees are now charged by these universities. Parents who want their wards to attend some of these world standard universities are now paying the price for their children’s education along with the education grant that are claimed by the students from government as their right as Nigerians.
Many of the university lecturers, those who are really commited to academic excellence are now competing to be part of the university system even with lower wages.There is no longer a universal university salary scale. Each lecturer is rewarded by his own university as it sees fit, and according to his worth to his university. The emolument to the lecturers and professors have skyrocketed and are at par with the world standard because their output is the same as in any other world class unversity.
Strikes are forever gone!!! This happened not because the government proscribed the unions but because the union serves no purpose. Everybody is doing well. If a professor feels that his worth to a university is more than his remuneration, he simply puts himself in the market and moves to another university where he is more valued.
The universiies are now better managed, beter equipped and better sourced. The major job of the head of the university is getting resources from the outside world that will make his university competitive. If he does well, he is well rewarded by the non-government appointed governing board.
“Wake up!” someone screamed. I then realised this is 2017.

[Moses Ochonu]

A Facebook post by Professor Adeleke Adeleko. Imagine a professor gloating about a strike because he can go and relax in the Caribbean. And of course he knows that when the dust settles he will be paid for the time he was luxuriating in his Caribbean paradise.

"Has any student approached the courts to sue a specific university for lost time and earning potentials due to strikes? While I am sympathetic with the union's cause, it breaks my heart that students and parents bear most of the cost. After the strikes, everybody else gets paid back salaries for work not done. And students are left empty handed. Earlier today, I read a facebook update of a professor gloating about free time in the Caribbean, thanks to the "indefinite" and "total" strike. Where in the world is that done?"

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 16, 2017, at 6:54 PM, Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:

[Olayinka Agbetuyi]

Addendum:

Both my US & UK alma maters alumni association PR outlets still send solicitation mails to me even though they have no evidence I am affluent to contribute to some endowment or the other. They send alumni bulletins showing projects they have completed in the past (a sort of accountability measure) and proposed orojects

Nigerian university administrators can follow a similar route

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com>

Date: 17/08/2017 07:36 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Cc: Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Another ASUU Strike--phew!

Agreed!  ASUU as indicated in our ongoing debates on standards has a lot to do on its side to put a system in place to ugrade the moral, and professional standards of its members.

That is a different urgent battle that is a must to ensure the ultimate success of its battle with government.  If the present leadership of ASUU cannot rise to the occasion perhaps its high time a new leadership is constituted.

We cannot deplore the unbridled and unethical commercialisation of educational facilities on campus by administrators while aligning with govt position that universities aim towards financial self sufficiency in the shortest possible time.

Yes, university administrators in the longer term as I have argued before must be judged by how far they have brought in structured investment through the organized private sector, wealthy former alumni and world bodies without additional burden on students.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Moses Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>

Date: 17/08/2017 04:48 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Another ASUU Strike--phew!

This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (meoc...@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 16, 2017, at 6:54 PM, Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:

[Olayinka Agbetuyi]

Agreed! That behaviour doesnt show any sensitivity or maturity regarding the grave concern of an indefinite strike.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Moses Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>

Date: 17/08/2017 04:48 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Another ASUU Strike--phew!

This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (meoc...@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info

A Facebook post by Professor Adeleke Adeleko. Imagine a professor gloating about a strike because he can go and relax in the Caribbean. And of course he knows that when the dust settles he will be paid for the time he was luxuriating in his Caribbean paradise.

"Has any student approached the courts to sue a specific university for lost time and earning potentials due to strikes? While I am sympathetic with the union's cause, it breaks my heart that students and parents bear most of the cost. After the strikes, everybody else gets paid back salaries for work not done. And students are left empty handed. Earlier today, I read a facebook update of a professor gloating about free time in the Caribbean, thanks to the "indefinite" and "total" strike. Where in the world is that done?"

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 16, 2017, at 6:54 PM, Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:

[Olayinka Agbetuyi]

Agreed!  ASUU as indicated in our ongoing debates on standards has a lot to do on its side to put a system in place to ugrade the moral, and professional standards of its members.

That is a different urgent battle that is a must to ensure the ultimate success of its battle with government.  If the present leadership of ASUU cannot rise to the occasion perhaps its high time a new leadership is constituted.

We cannot deplore the unbridled and unethical commercialisation of educational facilities on campus by administrators while aligning with govt position that universities aim towards financial self sufficiency in the shortest possible time.

Yes, university administrators in the longer term as I have argued before must be judged by how far they have brought in structured investment through the organized private sector, wealthy former alumni and world bodies without additional burden on students.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Moses Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>

Date: 17/08/2017 04:48 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Another ASUU Strike--phew!

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 16, 2017, at 6:54 PM, Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

And truth be told, there are several incentives for these strikes--13 strikes in three decades is about one strike every three years! Here are the incentives, which, as long as they are available, will make strike the go-to tactic and will make ASUU too lazy to explore alternative approaches that are less disruptive.

1. Government does not enforce no-work-no-pay, so after every strike the lecturers are paid for all the months they did not work

2. Let's face it, many lecturers have side gigs as businesspeople, consultants, and lecturers in private universities, nullifying the effect of stoppage of salary due to strike

3. Many lecturers who regard teaching as a nuisance enthusiastically welcome strikes because they don't have to engage in an activity they disdain and/or are terrible at.

Shola, who is in UI as we speak, said he spoke to students and non-academic staff there on the day the strike was announced and the overwhelming sentiment was one of hostility towards ASUU. Talk to parents and you will get the same view. 

This means that ASUU has lost students, non-academic staff, and parents. Who else in Nigerian society supports ASUU's perennial hostage taking? The truth is that ASUU lives in a bubble. This bubble is populated by lecturers and their intellectual friends and acquaintances who do not want to ruin friendships or antagonize their colleagues. The result is that people in this ASUU bubble engage in self-reinforcing, incestuous narratives, telling one another what they want to hear and refusing to listen to saner perspectives outside the ASUU echo chamber.

[Ibukunolu. A. Babajide]

How noble! How unreasonable!! How impossible!!!

By the obscene excess and callous insensitivity of the politicians,
they have pushed ASUU across the Rubicon!

Cheers.


IBK

Sent from my Windows PhoneFrom: Chidi Anthony Opara
Sent: ‎15/‎08/‎2017 09:56
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Another ASUU Strike--phew!
Moses,
Your reaction here is more dramatic than Professorial.

CAO.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to

USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send

an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

[Abdul Salau]

Any movement which adopts as its beginning compromise is doomed.

“ The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.

This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.  “Frederick Douglass

Education just like other institutions in Nigeria such as marriage, family, health care, security, governance, and justice are dead..  What happened is that everybody is feeding on the dead bodies of these educational institutions.    Certain people with material and class interests are pleading for peace.  Where are the people advocating for peace for students, parents, and our country that has been abused and trampled upon by people without human compassion. Education was the first institutional infrastructure that was destroyed before other infrastructures collapsed on top of it.  Education is the foundation which all other things are built upon when it is destroyed symbols of its destruction are everywhere for people to see.

  Evidence of the destruct-ions are everywhere violence among youths, plights of migrants, kidnapping, corruption of political classes, judges, lawyers,  secession demands, religious fanaticism, ignorance, and anti-intellectualism of youths without socialization which  educational institutions provide.  

At this critical juncture when the leadership of ASUU is needed to train and socialize these youths to use their critical capacities to deal with problems confronting us as a nation.   Putting millions of youth out of universities at this time is recipe for disaster at the highest scale.

On Thu, Aug 17, 2017 at 2:55 PM, Ibukunolu. A. Babajide <ibk...@gmail.com> wrote:

How noble! How unreasonable!! How impossible!!!

By the obscene excess and callous insensitivity of the politicians,
they have pushed ASUU across the Rubicon!

Cheers.


IBK

Sent from my Windows PhoneFrom: Chidi Anthony Opara
Sent: ‎15/‎08/‎2017 09:56
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Another ASUU Strike--phew!
Moses,
Your reaction here is more dramatic than Professorial.

CAO.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com

To subscribe to this group, send an email to

USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send

an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Indeed, Abdul, there is a dearth of people advocating and protecting our students from predation, exploitation, and mediocrity. Somehow, we care more about protecting the egos of our home-based colleagues than protecting the student victims of ASUU's antics.

ASUU and its defenders seem to want to have it both ways. Let me explain.

They say ASUU should not be faulted for not championing the eradication of abusive, exploitation, predatory behaviors, and the mediocrity and poor commitment of its members. It is not ASUU's job to clean up or revamp the university system, they say. ASUU is a trade union, we are told, and like all trade unions it should only be concerned with the welfare of its dues paying members. So far so good. I have no issue with this.

The argument begins to fall apart however when you bring up the fact that 1) ASUU often claims to be fighting to reclaim and improve the university system; and 2) ASUU routinely includes non-welfare, non-renumerative issues in its package of demands, issues such as the ill-defined, nebulous funding.

Now, by including the non-welfare issue of infrastructural funding in its list of demands ASUU has already undermined the "ASUU is only a trade union" argument that it cops out when challenged to lead the reform effort. What they won't tell us is why ASUU can champion the cause of funding that has nothing to do with the welfare of its members but it would not champion effort to tackle the moral decadence of some of its members, something that is directly hurting the primary mission of the university. How is it that when ASUU is urged to take up the issue of poor ethics and poor commitment to teaching and research among its members it impulsively throws out the "we're a trade union" argument but yet it has no problem making other non-trade union demands when those demands serve to legitimize its more self-interested demands?

The answer to this conundrum, one that ASUU cannot resolve but has to resolve is this. ASUU cleverly adds some non-welfare demands about funding to its menu of negotiating points in order to win public support and stave off accusations of selfishness. It is convenient in this particular context for ASUU to declare itself more than a trade union and to pretend to be an organization dedicated to the reform and cleansing of the university system. In this context, it abandons its "we are only a trade union" canard because doing so enables it to dignify and legitimize its quest for a larger share of the national cake for its members. 

On the other hand, championing reform and cleansing in the university system does not have benefits for ASUU's members and the ASUU struggle. In fact championing the cause of reform and ethical cleansing would indict its members and demand more accountability from them. This is why in this particular context ASUU and its supporters hide behind the "we're a trade union" nonsense. 

It is this confusion, this dilemma, this contradiction that plagues ASUU and exposes it to critique and ridicule. They have to make up their minds about what they want to be. They cannot say "we're only a trade union" when it's convenient and when they want to avoid taking responsibility for the ills of their members, then turn around and say "we're trying to save the university system" when that is a convenient rhetorical resource that would bolster their propaganda during strikes.