FG/ASUU: Counting the Losses of a Face-off

After almost four months, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Universities (SSANU), Non Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) have all suspended their strikes. THISDAY reporters last week visited many of the campuses across the country to find out what prize they had to pay

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There was hardly any Nigerian that was not affected by what may be referred to as the “combined strikes' by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Universities (SSANU), Non Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), either directly or indirectly.
The relief was therefore universal when all the strikes were suspended last week, after the unions were able to reach some agreements with the government. From Sokoto to Bayelsa, Ondo to Adamawa states, THISDAY reporters visited several universities for on-the-spot assessment of the cost of the industrial action.
With the exception of about five that did not join the strike, including, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Adamawa State University, Mubi; University of Ilorin, Ebonyi and Enugu States Universities; federal and state universities in the country, 67 in all, have lost at least a semester.
Academic calendars that a good number of them were struggling to adjust to the good old 'September to July' have once again been dislocated. University of Jos (UNIJOS)'s calendar, for example was far behind those of many others. With one whole semester lost, the institution has been pushed further back.
Many of the universities were about to start their examinations when the strike began and in just about a week after the suspension, a few of them started their examinations last Monday. Some students even wrote tests a day after getting back to school.
Information Officer of the University of Calabar, Dr. Joseph Ekpang captured the consequence of this: students were returning to school rusty and this may lead to increase in examination malpractices and other vices as lecturers were bound to rush students in the remaining part of the session.
These are the easily observable losses. There are others that are easily overlooked but no less devastating. As Ekpang again observed, “the real cost of the strike is the dislocation of the economy of Cross River State, which revolves around the student population.”
This is true of all the institutions. Indeed, any school for that matter. A widow and mother of three, who prefers anonymity, runs a snacks shop at the University of Lagos. She described the strike as “a terrible experience because that (shop) is all we depend on for livelihood. There are some of the shops that are run by both husband and wife, so you can imagine. These strikes make businesses to collapse because they happen suddenly and many of things we sell, like packaged drinks, biscuits and gala expire and cannot be sold again. Whether we sell or not, we pay for the shops annually. It takes time for us to recover because things are so expensive now”, she lamented.
Usman Danfodio University (UDU), Sokoto, which announced immediate resumption of lectures on October 19, showed clearly the difference between an abandoned campus and an inhabited one. Mohammed Aminu reports that black boards in some lecture theatres on the main campus were cracked. Some of the reagents in the laboratories, especially the chemical pathology laboratories that would have been used up by now to train medical students had expired.
It was also observed that the cadaver, preserved for the training of 500-600 level medical students had been destroyed and no longer useful, because those that would have replenished the chemicals used in preserving them were on strike. In addition to this, weeds had overgrown some of the hostels on the main campus, while some rooms in the hostels needed new electric bulbs.
The situation was however completely different at the city campus where most of the students were allowed to stay in the hostels during the strike action.
Like many universities, those most affected were second and third-year medical students, who were about to write their examination before the strike commenced. The school authorities therefore generally allowed students to stay in the hostels, while lecture rooms and libraries were also open. As such, most of the facilities at the city campus were still intact.
Augustine Osayande also reports from Jalingo that the Taraba State University was approved by the National University Commission (NUC), several months before the ASUU strike, but when he visited the mini campus, located within the state polytechnic in Jalingo, not even the minimum facilities required for a university to take off were on ground. Observers have questioned the rationale behind the approval. At the proposed permanent site of the university at the state College of Education, construction work had been put on hold for financial reasons.
Normalcy is gradually returning to the system. A lecturer in the Microbiology Department at UNIJOS, Mr. Ezekiel Danjuma, told Seriki Adinoyi that, "all the laboratory specimens we prepared and cultured to teach students got wasted as they could not be preserved through the long strike period."
Another in the Mass Communication Department,Major Adeyi said, "this morning I had a good attendance of about 50 student in my class. We want to try to get back to work in full force to enable us cover lost grounds."
In the Human Physiology Department of the Faculty of Medicine, the reporter learnt that the Post-graduate admission exercise that should have been completed was put on hold because of the strike. "We now wait for directive from the postgraduate school to know what next to do”, a source said.
UNIJOS is considering admitting new students based on their JAMB scores alone as the Post UME screening that was conducted during the strike was cancelled, because the local Chapter of ASUU protested the engagement of a Laqgos-based firm to conduct another written test for the candidates, instead of the face-to-face interaction between them and lecturers.
At the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Uche Nnaike saw labourers clearing the weeds that were threatening to take over the campus. University Librarian, Dr. Okanlawon Adediji said his department could not participate in an online international programme, which held during the strike. Now that academic activities have resumed, he said there would be a lot of pressure on the facilities, as students would scramble for the limited spaces and materials in the library.
He said various departments usually do some maintenance work on some of their facilities during the long vacation, but this could not happen during the strike. Since they did not know when it would be suspended, being caught in the middle of the work would be disruptive to the system.
Adediji said the library remained open during the strike to accommodate lecturers and students who seized the opportunity to conduct some research. On the after effect of the strike, he said most students would not make the next batch of the National Youth Service Corps programme and the Law School. This he said would lead to a surge in the next batch.
Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Prof. Oluwole Familoni said lecturers were kept in suspense, not knowing when the strike would be called off. As such, they could neither go on holidays nor attend conferences and other self-development programmes within and outside country.
A final year student of the Department of Cell Biology/Genetics, Mr. Francis Imoh confirmed that there has been a rush in the academic programme and students, especially finalists were given unrealistic deadlines for the submission of projects and other assignments.
He also confirmed that samples for students' experiment went bad as the laboratories were shut down. Besides, no attendant was available to guide students through their experiments because the Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) was also on strike. This, he said, meant extra cost for the students.
While Imoh said the hostels needed to be renovated, an attendant at the Physics Laboratory, who preferred anonymity, said since the equipment were in good condition the last time they were used and was kept in a secured place, they were fine.
The University of Ilorin has not gone on strike, an aftermath of the crisis that led to the sack of 49 of its lecturers in 2001. It was therefore not affected by the latest strike. When Hameed Shittu visited the institution, which resumed for 2009/2010 academic session last month, students were seen in their various lecture halls.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, said the university had no regret over the non participation of its workers in the nation-wide strike. Although the university had been criticised over its position on the strike, he said posterity will vindicate the institution on the matter.
“It is part of our academic freedom to think differently at this stage of our institutional experience. We agree that people have the right to disagree and we share the sentiments of the 36th American president, Lyndon B. Johnson when he said 'where three people are discussing and two are nodding in agreement, only one person is thinking'.
“If thinking about the future of future generations and making sacrifice for the university system not to collapse are what we are criticised for, so be it. Our sense of probity is profound and posterity will ultimately vindicate the righteous”, he said. Oloyede said there are some people who deceitfully criticise programmes and activities of the university overtly, but show covertly that they envy the success it has recorded.
Staff and students of the Imo State University (IMSU), Owerri, resumed work immediately the strike was called off and academic activities began in earnest. The Spokesman, Sir Henry Acholonu told Amby Uneze that the academic calendar and conduct of the post-UME exercise were disrupted. The Senate has met to fine-tune the calendar for the remaining semesters.
While most of the infrastructures were in good condition, Acholonu admitted the school could do with more. The institution also suffered from erosion and environmental degradation while the strike lasted. But the Acting Vice Chancellor, Professor Okere mobilised casual workers to tackle them.
Toba Suleiman, who visited the University of Ado-Ekiti (UNAD), Ekiti State, found the entire campus over-grown weeds. The buildings, including the lectures theatres, were virtually submerged by the tall weeds,
Despite the suspension of the strike, UNAD was still struggling to get into the full swing of academic work as lecturers were yet to resume and students, who were yet to move into the hostels, were seen roaming about the university campus, lamenting their fate.
Besides, both the library and laboratory were apparently suffering from lack of use. The Registrar, Dr. Omojola Awosusi said academic activities could not resume until after the Senate has met and reviewed the academic calendar.
Whereas the second semester examination was scheduled for November in the original calendar, the school is yet to conduct that of the first semester. Law students that had lost six months in the former calendar have now lost a year, while some experiments in agricultural research have been abandoned and the researchers have to start all over again.
He expressed regret that the strike has had adverse effects on a lot of activities in the institution as it had been shut, following a student unrest, before the general strike began.
Adamawa State University, Mubi, established about four years ago, is yet to be unionised and so did not join the strike. Not so the Federal University of Technology Yola (FUTY). The Vice-Chancellor, of FUTY, Prof. Bashir Usman, who took Matthew Onah round the campus, described the effect of the strike on the university infrastructure as devastating.
Although they were yet to fully assess the impact, he said the management was compelled to hire more than 50 private sanitation workers, at a huge cost, to cut the grasses and weeds that almost overwhelmed the university during the period of the strike, which was the peak of the rainy season.
Usman further said, they were conducting a general assessment of the laboratories and workshops, to check which chemicals had expired and needed to be replaced and which machinery to retool.
With dirt and cobwebs adorning every office, laboratories, lecture theatres and workshops, the Vice Chancellor observed that the sanitation workers would have to work overtime to make the environment habitable before the students would be allowed to resume, this week.
Despite the suspension of the national strike, the local branches of all the four unions at the Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo remain in the trenches due to a protracted dispute with the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Akanni Hussain and his management team.
The unions were agitating for improved conditions of service, welfare package and good working relationship, among others. They also alleged victimisation, harassment and intimidation by the Vice Chancellor, who they also accused of contract inflation.
Funmi Ogundare, who visited, reports that equipment and structures were gathering dust. A lecturer who preferred anonymity in the Foreign Language Laboratory said, “the laboratory is a 2004/2005 project, what we have here is skeletal equipment. Nothing is functional.” Another lecturer in the Department of Public Relations and Advertising, Adebola Adegunwa School of Communication, Mr. Adewole Adeoye said most of the computers and other facilities in his department had deteriorated owning to lack of use for a long time. Yet another lecturer in the Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Dr. Tajudeen Abanikanda said the institution was endowed with sufficient financial, human and material resources, but unfortunately, “it is the problem of leadership and management that had gotten us to where we are today.”
He regretted that the institution's resources were properly channeled. Before the ASUU strike, he said, he was engaged in a research which was 80 percent completed, but he had to start all over again because the subjects were human. The project was neither supported nor funded by the institution. “I am in the Faculty of Sciences and the so called laboratories we have are nothing to write home about. The university says it has a central research laboratory, but I can tell you that it is nothing but a hoax.”
Abanikanda drew attention to the SL Edu lecture theatre saying, “I met that building on ground and nothing has been added since then. If you go to the Faculty of Sciences, you will see some car parks (with) money running into millions spent in constructing the car park which is sufficient to give us an auditorium for students to receive lectures. Unless the Vice Chancellor is removed from office, LASU will not be back to life”, he said.
Ekpang told Ernest Chinwo that neither facilities nor the environment of the University of Calabar suffered any depreciation as daily paid workers were used to maintain them.“What we basically lost”, the Information Officer said, “was the academic calendar. The implications are obvious. For instance, we had projected that the new session would start in October but because of the strike, it will now start in February (next year).” The university's Committee of Deans had already come out with a revised calendar with lectures beginning last Monday, October 26.
Deputy Registrar Information and Protocol, at the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Mr Omololu Adegbenro also told James Sowole that the university's facilities were maintained throughout the period of strike. According to him, the workers in the school's Parks and Gardens of the school, who were responsible for cleaning of the environment and halls of residence, are contractors that do not go on strike.
Academic activities had since commenced in earnest "At FUTA we did not have much problem over the strike. The calendar was only affected slightly, which we are already coping with and normal academic activities already going on. THISDAY learnt that despite the strike, academic staff that were carrying out one form of research or the other continued with their work because they knew that their promotion depended on these.
The Wilberforce Island campus of the Niger Delta University (NDU) was in a good state and the facilities, well managed when Segun James visited. But this was not the case at the Faculty of Law in Yenagoa, which was overgrown with weeds. The University's Teaching Hospital at Okolobiri was worse as almost all the physical infrastructures were falling apart.
Most of the internal road networks within the hospital had given way, including the one leading to the ever busy mortuary. People who came to pick the remains of their loved ones had to carry them over a distance to get to where their vehicles were parked.
The small campus in Amassoma bounced back to life immediately the strike was called off. The grasses were all trimmed and some construction work going on when THISDAY called. Some students interviewed confirmed that majority of them live off campus.
Even though the laboratories, lecture halls and hostels were in good shape, cleaners at the old site of Bayero University, Kano (BUK) must have remained on strike when Ibrahim Shuaibu called, with the heaps of refuse littering everywhere. The hostels were particularly bad.
Members of the university community continue to grapple with the perennial problem of inadequate transportation between the two campuses of the university as lecturers and students resumed, but were merely idling away as academic activities were yet to start.
The situation was the same at the Kano State University of Science and Technology (KUST), Wudil, lecturers and students have resumed with nothing to do. THISDAY learnt that lectures may not commence in the next two weeks as some structures were being renovated.
Both personnel and medications were available at the university clinic in BUK, but some students said they preferred to visit hospitals in the city due to alleged unnecessary bureaucracy at the clinic.
Asked why lectures had not commenced, Chairman of the BUK chapter of ASUU, Dr. Abdullahi Bichi Baffa said the suspension of the strike meant that lecturers were to report to their offices. It is the responsibility of university authorities to call students back.
A lecturer at KUST, Malam Muhammad Sani Gaya told THISDAY that he and his colleagues were eager to return to work, considering the a whole semester had been lost to the strike.
How can the nation avoid these losses? Former Minister of Education, Prof. Babatunde Fafunwa provided the answer: Dialogue, dialogue and dialogu. Asked to react to the signing of the Agreement between the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) last week, he expressed hope that, from now on, any issue between the government and university workers would be settled through dialogue and not strikes because “strike is an ill-wind that blows no one any good.”