Southeast ASUU strike

The strike embarked by lecturers of upon universities in the South-East that has lasted for several months now has drawn the attention of concerned citizens of the zone. Some of them have, therefore, expressed concern over the ugly development that has brought academic activities in the zone to a halt, a situation that has questioned the capability of the state governments to effectively run university education.

Consequently, most people in the region had suggested that state universities should be taken over by the Federal Government, leaving for the state only the polytechnics and colleges of education to manage.

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But in an interview with Daily Sun, a former Minister of Education, Chief Igwe Aja-Nwachukwu, opposed the suggestion though he described the situation that has forced the youths of the area to roam the streets as very unfortunate.
He observed that state universities in the country have their origin and were pioneered in the South-east, pointing out that the Imo State University, now Evan Enwerem University established by the late Chief Sam Mbakwe was the first state university.
He argued that it would be unconstitutional to call on the Federal Government to take over state universities because of observed lapses since it is not in the constitution.

“I can’t buy an idea which is not in the constitution. The constitution says that the Federal Government shall and as when possible provide free education as at and when practicable. So, for the time being it is only practicable to try to operate free education by Federal Government within the basic level. Then the constitution provides that education is within the concurrent list and just like the Bible says no man starts a house without counting the cost. So, nobody has compelled any state to build university. So, if a state decides to go into university business they should sit down and count the cost and also bear in mind that university means universal; it is not a local institution, it is not even a national institution, it is a universal institution that has a standard of measurement internationally.

“So, anybody going into it should first make up his mind; after all, all the state universities were established based on enacted laws from their state assemblies unlike the federal universities which will be an enactment of the national assembly. So, what I am saying is that even these states that have federal university, they also have state university.

“I can never guarantee that if you take any state universities from a state government that ten years time they will not create another state university. So, I don’t think it is the best option. One must also note that it is the issue of supply and demand in the 60s; how many people were demanding for university education, the supply of university education was being met by the number demanded. There were three regional universities, Nsukka, Ibadan and Ahmadu Bello and later Lagos they were meeting the demand because of the limited number of demand, but there is an explosion and even now the numbers of universities have not been able to meet the demand, so, we cannot just say let the states take over.

“The Polytechnics are also very challenging institutions to run. And you remember the recommendations we made to government and government accepted to transform all the Polytechnics to degree awarding institutions and and when I asked AMBTE, they said they are still in that process and that they are working out the modalities and when you do that all the institutions will become universities. I don’t buy the idea that Federal Government should take over all the state universities or stop states from operating universities because even the numbers of universities we have now have not been able to meet the demand of university education and secondly nobody compelled any state government to start a state university, they voluntarily entered into it”.

He explained that what was happening is what economists call a shock, adding that as “you finish your budget you get unanticipated item wanting accommodating within the budget. Yes, the argument of our governors are very reasonable, we are operating a federal system and based on true federalism no group has the right to fix salary for the other group, but on the other hand we must also not forget that in as much as education is in the concurrent list the Federal Government has the monopoly of supervising the quality of education, especially at the tertiary level and that is why when you look at the 2009 ASUU-Federal Government agreement you see a clause that states that the Federal Government shall not compel any state government to implement this salary scale, but it should be known that any institution that operates within the university education system shall use this salary scale as a benchmark.

“So, the question becomes, can the state universities operate outside the education system in Nigeria which is very difficult? Having said that we must also not forget the fact that these governors can only be judged by their manifestoes and I judge my governor based on his manifesto; he is doing extremely well; what he has promised is what he is offering. People often quote UNESCO 26 per cent, I have never seen as the former minister any document, I requested the then UNESCO Ambassador of Education, please I want that document, the UNESCO prescription that government should spend 26 per cent on education; he told me that there is no document like that, but even if such a document exists, Ebonyi is spending 33 per cent. What I know is that PDP in its manifesto says every PDP government shall be encouraged to spend 15 per cent of its budget on education. So, if we are spending 33 per cent it means government is doing well; so you can see the paradox and the shock which I have talked about.