By Douglas Anele
Once again, another round of insensate
indefinite strike by the Academic Staff
Union of Universities (ASUU) has
paralysed academic activities in federal
and state universities nationwide. According to the union, the decision to
go on strike stems from government’s
insincerity and lack of seriousness,
which led to the non-implementation
of some provisions of the 2011
agreement. Specifically, the issue concerns “earned
allowances,” that is, allowances meant
for the excess workload by lecturers,
which include teaching more students
than the recommended number,
supervision of post-graduate dissertations, and sundry administrative
functions performed by lecturers. For me, President Goodluck Jonathan is
a great disappointment to his former
colleagues, considering the fact that as
a former lecturer, he should have
invested heavily and wisely in the
educational sector. When military dictators were in power, they put a lot
of money into defence because that is
their primary constituency. There is no good reason why a former
academic should not give preferential
treatment to the education sector,
because well-educated human capital is
the most important factor in national
development. As I have always argued whenever ASUU resorts to indefinite
strike, successive federal and state
governments have never lived up to
their responsibilities to institutions of
higher learning in the country. This is because of heart-rending
corruption and lack of deep
appreciation by political office holders
of the fundamental role sound tertiary
education plays in national
development, especially now that we a living in a knowledge-driven
globalising world. Speaking of corruption, Jonathan’s
administration lacks the moral
authority and iron will to deal with it
decisively. Consequently, scarce public
funds that ought to be used to improve
education and other critical sectors of our national life are looted and the
remainder is wasted on the sybaritic
lifestyles of top government
functionaries. That said, the reaction of
Prof. Julius Okojie, Executive Secretary,
National Universities Commission (NUC) to the current strike is disingenuous.
According to him, ASUU should have
persevered because the amount it
presented to government for settling
the unpaid allowances was huge. Prof.
Okojie ignored the fact that there is enough money to meet most of ASUU’s
demands, but President Jonathan and
other top public office holders are not
managing it wisely. Moreover, given government’s half-
hearted implementation of agreements
with ASUU in the past, the union is
justified in thinking that government
does not really intend to keep its own
side of the bargain this time around also. Nevertheless, if indeed it is true, as
Okojie alleged, that ASUU did not get
back to government after its National
Executive Council meeting at Olabisi
Onabanjo University before announcing
the strike, then the union acted in bad faith. Why is ASUU in a hurry to declare
an indefinite strike just for earned
allowances, to which only some
lecturers are entitled anyway? In my
view, considering the serious damages
to the universities caused by frequent indefinite strikes, ASUU should have
been a little more patient, no matter
the level of frustration with the
unnecessary delays by government in
paying the allowances. From the foregoing, government is
wrong in failing to abide by the terms
of the agreement it has with
representatives of the lecturers and
deserves blame for giving ASUU an
excuse to embark on strike once again. Yet, it would be intellectually dishonest,
and false, not to highlight some of the
ways lecturers have contributed to the
financial problems in various public-
owned universities. To begin with,
university authorities across the country, just like politicians in
government right now, are guilty of
financial recklessness and
mismanagement of resources. Government-owned universities derive
funds from two principal sources,
namely, government subventions and
internally generated revenue (or IGR).
In terms of IGR, authorities of the
University of Lagos are working very hard to optimise the revenue-
generating potentials of the institution.
But there are many leakages in the
financial pipelines of our university
system as a whole which prevent
optimum utilisation of available resources to cater for the welfare of
lecturers. For example, it appears that
the universities are competing to see
which one would have the largest fleet
of redundant brand new cars and which
Vice Chancellor would drive the biggest and most expensive jeeps. In addition,
the new bureaucracies and directorates
of questionable value to the growth of
the system created in various
universities cost a lot of money to
maintain. We should not fail to mention the numerous, mostly unnecessary,
foreign trips embarked upon by top
management staff of the universities. All this constitutes a huge financial
burden on the system and prevents
university authorities from paying
lecturers what is due to them. Why are
the local branches of ASUU unwilling or
unable to demand accountability and transparency from relevant principal
officers of their various universities?
ASUU must begin to look inwards
because several Vice Chancellors,
bursars etc. will not survive painstaking
scientific audit of their institutions: corruption and misappropriation of
funds are not the exclusive preserve of
politicians – there are also bad eggs in
the universities. Again, I do not support indefinite strike
because of its negative effects on
students and other stakeholders,
including lecturers. Frequent disruptions
in the academic calendar compromise
academic quality, frustrate students and prolong the duration of academic
programmes. The social costs are
immense too, for both students and
their families. It is disappointing that
ASUU does not consider it appropriate
to conduct a thorough scientific study of the repercussions of frequent strikes
on various stakeholders within and
outside the university system. As
academics, we are supposed to
manifest an unceasing desire for
knowledge and truth. Therefore, how can we, seekers and
custodians of knowledge at the highest
level resort to strikes ad nauseam
without corroborating evidence of its
overall effectiveness in improving the
system? The mere fact that our salaries increase after each strike does not
necessarily mean that we have become
better lecturers and researchers, let
alone guarantee positive change in
other variables that determine the
quality of knowledge impartation in the universities. Let us tell ourselves the
truth: funding is a serious problem
militating against high standards and
best practices in Nigerians universities
and government is the major culprit
here. However, the kind of students and lecturers in our institutions of higher
learning nowadays, I submit, is a bigger
problem. Many students are not in
school to be educated; they just want
to get certificates as soon as possible
and join the rat race for primitive accumulation. On the other hand, the
spirit and attitude of people joining the
academic profession, especially in the
last fifteen years, is a negation of what
the spirit and attitude of a genuine
academic should be. Of course, teaching in a university is
fundamentally a vocation. Thus, anyone
that chooses it must be prepared to put
the quest for truth above everything
else. Unfortunately, a crowd of self-
centred, hypocritical, promotion- intoxicated careerists who are afraid to
tell senior colleagues that run the
system the plain truth, especially when
the latter perform badly increasingly
dominate the academia. Some of these
misfits are so fanatic about strikes that they would resort to violence to
prevent dissenters like me from
teaching, forgetting that when
everyone is thinking and acting alike,
not much critical thinking is going on.
CONCLUDED. All the same, I am proud of many
colleagues that reject the prevailing
herd mentality for their erudition,
intellectual honesty, truthfulness and
genuine love for teaching. This group of
lecturers must speak out against destruction of the university system by
colleagues who continue to do the
same thing every time and expect a
different result each time. CONCLUDED
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/07/why-i-am-against-asuus-frequent-indefinite-strikes-1/

justirich: By Douglas Anele
Once again, another round of insensate
indefinite strike by the Academic Staff
Union of Universities (ASUU) has
paralysed academic activities in federal
and state universities nationwide. According to the union, the decision to
go on strike stems from government’s
insincerity and lack of seriousness,
which led to the non-implementation
of some provisions of the 2011
agreement. Specifically, the issue concerns “earned
allowances,” that is, allowances meant
for the excess workload by lecturers,
which include teaching more students
than the recommended number,
supervision of post-graduate dissertations, and sundry administrative
functions performed by lecturers. For me, President Goodluck Jonathan is
a great disappointment to his former
colleagues, considering the fact that as
a former lecturer, he should have
invested heavily and wisely in the
educational sector. When military dictators were in power, they put a lot
of money into defence because that is
their primary constituency. There is no good reason why a former
academic should not give preferential
treatment to the education sector,
because well-educated human capital is
the most important factor in national
development. As I have always argued whenever ASUU resorts to indefinite
strike, successive federal and state
governments have never lived up to
their responsibilities to institutions of
higher learning in the country. This is because of heart-rending
corruption and lack of deep
appreciation by political office holders
of the fundamental role sound tertiary
education plays in national
development, especially now that we a living in a knowledge-driven
globalising world. Speaking of corruption, Jonathan’s
administration lacks the moral
authority and iron will to deal with it
decisively. Consequently, scarce public
funds that ought to be used to improve
education and other critical sectors of our national life are looted and the
remainder is wasted on the sybaritic
lifestyles of top government
functionaries. That said, the reaction of
Prof. Julius Okojie, Executive Secretary,
National Universities Commission (NUC) to the current strike is disingenuous.
According to him, ASUU should have
persevered because the amount it
presented to government for settling
the unpaid allowances was huge. Prof.
Okojie ignored the fact that there is enough money to meet most of ASUU’s
demands, but President Jonathan and
other top public office holders are not
managing it wisely. Moreover, given government’s half-
hearted implementation of agreements
with ASUU in the past, the union is
justified in thinking that government
does not really intend to keep its own
side of the bargain this time around also. Nevertheless, if indeed it is true, as
Okojie alleged, that ASUU did not get
back to government after its National
Executive Council meeting at Olabisi
Onabanjo University before announcing
the strike, then the union acted in bad faith. Why is ASUU in a hurry to declare
an indefinite strike just for earned
allowances, to which only some
lecturers are entitled anyway? In my
view, considering the serious damages
to the universities caused by frequent indefinite strikes, ASUU should have
been a little more patient, no matter
the level of frustration with the
unnecessary delays by government in
paying the allowances. From the foregoing, government is
wrong in failing to abide by the terms
of the agreement it has with
representatives of the lecturers and
deserves blame for giving ASUU an
excuse to embark on strike once again. Yet, it would be intellectually dishonest,
and false, not to highlight some of the
ways lecturers have contributed to the
financial problems in various public-
owned universities. To begin with,
university authorities across the country, just like politicians in
government right now, are guilty of
financial recklessness and
mismanagement of resources. Government-owned universities derive
funds from two principal sources,
namely, government subventions and
internally generated revenue (or IGR).
In terms of IGR, authorities of the
University of Lagos are working very hard to optimise the revenue-
generating potentials of the institution.
But there are many leakages in the
financial pipelines of our university
system as a whole which prevent
optimum utilisation of available resources to cater for the welfare of
lecturers. For example, it appears that
the universities are competing to see
which one would have the largest fleet
of redundant brand new cars and which
Vice Chancellor would drive the biggest and most expensive jeeps. In addition,
the new bureaucracies and directorates
of questionable value to the growth of
the system created in various
universities cost a lot of money to
maintain. We should not fail to mention the numerous, mostly unnecessary,
foreign trips embarked upon by top
management staff of the universities. All this constitutes a huge financial
burden on the system and prevents
university authorities from paying
lecturers what is due to them. Why are
the local branches of ASUU unwilling or
unable to demand accountability and transparency from relevant principal
officers of their various universities?
ASUU must begin to look inwards
because several Vice Chancellors,
bursars etc. will not survive painstaking
scientific audit of their institutions: corruption and misappropriation of
funds are not the exclusive preserve of
politicians – there are also bad eggs in
the universities. Again, I do not support indefinite strike
because of its negative effects on
students and other stakeholders,
including lecturers. Frequent disruptions
in the academic calendar compromise
academic quality, frustrate students and prolong the duration of academic
programmes. The social costs are
immense too, for both students and
their families. It is disappointing that
ASUU does not consider it appropriate
to conduct a thorough scientific study of the repercussions of frequent strikes
on various stakeholders within and
outside the university system. As
academics, we are supposed to
manifest an unceasing desire for
knowledge and truth. Therefore, how can we, seekers and
custodians of knowledge at the highest
level resort to strikes ad nauseam
without corroborating evidence of its
overall effectiveness in improving the
system? The mere fact that our salaries increase after each strike does not
necessarily mean that we have become
better lecturers and researchers, let
alone guarantee positive change in
other variables that determine the
quality of knowledge impartation in the universities. Let us tell ourselves the
truth: funding is a serious problem
militating against high standards and
best practices in Nigerians universities
and government is the major culprit
here. However, the kind of students and lecturers in our institutions of higher
learning nowadays, I submit, is a bigger
problem. Many students are not in
school to be educated; they just want
to get certificates as soon as possible
and join the rat race for primitive accumulation. On the other hand, the
spirit and attitude of people joining the
academic profession, especially in the
last fifteen years, is a negation of what
the spirit and attitude of a genuine
academic should be. Of course, teaching in a university is
fundamentally a vocation. Thus, anyone
that chooses it must be prepared to put
the quest for truth above everything
else. Unfortunately, a crowd of self-
centred, hypocritical, promotion- intoxicated careerists who are afraid to
tell senior colleagues that run the
system the plain truth, especially when
the latter perform badly increasingly
dominate the academia. Some of these
misfits are so fanatic about strikes that they would resort to violence to
prevent dissenters like me from
teaching, forgetting that when
everyone is thinking and acting alike,
not much critical thinking is going on.
CONCLUDED. All the same, I am proud of many
colleagues that reject the prevailing
herd mentality for their erudition,
intellectual honesty, truthfulness and
genuine love for teaching. This group of
lecturers must speak out against destruction of the university system by
colleagues who continue to do the
same thing every time and expect a
different result each time. CONCLUDED
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/07/why-i-am-against-asuus-frequent-indefinite-strikes-1/

The only time you appreciate teaching huh. Go and replace them!

^^^

O'boy, no need to quote that long epistle just to make your comments.

@ferdimako I wanted to call you a retarded fool for your long quote, but I have forgiving you this fool.

On ASUU strike, could they for once reason that every day is for the thief (lecturers) one day is for the owner of the house (students) I smell a revolution cause the signs are ominous.

ASUU - Academic Staff Union of Universities:
Following the indefinite strike thatthe group embark on, on Monday 1st July 2013, the above named association has decided to cancel the strike for students to resume school on Monday 8th July 2013, lectures and tests would commence immediately ......................... but am sorry to say, all dis happened in my dream last night....Na Joke oh.....

immortalvoices: @ferdimako I wanted to call you a retarded fool for your long quote, but I have forgiving you this fool.

On ASUU strike, could they for once reason that every day is for the thief (lecturers) one day is for the owner of the house (students) I smell a revolution cause the signs are ominous.

I don't mind your invective but note that in Nigeria, we can't remove a LG councilor.