Strike is an organised work stoppage by a body of workers to enforce compliance with demands made on an employer or a group of employers. It is usually a form of protest to force recalcitrant employers to respect the value of labour and accord the latter its rightful place taking into consideration the historical exploitative relationship between labour and capital. In organisations or countries where the principle of collective bargaining is not respected by the employers of labour, the tendency for workers to employ the strike option is very rife. Workers with deep class consciousness and a strong capacity to understand the intriguing manipulations of their employers always exercise their democratic right to fight industrial injustice and dictatorship. The implication of the above is that the character of
states and the nature of employers determine the
frequency of work stoppages in a country or in an
industry. Experience has shown that societies that
are under-developed with an accompanying
irresponsible leadership go through all kinds of strikes and industrial crises with their deleterious
consequences on the people. This is because, as
usual, the ultimate sufferers of these strikes and
industrial conflicts are the ordinary people and
other victims of the society including the striking
workers. Apparently, because of the hypocritical nature of the society the striking workers who
ought to deserve the sympathy of the public at all
levels become derided and dismissed as agents of
destabilisation. In most cases, the issues that would
have led to the strike are ignored by commentators
who in their exasperation would want the workers to go back to work. Some do not even want to
know "who is right or wrong". All they want is
industrial peace. Quite a lot of people have responded to the on-
going strike of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU). There are three broad
categories of people: Those who are in support of
the union; those who are opposed to the strike and
even strikes in general and those who are playing the Ostrich game. This piece is meant for all the
three categories of people. It is true that strikes by
their nature are disruptive and that the university
lecturers' strikes have been too frequent. The
immediate question is: Why does ASUU always
embark on strike? In answering this question, it will be important to
look at the whole gamut of ASUU/FGN relationship
over the years since the coming into being of ASUU.
ASUU grew out of the Nigerian Association of
University Teachers (NAUT) which was formed in
1965. Those who formed ASUU in 1978 felt that NAUT was more like a "middle class fraternity"
which did not have the much needed vigour and
orientation suitable for the development of
Nigeria's university system in particular and
education in general. Nigeria's post-colonial state
had been hijacked by the Military and allied forces who mismanaged the oil boom of the period. The
freedoms of the people had been eroded;
education at all levels was not getting the required
attention; the oil boom, instead of catalyzing the
development of the country became ironically a
source of under-development and real curse to the nation. It was in the midst of these contradictions
and disabling environment that ASUU emerged as
an intellectual force to challenge the powers-that-
be and offer a credible alternative for our country. Universities by their nature are democratic
institutions hence they are opposed to any manner
of imposition either from within or without. The
1978 Uthman Mohammed Commission Report
which took away the disciplinary functions of the
Governing Councils of Universities provided a litmus test for ASUU. This was because the government of
the period in question used the report as a basis to
direct some University Governing Councils to
dismiss certain members of staff from their posts
without giving them fair hearing. In 1980, ASUU
declared a Trade Dispute with the Shagari government, making the issue of autonomy an
important matter. ASUU also fought Shagari's government following
Justice Balonwu's Visitation Panel Report which
had directed the Council of the University of Lagos
to remove six senior members of the academic staff
from their jobs. Given the nature of its mandate,
ASUU fought the federal government under Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1980 and 1981 on issues
bordering on funding, salaries, autonomy and
academic freedom, brain-drain, the survival of the
university system in particular and the direction of
the country in general. Throughout the Military era, ASUU waged a lot of
struggles revolving around conditions of service;
funding; university authority/academic freedom;
the defence of the right to education; broad
national issues such as the anti-military struggles;
actions against privatisation, SAP and other neo- liberal policies of the government including the
World Bank's attempts to take over the Nigerian
University system through its loan under the regime
of Babangida. It should be recalled that ASUU had battled the
Buhari/Idiagbon regime's policy of retrenchment of
workers and freezing of wages; gave support to
the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and the
National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD)
when they went on their patriotic strike to rescue the deteriorating health services in Nigeria in 1984.
ASUU, through strikes, also supported the Nigerian
Labour Congress (NLC) and the National
Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) to protest
the brutal murder of the Ahmadu Bello University
(ABU) students by Mobile Policemen in 1986. Again, in 1987 and 1988 the Union was in the trenches.
The Union fought the illegal dismissal of its
president, Dr. Festus Iyayi and others in 1987. It
participated fully in the 1988 general strikes
occasioned by the effects of the Structural
Adjustment Programme (SAP) which the Babangida government had imposed on the country. The earlier Elongated University Salary Scale (EUSS)
which the government was to implement was
abandoned. ASUU was banned but the academics
organised themselves under the platform of
Universities Lecturers Association (ULA) and it was
under this platform that the anti-World Bank Conference to resist the Babangida regime's
attempt to obtain the $120 million loan from the
World Bank was held at OAU, Ile-Ife, in 1990. The failure of the FGN in 1991 to negotiate with the
union led to the 1992 strike which was declared on
May 14, 1992 but was suspended a week after in
deference to an IAP order that the strike should be
immediately suspended. Although the IAP ruling
compelled both parties to the negotiating table, the government did not resume the negotiation and
this pushed ASUU into resuming its strike on July
20, 1992. ASUU was again banned for the second
time on August 23, 1992, but when the
government failed in all its tricks to break the strike,
it appointed the Owelle Chikelu team to negotiate with ASUU. It was this negotiation with a "banned"
union that produced the 1992 agreement on
October 3, 1992, which Prof. Nwabueze, the erudite
scholar and lawyer, in his legal sophistry described
as "an agreement of imperfect obligation". This
agreement, among other things provided for a periodic review of every three years. The Abacha dictatorship presented a greater
challenge to ASUU because of the former's brutal
and tough undemocratic credentials and no
wonder ASUU opted to join other patriotic forces to
fight to end Military rule. In 1994 ASUU went on
strike demanding from the government of Abacha: a re-negotiation of the agreement; the re-
instatement of over eighty lecturers sacked at the
University of Abuja by the then Vice-Chancellor,
Prof. Isa Mohammed and the de-annulment of the
June 12, 1993 elections ostensibly won by Chief
M.K.O. Abiola. Another strike was declared in 1996 by ASUU to
press its demand for the re-negotiation of the 1992
agreement and the re-instatement of the UNI
ABUJA sacked academics. This strike lasted for six
months. When the strike was suspended, the
Abacha government set up the Prof. Umaru Shehu- led Negotiating Team. The government wanted
individual Councils of Universities to negotiate with
the individual branches of ASUU as part of its
decentralization of negotiations. This was met with
stiff resistance leading the Abacha government into
sacking some ASUU leaders including the then National President of ASUU, Prof. Asisi Abobie of
UNN through a letter from the National Universities
Commission (NUC) to their Vice-Chancellors. But the Abdulsalami's regime, as part of its efforts to
gain legitimacy, through its Minister of Education,
Chief Ola-Iya Oni made overtures to ASUU and re-
instatated ASUU leaders who were unjustly sacked
by the Abacha junta for their involvement in the
1996 strike and those earlier dismissed in 1984 through Decree 17 of 1984. On May 25, 1999 the
government signed an agreement on percentage
increases in the allowances of academics. This
agreement was "without prejudice to a
comprehensive negotiation at a future date"
between the two parties. The Obasanjo regime after much pressures agreed to set up its Negotiating
Team led by Prof. Ayo Banjo and the negotiations
began on August 28, 2000. The Agreement was to
be signed in December 2001. The FGN did not sign
the Agreement as Dr. Babalola Borisade who
replaced Prof. Tunde Adeniran as Minister of Education prevented the Federal Government's
Team from signing the Agreement. ASUU rejected
Borisade's moves and resumed its suspended
strike. This forced the government to resume
negotiations and the subsequent signing of the
Agreement on June 30, 2001. The Government of Obasanjo did not implement the
2001 agreement, prompting ASUU to embark on
another strike on December 29, 2002. Obasanjo
had wanted to cancel the central bargaining
process and to introduce school fees in the
university system. He also wanted to take a loan of $68 million from the World Bank to implement a
World Bank-sponsored Nigerian Universities
Innovation Project (NUSIP). William Saint, the World
Bank anchor man was everywhere in Nigeria
campaigning for the implementation of NUSIP. The
strike was suspended in June 2003 on the orders of the IAP. The ding-dong between the FGN and
ASUU continued until December 14, 2006, when the
then Minister of Education, Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili
on behalf of the FGN inaugurated the FGN/ASUU Re-
negotiating Committee under the leadership of
Deacon Gamaliel Onosode to re-negotiate the 2001 Agreement which had been due for re-negotiation
since June 2004. The re-negotiation which started
on January 23, 2007 was concluded in January
2009. After the grueling two years of negotiation,
Onosode said he had not the mandate of his
principal to sign the Agreement. This position forced ASUU into another round of strike for four
months leading to the signing of the Agreement
under Ya'radua. It is instructive to note that the 2009 Agreement
which took many years of struggles to come into
being is the basis of the current industrial action as
many aspects of the Agreement are yet to be
implemented even though the Agreement had
been due for re-negotiation since January 1, 2012. Those who blame ASUU for the frequency of strikes
in the university system ought to understand that
the constant punctuations experienced in the
system are caused by the irresponsibility of the
successive governments in Nigeria. From 1978 to
date, successive governments have not demonstrated commitment to education and
Nigeria's development as can be seen in their
willingness to run after and implement ill-digested
programmes foisted on them by their international
masters that do not have relevance to the needs
and aspirations of the people of our country. Government willingly enters into agreements with
workers after many strikes only to abandon the
implementation half way. Government must own
up to its responsibility by being sincere with the
citizenry at all levels. Government officials who are
inebriated with power should weigh the consequences of their utterances. The reported dismissive claim of the Minister of Labour and
Productivity, Mr. Emeka Wogu to the effect that the
2009 Agreement between ASUU and the FGN, is
unimplementable, if it is true has the capacity of
deepening the face-off. Government officials like Wogu and the NUC Secretary, Prof. Julius Okojie
who fawningly and ingratiatingly engage in bizarre
displays with a view to currying favours from their
boss, are liabilities to the government they serve.
Agents like them have made our universities a hot
bed of industrial conflicts. Respect to agreements genuinely entered into by government with
workers in the university system and elsewhere will
definitely guarantee industrial peace and harmony.

source:m.naij.com/news/42738.html

i'm not even blaming ASUU for the strikes. It's the fault of the stupid pple we vote in there to govern us.

This ASUU strike is a miasma of a deprecable apothesis of an hemorrhaging plutocracy, cascadinly oozing into a maladorous excresence of mobocracy. With all tarmangant ossifying proclivities of a kakistocracy,our knowledgia centura is enveloped in a paraphlegic crinkum crankum. Therefore, ASUU, cest in dejavu, dejavu peret ologomabia