“Instances abound in which students who otherwise ought to have been fully engaged with their studies were made to spend months on end at home with absolutely nothing to do. Faced with so much time many students easily drift towards crime and other anti-social activities. Students have been known to have engaged in crimes as vicious as rape”.

On August 17, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) announced the start of yet another indefinite strike over unresolved issues with the Federal Government. The decision to embark on the strike was said to have been taken after a nationwide consultation with members of the Union. It was announced that the “the nationwide action is total and comprehensive. During the strike there shall be no teaching, no examination and no attendance of statutory meetings of any kind…”

The union traced the genesis of the crisis to the failure of government fulfil the terms of the MOU entered into between it and the government in 2009 and 2013 and alleged that of all the items contained in the MoU, only the N200b out of a total of N1.3trn of the Public Universities Revitalisation (Needs Assessment) fund was released. It stated that all its entreaties to government on the need to fulfil its obligations, inclusive of warning strikes failed to achieve the desired result. Some of the outstanding issues with the Federal Government were stated 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 revitalisation of public universities. Specifically, the Chairman of ASUU, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi was reported to have stated as follows:

“Of all the items contained in the MoU, only the N200b out of a total of N1.3tr of the Public Universities Revitalisation (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 based on the intervention by the leadership of the Senate…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.”

It is clear from the above that the current strike is similar to that of 2013 in one very important respect: the failure of government to honour past agreements with ASUU and the insistence of ASUU, that the agreements be honoured. In this respect, I recall that during the strike of 2013 I stated the view that a strike is not the appropriate way or means to enforce an agreement which has already been reduced into writing and that ASUU should have explored the option of seeking a legal redress. I particularly stated as follows:

“I am of the opinion that neither the Trade Disputes Act nor Trade Union Act permits a union to go on strike on a “concluded ‘agreement’. Where agreement had been concluded by parties over a dispute cognizable under Trade Dispute Act, any issue arising from the agreement thereafter cannot qualify as a “trade dispute” under Trade Dispute Act or Trade Union Act.

The Trade” Dispute Act defines “Trade Dispute” to mean “any dispute between employers and workers or between worker and worker, which is connected with the employment or non-employment or the term of employment or physical condition of any person. From the definition the issue or dispute in contention must be connected with the employment of the employee. The Act in Section 8 makes provision for the appointment of a conciliator who will inquire into the circumstances of the dispute and bring about a settlement which will be signed by the representatives of the parties to the dispute. It was such a process that led to the agreement of 2009 as the Federal Government appointed a panel of eminent Nigerians to look into the issues raised by ASUU. Therefore, there has been a determination and / or agreement on the fact that brought about the dispute leading to the agreement of 2009. Subsection 4 of Section 8 provides penalty upon conviction for the breach by any party to the agreement of the terms of such agreement. The remedy available to ASUU is not a strike.

This situation is similar to one in which parties having submitted a dispute to a court of law, subsequently enter into an agreement, the terms of which is then pronounced as the judgement of the court. This procedure which in legal parlance is referred to as a “Consent judgement” is one against which no party to it can appeal. Most importantly, any disagreement which may subsequently arise will be one relating to performance of the terms. So, as ASUU in the present instance does not contend that the agreement does not exist but on the contrary asserts that government should abide by the terms of the agreement, the quarrel with non-performance is in reality not a dispute relating to the terms already agreed upon or determined in 2009 so as to form the basis of a strike, it is one for which the Law has already provided ample avenues for redress elsewhere but not by strike.

I still stand by this view. It may not take more than a simple resolution to commence and suspend a strike. Yet long after the meetings and protest marches, long after the speeches and long drawn debates, the effects of strikes will continue to be felt not only be the students, but also by individual educational institutions and the entire educational system itself. The idle mind is said to be the workshop of the devil. This saying is perhaps mostly true of students who often at very short notices are asked to return home on account of the one strike or the other. Instances abound in which students who otherwise ought to have been fully engaged with their studies were made to spend months on end at home with absolutely nothing to do. Faced with so much time many students easily drift towards crime and other anti-social activities. Students have been known to have engaged in crimes as vicious as rape, murder and armed robbery whilst on forced holidays. Cult members who by virtue of the strike are denied the companionship of their comrades in crime, are known to come up with other deadly ways of carrying out their nefarious activities such as taking their recruitment drives to secondary schools.

To be continued

AARE AFE BABALOLA SAN, CON