By Sani Idris
During the last but yet unended ASUU struggle, two positions opposing each other became prominent. The majority of mid and early-career academics hold a perspective that, ASUU’s struggle can only be fruitful when pursued through diplomacy, loyalty, and behind-the-screen engagement. According to their hypothesis, the existing socialist approach has gone obsolete and cannot bring any productive outcome in this political era.
On the other hand, the senior colleagues and a few young strugglers still believe the strike is the only language our cantankerous leaders understand and, therefore can still yield reasonable positive outcomes.
Towards the tail end of the struggle, the diplomacy and loyalty approach gained huge acceptance even among the senior scholars. This led to the emergence of CONUA which uses every available medium and opportunity to entice the government that they are a “zero-strike” union.
Well, in academia, it’s good to experiment conceived hypothesis or notion to prove it positive or otherwise. That is exactly what ASUU was forced to do.
For exactly 1.5 years from when the strike was suspended, ASUU shifted to the other maiden approach by engaging numerous stakeholders and highly-placed government agents behind the doors, practicing diplomacy, loyalty and even lobbying. Yet no single result- no salary backlog, no salary increment, no EAA, and so forth.
Exactly 6 months ago, the SA to the President on media and publicity announced a Presidential waiver granting the payment of ASUU’s 4-month salary backlog. In response to the development, the mid and early-career academics went wild in euphoria and pressurized the Union to accept the paralyzed offer as a show of loyalty and cooperation diplomacy.
Consequently, the Union vowed to the pressure and keep waiting for official correspondence from the government. Until now, neither instant payment nor official correspondence has been forthcoming. Hmmm, little did our colleagues know about the nonchalant and deceptive attitude of the ruthless and selfish leaders we have in this country.
Further, the minister of education in one media outing stated that the 4-month salary backlog payment will commence soon unconditionally. Note: the soon of government agents is never the soon you know in the Advanced Learner dictionary, thus cannot be measured by a hypothetical time scale.
Finally, it can be concluded that the Diplomacy and loyalty approach sponsored by upcoming academics stands to yield nothing. The CONUA which was founded on that faulty hypothesis has lost its grip and is hitherto completely breathless.
No doubt, the FG will keep ASUU members in suspense using a variety of calculated tricks till 2027 and the vicious cycle will continue. As such, it will be wise for academics to note that the journey is not yet over until our entitlements are fulfilled.
We shouldn’t stop fighting when our demands are hanging. It is time we all bounce back and collectively strategize on how to sustain our strike. In this regard, the Union must wake up from its deep slumber to work tirelessly toward improving the welfare of members and it must commit all resources to the provision of adequate coping packages to members. Should the Union declare a 4-week warning strike now, I am in total support.
We put a pause on our fight not to give up but to re-strategize.
Long Live ASUU
Sani Idris
sanidris2000@gmail.com
Department of Soil Science, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria-Nigeria.
