ASUU again? No; it’s the government!

We are back to where we have always been: ASUU would remind the government of its unfulfilled promises. The government would pretend not to hear, and when ASUU is about to embark on action, the government would pretend to act, and when the action starts, the government would threaten the ASUUists and embark on blackmail, assuring students and parents of its readiness to defend and promote their interests and then declare no work, no pay. ASUU may declare no pay, no work, and we return to the status quo ante. After a while, the government (who is this government, self?) will set up another committee, and life goes on…

The government has just set up an EXPANDED committee to review the report of the Yayale Ahmed committee, which reviewed the report of the Nimi Briggs committee, which reviewed the various MOUs and MOAs pursuant to the 2009 agreement, which the government had the temerity to claim was fake. Of course, this multiplicity of committees is in order because a committee is a group of the incapable established by the unwilling to create the impression that something is being done while the rest is abandoned in the cooler, delayed, derailed and forgotten and allowed to rot.

In August 2025, the FGN begged ASUU to give it just three weeks, and all would be well. Two months later, there was nothing, and ASUU gave a 14-day ultimatum. On 10/10/25, the last working day to the end of the ultimatum, the FGN invited ASUU to a meeting, and rather than present the Yayale Ahmed report, it presented what was deliberate distortion, inconsistency, and fragrant disregard for extant laws, policies and practices: By the way, the Yayale Ahmed report was delayed for the past 9 months because the convener was out of the country… in this online age!

Meanwhile, in response to the notice of strike, Tunji Alausa, the MISERY of Education, declared that lecturers deserve to be paid well and they deserve improved welfare. But we can’t give everything at once. What matters is our sincerity and commitment to substantial improvement in their conditions. Sincerity? How many committees have they set for ASUU matters since 2009? How many committees did they set to operationalise in 114 percent increments for political appointees? How does the establishment of 1001 committees indicate sincerity? What is the problem when BAT himself just declared that our 2025 revenue budget had been met in August? In any case, the government has threatened the NWNP policy, and ASUU will soon respond with NPNW, and we shall return to the status quo ante-bellum.

Read also: ASUU strike: UNIBEN, UNN exams disrupted, postponed

Remember that the outstanding salaries from the last NWNP policy are one of the issues in the current strike! (NWNP: No Work, No Pay; NPNW: No Pay, No Work). And as expected, one moribund and reneged group named CONUA, whose members are filled with contrary spirits, has rejected the strike and supported the government, pledging to work for stability in the academic sphere. The last time I heard of them was during the last strike, especially when their members’ salaries were also withheld. Meanwhile, since the last strike, about 310 professors had ‘ported’ from Nigeria, where the government is working assiduously for an improved educational system.

Already, the government has started spewing what even a toddler knows to be falsity: that it had satisfied ALL the ASUU demands and that ASUU just wanted to go on strike. The NWNP policy has been imposed; many are, as usual, asking the lecturers to calm down; some are praising the renewed HOP achievements of the government, while the University of Jos students are protesting in support of the ASUUists, and the NLC, with whatever is left of its weight, has warned the FGN to be careful with the way it handles ASUU and the current strike. Some mischievous Nigerians have also unearthed where the APC (then in opposition) was demanding that the FG should fulfil their agreements with ASUU (the internet never forgets). However, we are still where we were, and consequently, I have decided to reproduce an article with the above title, which I wrote in 2022, which in turn drew from a similar article I wrote in 2009. Read and see that nothing much has changed, as the society would rather blame ASUU than an unreliable government that pays lip service to education in the country while sponsoring their dependents to foreign universities. (continues next week).

Ik Muo, PhD, Department of Business Administration, OOU, Ago-Iwoye 08033026625