In this interview with OMOTAYO LEWIS, he speaks on the on going ASUU strike, why lecturers would not shift their ground and what government can do towards resolving the logjam. Excerpts:
When are we likely to see the end of the strike action?
Talking about when depends on the Federal Government.
We are willing to go back to work when we see that the Federal Government is serious and ready to implement the agreement we jointly signed in 2009.There is this follow up to the agreement which we all refer to as Memorandum of Understanding of 2012.
This was a kind of commitment based on the agreement, hoping that government will be sincere to implement those bits of the agreement so that our universities will be better. We have graduates who can stand out in the whole world, proud of the fact that they are Nigerian graduates.
So far, the Federal Government seems not interested and that is why students are still at home.
Do you think that the good of education will be better served by this strike which has become protracted?
Yes. This is because the strike is meant to achieve what we have not been able to achieve in the past. It's not about the lecturers, it's about the system.
The MoU requests that within the system, government should inject some funds to put some infrastructure in place for the development of our universities.
But government is saying that it has instituted TETFUND to take care of the infrastructural deficits noticeable in the sector.
Maybe, we need to do a retrospect on TETFUND itself. It was on the basis of the argument of ASUU that the FG put TETFUND in place.
TETFUND exists because organisations, particularly industrial concerns, contribute two per ent of their tax profit into TETFUND so, it is a kind of intervention fund. It is not a budgetary allocation for the sector.
Even overtime, initially it was Education Trust Fund (ETF), and changed to TETFUND.
When ASUU made the suggestion, it was meant to cater for universities alone, but eventually government turned it around to cater for all tertiary institutions.
We are coping with that, but then, will government not put in place budgetary allocation for the system? Is this the way it is in other countries? UNESCO as a global organisation expects all nation to inject 26 per-cent of their annual budgetary allocations into education.
Among the league of nations in Africa, Nigeria happened to be one of the latest, committing 8.3 percent to education whereas smaller countries like Lesotho and Bostwana commit between 7-30 per-cent to education. Yet, we claim to be the giant of Africa.
But observers have not ceased to praise government's allocation to education in this year's budget as quite significant?
Let us do a comparison of what has been committed to education vis - a- vis some other sectors like Defence.
Does it seem significant? Maybe they are looking at it from the previous allocation.
We are calling for more commitment to education because it is the only pivot that can turn the system around and bequeath something to our youths and make this country virile One thing that has however not ceased to puzzle observers is that members of ASUU are in key positions and one expects them to carry forward ASUU positions on salient issues such as this?
You mean Dr Good Luck Jonathan?
Yes, of course is that not an indictment on ASUU?
No, it is not. We don't want to be apolitical here but the reality is that we know the way it works in our country.
The 2009 agreement was actually signed when President Umar Yar'Adua was there and Dr Gamaliel Onisode led the government side and we know all we went through before government signed the agreement. The President impressed on them before they signed.
Mr President seems to have been boxed-in. He is shielded from the reality, the people are not making certain information available to him.
The reality indicates that there are some people more powerful than the President himself within the system. I have never heard it anywhere before where someone else is made the controlling minister of the economy, or coordinating minister. By her attitude, she is controlling the economy as well as the president.
But she seems to have the facts?
She doesn't have the facts. Last year, several banks were distressed and over N20 trillion was raised to bail out these banks. It was not drawn from the budget but we all know that this money belongs to our country.
ASUU is not demanding for any money as being poised. ASUU is a stakeholder as well as the government.
They studied the situation on the campuses and what needs to be done.
That ASUU committee also reported back to government on the terrible state of our campuses and its implication for education and Nigeria's future.
The masses must also realise that they have a stake in all of these. The country belongs to all of us. Not just those in the National Assembly or the president. This country belongs to about 160 million Nigerians.
If we sit on the fence and refuse to talk, we will continue to be in this mess. We are not happy to be on strike.
A number of my colleagues who are Ph. D and Masters students are also caught up in this strike. Some of them had even had their oral exams. Nigerians must begin to tell government that they are not doing the right thing.
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