SCINT Urges FG To Honour ASUU Agreement, End The Strike
called on stakeholders to pressure the Federal Government to heed the
demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities to put an end to
recurrent strikes.
The group made this known in a statement titled, ‘Recurrent ASUU
strike: A preventable disaster’, on Wednesday, where it noted that the
recurrent strike by ASUU had stalled the development of education in
Nigeria and had made life difficult for students and their parents.
The has it reports that the ASUU strike, which started as a warning
exercise on February 12, 2022, has entered its fifth month, with the
Union yet to shift its position on its demands to the government.
The statement was signed by Dr Adeniji Adejimi, Tshwane University of
Technology, South Africa; Dr Taiwo Agidigbi, KyungHee University,
South Korea; Joshua Babalola, Medical University of Graz, Austria; Dr
Olumuyiwa Igbalajobi, University of British Columbia, Canada; Dr
Opeyemi Lawal, University of Guelph, Canada; Opeyemi Oludada,
University of Heidelberg, Germany.
SCINT, which is an umbrella body for Voices in STEM-Nigeria, noted
that the protracted strike had contributed to Nigeria lagging in
scientific research hence the country is behind its global
counterparts in innovation, with special reference to the development
of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The statement reads in part, “There is absolutely no country in the
world that can be productive while her universities or tertiary
institutions are constantly locked. The incessant feuds between the
Federal Government of Nigeria and ASUU over the years have had a huge
impact on research outputs and degree completion time, and have also
resulted in financial as well as emotional constraints on the part of
students and parents. The question is for how long would this
preventable trend linger?
“The recurrent ASUU strike will only setback by decades our nation’s
scientific exploits that could translate to development and
problem-solving discoveries.
“Of note, research activities in these public universities were
completely shut down at a time when the world was scampering and
scientists around the world were exploring novel strategies to develop
drugs and vaccines to combat the global threat of SARS-CoV-2, the
causative agent of COVID-19.
“The effect of industrial actions in the last couple of years has
always been felt greatly by the students. Take, for instance, students
are constantly deprived of life-changing opportunities due to a lack
of access to transcripts and other necessary documents needed to
process scholarship and funding opportunities attributed to strike
actions that constantly paralyse the entire academic and
administrative processes.”
According to the statement, an immediate digitalisation of processes
in public universities “would not only remove the artificial delays in
processing documents but would also increase efficiency”.
SCINT noted that stakeholders must play their role in holding the
government accountable to prevent a collapse of Nigeria’s educational
system.
The group also urged private individuals to support the funding of
public universities in the country noting that education was capital
intensive
“To save our educational system from imminent collapse, the
stakeholders should put pressure on the government to honour the
agreement they already had with ASUU dated back to 2009.
“Stakeholders should continue to check and balance government
budgeting by ensuring that both the federal and state governments
reserve a reasonable percentage of their annual budgetary allocation
to education according to the recommendation of The United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
“Going forward, qualitative research can only thrive in a conducive
and adequately funded ecosystem with accessible infrastructures. The
present clamour for the adequate funding of the Nigerian educational
system by ASUU is not only justifiable but also a norm in saner
climes.
“However, all stakeholders including the industry must be encouraged
to create an industry-academic partnership that could foster growth
and innovative research in our universities. The sole reliance on the
government for funding may be far from reality.
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