Nigeria’s public universities may face another shutdown of academic activities due to the government’s failure to fulfill its agreements with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The Guardian reports that the union is deeply worried about the Federal Government’s failure to honour the 2009 Needs Assessment agreement, which aimed to provide N220 billion annually for the revitalization of public universities in Nigeria.
A senior ASUU official, who wished to remain anonymous, revealed to our correspondent that the union’s leadership is poised to initiate a strike if the government fails to release funds for ongoing critical projects under the Needs Assessment initiative.
According to the source, ASUU’s decision, which is yet to be made public, is hinged on the present government’s reluctance to honour agreements with the union, particularly the implementation of the 2009 Needs Assessment Programme. This programme is considered a game-changer for reviving the decaying infrastructure in the nation’s public universities.
The source stated that the planned action, however, depends on the resolutions to be reached during the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the body, scheduled to hold soon.
In a related development, a university don, Dr. Tunde Olagunjembi, a research fellow at the Institute of Project Management, Jos, and a university lecturer, advised President Bola Tinubu against abandoning the Needs Assessment scheme designed to provide funds for the reinvigoration of public universities. The scheme targets the rehabilitation of decaying infrastructure and the provision of state-of-the-art teaching and learning equipment for tertiary institutions.
Olagunjembi urged the president to sustain the Needs Assessment scheme for the development of the Nigerian university system.
He appealed to the president to approve the immediate release of funds for the continuation of critical projects in the institutions under the scheme.
He insisted that the university community and ASUU are eagerly awaiting the commencement of the projects under the present administration.
The university don stated that the stable academic calendar being witnessed today is a result of the sacrifices made by ASUU members, who resolved to allow the president time to settle down.
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He, however, warned that time is fast running out, and the president must take immediate steps toward funding the Needs Assessment projects.
According to him, the introduction of the intervention funds for Needs Assessment projects resulted from an agreement between the Federal Government and ASUU, based on a fact-finding committee’s recommendations to address infrastructure challenges at Nigeria’s citadels of learning.
He lamented that the immediate past administration could not sufficiently release funds for the project, leading to incessant, prolonged industrial actions by various university unions.
He, therefore, advised the president, whom he acknowledged has made significant statements about revamping the education sector, to release funds for the projects to ensure a stable and quality academic environment in the institutions.
Olagunjembi, who has spent over two decades teaching in various institutions across Nigeria, expressed deep concern that more than a year into the Tinubu-led government, nothing has been heard about plans for implementing the Federal Government’s Needs Assessment programme.
He hinted that the academic calendar of universities could once again be disrupted if the government refuses to make funds available for critical projects across tertiary institutions.
The associate professor of project management noted that the relative peace being enjoyed on university campuses is a demonstration of the union’s desire to fully cooperate with the present administration for the ultimate benefit of the education sector and society at large.
He, however, warned that the various unions would have no choice but to act appropriately in the interest of public universities if the government continued to show a lukewarm attitude toward implementing the agreement with ASUU on intervention funds for Needs Assessment, earned academic allowances, and staff salary pensions.
The renowned university lecturer called on the new Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, to urgently address the challenge of non-release of funds for Needs Assessment projects and to take steps to reverse the brain drain syndrome in the educational sector.
It will be recalled that the Federal Government had in 2009 reached an agreement with ASUU for the provision of N220 billion annually as intervention funds for the revitalization of universities across the country under the Needs Assessment programme.
The implementation of the scheme has, however, been slow, leading to several industrial actions.
A renewal of the agreement was done in 2014, but it has yet to witness significant progress, a development the Tinubu administration is expected to correct by adequately funding Needs Assessment projects.
