A member of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Abuja chapter, Professor Isaac Nnamdi Obasi, has said the inflexible attitude of the federal government towards fulfilling agreements reached with labour unions has been responsible for the unending industrial disputes and radicalisation of trade unions in the country.
Professor Obasi observed that ASUU and the government have maintained sore relationship which has translated to endless strikes in the past 40 years due to wage fixing policies and government’s refusal to implement agreements entered into after every negotiation.
“Government’s inability to fulfill promises has today compelled ASUU and other trade unions to disregard the outcome of negotiations, especially promises made after talking with officials of government.”
He stated that government’s insensitivity and conservatism has gradually pushed labour into more ideological radicalism in Nigeria than it was several years before now, regretting also that higher education has suffered as a result.
Obasi who made these remarks while delivering the 34th inaugural lecture of the university entitled, “Public policy in the management of industrial relations,” regretted that the ruling class has consistently not committed itself to the principles of collective bargaining in industrial relations, resulting in several unions believing that strike is the only language the government understands in its relations with labour.
“This is very unfortunate as government’s insensitivity and conservatism has pushed labour into more radicalism as the negligent leadership continues to breed militant or pig-head followership.
“Since most successive governments in Nigeria have been largely conservative, my recommendation should be that public policy in wage fixing should reflect a progressive outlook than present reactionary conservative outlook which has kept the working class struggling with starvation wages,” he said.
He argued further that Nigerian workers require decent work environment and a decent wage for sustenance in line with the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) standards declaring that at the moment the nation’s minimum wage is a far cry of ILO recommendation.Obasi also stated that the resolution of ASUU-FG conflict will continue to be intractable and difficult except the government changes its attitude and orientation towards labour by keeping its promises.
“Successive governments in the country have consistently failed to honour agreements entered into with ASUU thereby compounding the prevailing fragile relations with ASUU.
“The federal government should honour agreements it reaches with labour and ASUU should be more pragmatic and constructive rather than being ideologically rigid in its relations with the government. ASUU demonstrated that this is possible when it maintained a fragile truce and constructive engagement with government in 2014 and 2007.”
The don also recommended that both the federal government and ASUU should change their perception of each other and become more pragmatic and constructive for better conflict management.
“ASUU needs to be convinced that the government is accountable, transparent and sensitive to the needs of the people through good governance while the government should stop looking at ASUU as an enemy because higher education has been at the receiving end of the lingering dispute and has been worse for it in the past four decades that the conflict has lasted.”
