Chamba Simeh
Besides security which has proved elusive, education has irrebuttably received the most ‘bashing’ under the President Goodluck Jonathan administration. This is notwithstanding the fact that education has been globally identified as the bedrock for social, economic and political development of nations as well as being the key to scientific and technological breakthroughs. In recent times education, especially at the tertiary level, has suffered heavy pummeling by both its operators (teachers) and policy makers, while the hapless students are at the receiving end of the debacle.
The ignoble role being played by the federal government team led by the Supervising Minister of Education, Mr Nyesom Wike, in the lingering strike, now in its eighth month, embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) will likely result in the cataclysmic liquidation of education. The love lost arising from the divide and rule tactics of the minister mainly accounts for the deadlock in the series of meetings held between the minister, the unions and student government for the resolution of the industrial dispute.
It was a betrayal of sorts for the minister to pitch the students against their teachers during a meeting convened to iron out the grey areas in ASUP’s stand-off. The invitation of the student union to the meeting with the clandestine motive of disowning their lecturers and dissociating from the strikes drew the ire of ASUP who accused Wike of an attempt to undermine it. The minister’s explanation that the students and media were invited to know how far government had gone in resolving the lingering crisis could not assuage the aggrieved teachers who vowed to continue the strike. This was one opportunity bungled by Wike.
However, another opportunity presented itself during the meeting convened by the House of Representatives Committee on Education to end the face off. But in an undiplomatic, insensitive, and wanton disregard for the principles of conflict resolution, the Ministry of Education disclosed that the salary arrears of polytechnic staff, which is one of their 4-point demands, was not captured in the 2014 budget. The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mr McJohn Nwaobiala, who represented the minister at the meeting, said while the willingness is there to pay the CONTISS-14 salary arrears, he could not make a commitment to say the money will be paid at a specific time because there is no provision in the budget for it.
“If I had a pit where there is money in the ministry to settle this, as I leave here now, we will settle it. In this year 2014, we don’t have a provision for settling the arrears. The minister had requested for a special budgetary intervention to enable us to settle it”, he said. Of course, the effect of this thunderbolt on ASUP is predictable – fury, anger and brimstone; and a resolve to continue the strike. Again, this effort by the House ended up a wasted opportunity and dented silver lining at suspending the strike.
The minister’s clarification a few days later, Tuesday, last week, during a joint meeting with executive members of ASUP and the National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS), that the federal government had actually earmarked N20.4 billion to pay the salary arrears owed the striking lecturers was too belated to achieve the desired early end to the dispute.
Coming on the heels of the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the federal government is expected to have learnt some lessons that would have aided it to nip the ASUP and COEASU strikes in the bud. Alas! This is not to be; government keeps fumbling and wobbling over issues bordering on education.
For instance, it is inexplicable why President Jonathan allows the vacuum in the leadership of education since the ouster of Professor Ruquyyatu Ahmed Rufa’i as education minister on September 11, 2013. It is also difficult to rationalize Nigeria’s bottom spot in the list of 20 countries’ budgetary allocations to the education sector. They include less endowed countries like Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Kenya, Uganda,Tunisia, among others. UNESCO had fixed a 26% annual budgetary benchmark for every nation’s education sector. But while Ghana has attained 31%, Nigeria was a paltry 8.4% in 2013 with a marginal increase to 10.7% in 2014, occasioned by the incessant strikes in the sector.
Although, some schools like the Federal Polytechnics in Bida, Kebbi , Nekede, Lafia, Kazaure, and the Akanu Ibiam Polytechnic have since pulled out of the strike, it behooves the federal government to put an end to this strike as well as a find lasting solution to the cycle of strikes in the education sector. ASUP must relax its hardline in the interests of students, parents and society at large as it is said, “when two elephants fight, the grass suffers.” Students are at the receiving end of the strike because many have taken to crime and other vices for lack of gainful engagement.
