ABSTRACT
The history of Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU)’s strike can be traced back to 1978, the period of the
beginning of the decline in the oil boom, when the country faced the
consequences of the failure by its rulers to use the oil wealth to generate
production and a social welfare system. Military dictatorship had eroded deeply
the basic freedoms in the society. Academic forum and university autonomy were
casualties of military dictatorship. The funding of education, and so of
universities, became poorer. The factors required a changed orientation of the
union of academics. However, questionnaires were administered to seek the
opinions of the students in University Students (ENUGU) and in University of
Nigeria (NSUKKA), Enugu States and one thousand and fifty four staff and
students were randomly selected. Nine hundred and seventy one respondents
validly returned their questionnaire. From the analyzed data, it was observed
that frequent strikes had adverse effects on the academic performance of
students. Based on the findings of the study, recommendations were made that
adequate measures should be put in place by government and the Academic Staff
Union of Universities (ASUU) etc to check incessant strike in the educational
system; and conclusively that government owned Universities should emulated
private school owners by avoiding strikes and intensify efforts to convince
ASUU on the evils of strikes to see that students would have enough time to
study so that they can be able to face challenges in the Labour Market. This
paper painstakingly appraised several of these issues and concluded that all
stakeholders in the education sector and federal polity should thread
softly, be objective, rational, altruistic and magnanimous in order not to make
the existence of true federalism (social, political, educational and economic
cohesive existence of the people, peace and tranquillity) a fleeting illusion
and a mirage.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
TO THE STUDY
The education sub-sector especially tertiary institutions in
Nigeria have witnessed in recent time incessant closures due to ASUU Strike.
The effect of these repeated closures of schools and academic programs on
students’ learning effectiveness can better be imagined than described.
Tertiary education in Nigeria has thus suffered tremendous setbacks as a result
of ASUU Strike by both the academic (ASUU) and the non academic staffs. This
has always subjected the students to pitiable conditions, disrupting academic
programs, giving students’ undeserved extension in their study years, poor
students’ concentration on academic programs and poor lecturer-student
relationships amongst others. Consequently, students’ academic performance has
comparatively become so low while various forms of examination malpractice are
on the increase.
University worldwide is regarded as the citadel of learning,
the fountain of intellectual development and a ground for the production of
leaders of tomorrow. According to Ike (2000) a university fulfills, one major
function, it is a knowledge and value
provider, in other words, a university progresses when it is able to provide
knowledge and value and when it is not properly managed by the administrators
and staff, it then fails in its function of providing knowledge and value. This
according to Nwankwo (2000) explains why merit has been the watchword in the
university system – an institution in which a student must first be certified
worthy in character and learning before being admitted into the Honors Degree.
The role of universities in human capital development,
research and technological innovation cannot be under evaluated. All over the
world investment in University education is a critical component of national
development effort. Nations today depend increasingly on knowledge, ideas and
skills which are produced through researches in the universities. Nations
invest in university education because society expects it to contribute to
national development in three principal ways. First, society expects its
university to produce the highly skilled personnel in technology, engineering,
management and other professions; secondly, universities have the
responsibility of producing their own corps of academic personnel that is, the intellectual
resource pool that will, through scientific research generate new knowledge and
innovation to solve developmental problems. Thirdly, universities produce
teachers, administrators and managers for other levels of human resources
development institutions.
The main union whose incessant industrial action takes a
heavy toll on the academic performance of the students is the Academic Staff
Union of Universities (ASUU). The union was formed in 1978, a successor to the
Nigerian Association of University Teachers formed in 1965 and covering
academic staff in the University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria, Nsukka,
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Ife and University of Enugu. In
the 80’s, the union was active in its struggles against the military regime. In
1988 the union organized a National an industrial action to obtain fair wages
and university autonomy. As a result, the ASUU was proscribed on August 7, 1988
and all its property seized. It was allowed to resume in 1990, but after
another industrial action, it was again banned on August 23, 1992. However, an
agreement was reached on September 3, 1992 that met several of the union''s
demands including the right of workers to collective bargaining. The ASUU
organized further ASUU Strike in 1994 and 1996, protesting against the
dismissal of staff by the Sani Abacha military regime. After the return to
democracy in 2000 with the Nigerian Fourth Republic, the union continued to be
militant in demanding the rights of university workers against opposition by
the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo. In July 2002, the national
president of ASUU, petitioned Justice Mustapha Akanbi of the Independent
Corrupt Practices Commission to investigate the authorities of the University
of Ilorin for financial mismanagement and corruption.
In
2007, ASUU embarked on an industrial action for three months. In May 2008, it
held two week ''warning strikes'' to press a range of demands, including an
improved salary scheme and reinstatement of forty-nine lecturers who were
dismissed from University of Ilorin in 1998. In June 2009 ASUU ordered its
members in federal and state universities nationwide to proceed on an
indefinite strike over disagreements with the Federal Government''s on an
agreement it reached with the union about two and a half years ago. After three
months of industrial action, in October 2009, ASUU and other staff unions
signed a memorandum of understanding with the government and called off the
industrial action.
Prior to the last industrial action embarked on by ASUU, the
National Executive Council (NEC), of the Union met from Tuesday 29th
November to Thursday 1st December 2011 at the University of Port-
Harcourt to review, among other things: the level of implementation of the
2009 ASUU/Government Agreement; the
extent of compliance with the 2011
ASUU/FGN Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the implementation of the
Agreement; Government’s unilateral dissolution of Universities’ Governing
Councils; the on-going institutional accreditation and the state of the Nation,
including the issue of alleged removal of fuel subsidy, but the lack of
understanding between the two parties led to an indefinite strike embarked upon
by the Union for fifty-nine days. It was later called off on the 1st
of February, 2012. ASUU again went on a warning strike on 30th
August, 2012. All these have left an unfavorable mark on the academic
activities of the University students and it has also affected the academic
calendar and the performance of the students. On 1st of July, 2013,
ASUU embarked upon another Six months industrial action which was called off on
the 17th of December, 2013 which really affected the Nigerian
undergraduates leading to the involvement of students in many unwholesome
activities. Often times, these incessant agitations by ASUU usually triggers
industrial action by sister associations such as NASU, SSANU etc.
Industrial
action or strike is workers’ refusal to work as protest for inadequate service
or poor condition. In the education sector, ASUU Strike by academic and non
academic staffs can lead to students’ examination malpractice, corruption and
other social vices in the society. Strike is a social ill not different from
corruption because it eats into students’ time which makes it difficult for
students to be fully and properly ‘baked’ within the designated educational
time frame. As a result, ‘products’ that are ill-equipped in both character and
learning are turned out to the society. This research is targeted at examining
the effect of these ASUU Strike on the academic performance of the students of
the University, Enugu State.