In a 57 minutes no holds barred interview that Gov. El-Rufai granted in Hausa, touching on so many issues, local and national, he threatened (in fact, swore) to sack all ASUU members that continue to participate in the current national strike.
He will not; because that will not only disrupt the institution’s activities more than the strike, it will slow down the fastest growing university in Nigeria. I’ll say he will not. But with the way he swore, I’ll say he could. And it’ll be knee jerk reaction gone too far.
However, what is interesting here is the fact that he said the university and by extension state government have no problem with the local chapter of ASUU (KASU-ASUU). That’s not accurate. He was not properly briefed.
Just about two months ago, KASU-ASUU wrote to him, through his representative, Chairman of KASU Governing Council, listing 16 problems that are yet to be resolved by the Management of the University, about unpaid salaries, promotion arrears, retirement age, Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), refusal of the government to remit pension contribution of staff, Group Life Insurance, and not ever giving research grant etc.
In the same interview Mallam El-Rufai said one problem we had with security is that the President is not aware of a lot of things including the fact that both his own life and that of the President were threatened. We all chalk it up to the fact that those who are supposed to inform him did not do that, which is why it took him (El-Rufai) and the Governor of Zamfara to brief the President.
Well, same can be said of El-Rufai and Kaduna State University. Those who are supposed to inform him, the people he appointed to run the University (Vice Chancellor, Governing Council and state’s Commissioner of Education) did not inform him about what’s actually going on at Kaduna State University.
Mallam El-Rufai said his government has no unresolved problems with the local chapter. He is either not telling the truth or unaware. I’m tilting towards unaware. The VC and Governing Council did not tell him the problems either because they are being sycophantic, by telling him only what he wants to hear or he is unapproachable.
For now I’ll settle for him not being aware that there are about 16 unresolved issues between the University (his government) and the local chapter of ASUU, out which each one of 16 of them is enough to cause a strike action in that University. See here.
So, saying, he will sack all lecturers of KASU if they don’t call off their nearly 6 months old strike and resume classes, because as far as he is concerned the state has no problem with local ASUU, that the problem is between national ASUU with federal institutions not the state is not accurate. There are problems.
This is exactly what happens when the chief executives or any executives are not briefed properly. If he were, he will not come out full force as he did. He will just watch and wait, or see if it possible to resolve the state’s issues with KASU-ASUU, and if it’s not possible, break their ranks instead of dishing out threats that his bluff can easily be called.
You see, KASU is not Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic, Zaria. And I am not saying this because one is a university and the other is a polytechnic. I am talking of the strength, unity and organization of the unions in each strata of our higher education system.
One of the main reasons why ASUP is in the situation it is. It is the reason why a state polytechnic lecturer of the same rank with me is earning just about 35% of my salary, with no protection that I have, and is forced to retire at 60 even though the country’s laws puts his retirement age at 65.
Even as bad as things are, there’re some things that accrue to the federal polytechnic lecturers that a state polytechnic worker can only dream of. As stated, as small as the salary package of the federal polytechnics lecturer is, he or she earns about 3 times his state colleague of the same rank.
ASUU carries lecturers of state universities along so that everything they negotiate, everybody in the university system benefits. They have the same salary structure. It’s the reason why a professor in a federal university will go to state university to teach and also the reason why professors in state universities hardly leave to federal for the sake of money.
If ASUU fights for and succeeds in obtaining salary increase, for example, the states must key in, unlike polytechnics. That is why when polytechnic lecturers (ASUP) declare strike only the federal institutions participate. The state polytechnics see it as federal polytechnics’ problem. Not so with the Universities.
In fact, sometimes it is not just the state universities, even the federal polytechnics and colleges of education benefit from ASUU struggles because if government cede to some demands of ASUU, crumbs must fall in the direction of ASUP and COEASU.
I read some clowns saying that the sacking will be an opportunity to employ our teaming young jobless graduates. The blatant display of crass ignorance is astounding and out of this world that it is foolish trying to explain to them the implications other than to say, I pray he sacks them, so that it is no longer ASUU that closed the school but NUC, courtesy of the governor’s action.
Where will he see the replacements of those he will sack? Where? We are not talking about the usual unqualified primary school teachers here or some low level civil servants in the state. We are talking about academics here.
As a condition for running and accrediting each academic department/programme, universities are supposed to have a number of professors, readers/associate professors, senior lecturers, LI, which require a minimum of 10 years for lowest level.
Some programmes will not be accredited (and will be de-accredited) if lecturers do not have professional membership qualifications like COREN, ICAN, CIPSM etc. He is not replacing primary school teachers or LG staff here. We are talking about university dons.
Who will teach and supervise dissertations and theses of the over 2,000 students currently doing MA, MBA, MPA, MSc, PhD in the university and in the future?
The dons in other universities will never come, especially those in federal universities. They’re not stupid, except for those seeking political positions within academia to beef up their CVs.
One major reasons why some are willing to go to state owned universities from federal is the parity between the two which was won for them by ASUU. Take that away, they will not come. Who will leave the secure environment of the federal to go to a state institution where a governor will summarily sack them in droves and in one fell swoop.
That leaves freshers who will only qualify for graduate assistant, assistant lecturer, and at most LII jobs.
Before sacking lecturers, if he has to, our Oga needs to sack the VC, entire members of the Governing Council and State’s Commissioner of Education for not telling him the state of affairs before that interview (assuming they did not).
- Mallam Hassan Mohammed is a lecturer at Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna.
