By Segun Ige
It is no news that Professor Oluwatoyin Temitayo Ogundipe is now the newly-appointed 12th vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos.
A former Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics and Research), Ogundipe was appointed professor in 2002 and consequently delivered his inaugural lecture on Wednesday, December 21, 2005 at the university. The lecture was titled: “Botany: Root in the Past, Route to the Future”.
Besides, Ogundipe had to, for the first time, contest with two other purpose-driven candidates, Professor Olukayode Amund, and Professor Ayodeji Olukoju, before the approval of his appointment as the 12th VC (of the 56-year-old varsity) by the University Governing Council on October 27, 2017. With regard to the plethora of strikes by three non-academic staff unions – the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASUU) and the National Association of Academic Technology (NAAT), Ogundipe has the sacrosanct pronouncement: Dialogue is key.
The perpetual strikes by the non-academic staff were the result of “promises” vis-à-vis “pittances” between the Federal Government and the staff.
The “promise-pittance” dialogue has indirectly been harangued by Ogundipe. Suspension is not call-off. So, what has been invariably inculcated by these unions is suspension. Specifically, the National Public Relations Officer of SSANU, Abdulsubur Salaam, said “the Federal Government has been discussing with the academics but we have been reaching out to them before now and they have refused to heed our call,” as reported in Vanguard, 2017, because they had been “pushed to the wall”. Of significance, however, is the underlying impression that these unions have been dispossessed and disenfranchised of their political, or shall I say academic, rights by the allegedly political-cum-academic demagogueries. The National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, succinctly foreknowledged what necessitated the pontifications, presentations and modus operandi of the staff under consideration: He explained in a statement on Saturday’s meeting that their decision followed the failure of the government to fully implement the 2009 Memoradum of Understanding (MoU).
The ASUU president added that related demands made by the union were yet to be addressed, which was why they resolved to embark on an indefinite strike from Sunday, August 13, 2017” (Channels Television, 2017). In other words, SSANU, NASSU and NAAT had to, as if on a cue, tip the toe of their precursor, that is, ASUU. Predictably, the latter has precipitously influenced the former in that they have decidedly followed suite by fortuitously engaging in a change-facilitating “indefinite” strike, precisely on Monday, 11th of September, 2017, with their lead, albeit with alarming discrepancies in the intents of the Academic and the non-Academic unions. The three unions have been passive and docile about their demands. Put differently, what they have been grippling with and mouthing are, according to the chairman of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) and National President of SSANU, Comrade Samson Chiojoke Ugwoke, unconscionable “series of deliberations and engagements” (Vanguard, 2017) and, if I may add, “negotiations” with the Federal Government. It then explicitly implies that no esprit de corps whatsoever in the unions; but a sheer self-serving, money-clamouring reconciliation overture with the erstwhile Major General aided and abetted by their “heaven-sent” simulacrums.
Consequently, there has since been a major drawback in the academic calendar of the university. A student of the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, University of Lagos, I was admitted to the University in 2015; hence my screening was done on Monday, October 12, 2015.
Sadly, the newly admitted students for the 2017/2018 academic session had not been screened; paid their undergraduate obligatory fee(s), let alone registering their courses; and subsequently balloted for their respective hostels. This is as a result of the indefatigable reactions of the Federal Government and the non-teaching staff. In fact, those in the academic cadre had to grudgingly take upon the meagre duties of the three unions. Lecturers had to girth themselves by mopping and cleaning their offices.
For example, in my Faculty, precisely on January 8, 2018, the sub-dean of the said Faculty, Dr. Feyi Ademola-Adeoye, was compelled to register the freshers and thus her academic duty was jettisoned. Perhaps it was so, too, in other facilities. Essentially, returning students waited for the “godots” in the gloss-filled, harmattan-infested classrooms. How can the Nigerian varsities be, to invoke Prof. Ogundipe, “the best in Africa” when both the academic and the non-academic unions are, put in a Biblical parlance, “drinking strikes”, as though they were drinking water? I leave the answer to you. But here is the surmise. The hoi polloi, who have been made of sterner stuff to devour voluminous books and redefine their destinies, have heretofore been ‘hanging’ instead ‘reading’. That is to say, they are more often than not starved of information needed for their destination, because there is no life-transforming “dialogue” between the academic union and the non-academic unions on the one hand and the teaching and non-teaching staff with the Federal Government on the other hand. Put differently, none is concerned about the onerous business of another, and so Nigeria’s educational system has globally lowered among her contemporaries.
Of course the students are always on the receiving end of this body academic with burgeoning inconsistencies which eventually result in untoward repercussions. So, what has, or has not, the new Unilag VC done hitherto, since he took over the baton from the predecessor, Prof. Rahamon Adisa Bello? Or has he been perfunctorily inept as to whether the strike wrought by the three unions should be uprooted and stemmed or on the other way round?
Furthermore, the new Unilag VC has beseechingly made a number of essays to break the wall of partition between the Federal Government and the non-academic unions.
He affirms that “Universities especially the first generation ones in the country can be ranked best in Africa with a stable academic calendar. There is need for everyone to look inward to ensure that we are always able to manage crises in the system so that the country’s universities could be ranked among the best in the world. This idea does not speak well of us as a country because one cannot rule out their relevance in the running of the system. My message is that there is need for an urgent and continuous dialogue between the striking workers and the Federal Government” (Vanguard, 2017). I suspect two germane things in the words of Prof. Ogundipe, first, everyone is responsible for any occurrence that demeans the watchword of the high-profile institution. Secondly is the fact that the “relevance” of the non-academic staff cannot be overemphasized. In other words, there is the need for a lastingly simplistic dualism (or dialogue as the case may be) that encompasses both the academic and the non-academic unions. Two heads, they say, are better than one. Therefore, no unnecessary bifurcation or “bipolarity” whatsoever within the boundary of the university. Minds must be rubbed together, for a coordinately efficient running of the system. That was 2017, yet the strike has not been “called-off”. In fact it has been “carried-over” to 2018. But when will we stop treading the “old paths” now that we have been launched into a seemingly “Jam-and-Jerusalem” New Year? Or will the strike be ad infinitum, as the Federal Government and the non-academic unions seem to have engaged in an Epic fight-to-finish conflict?
Conversely, the non-academic unions under consideration have sought a raison d’ etre, in other words, Earned Non-academic Allowance, in that they want their “allowance” to be ratified by the Federal Government. This is owing to the fact that the academic unions (having, for example, been hall warders, examinations officers) were accordingly given their “Earned Academic Allowance”. Moreover, the striking workers assert that they should also be given their own “Earned Non-academic Allowance” – which makes them “50-50” with the academic unions. But when the Federal Government see no “main” reason they should be given such allowance, the striking workers remain more angst as regards the non-implementation of their grand demands.
To this end, the Nigerian universities are not equally allocated the same amount of money. Surprisingly, the non-academic staff allegedly accused the academic union of the uneven distribution of allocated money at the University of Lagos. As such, the “surplus-value” disequilibrium precipitated the furtherance of strikes by the non-teaching unions – they feel jilted. To a very large extent, nevertheless, money allocated to one university very significantly differs from another. Prof. Ogundipe moreover pleadingly evinces this inordinate action: “I want to appeal to the Federal Government to negotiate with them because the strike is affecting the academic calendar. My university got the least of the allocation of N23 million to the non-teaching staff, while the University of Ibadan got 1105. There is no basis for the discrepancies in the allocation of funds and this is putting more pressure on me” (Vanguard, 2018). And, surprise, surprise, the new Unilag VC has begun to experience “pressure” in his tenure – what a shame! The Federal Government has shown some sense of profligacy which usually ranks next to absurdity. Ours is a celebrated culture where character and sincerity have been slaughtered on the altar of avidity and cupidity. No modus vivendi; but self-aggrandizement and self-gratification that satiate the buccal cavity of the political demagogueries, and therefore ultimately result in the disservice of the body politic.
In conclusion, the students, the academic and non-academic unions, and the Federal Government have to perform their last duties in order ensconce the Nigerian varsities. For the striking non-teaching staff, I have the immortal declaration of Martin Luther King Jr.: “Let us not satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred”. Instead, let us drink from the chalice of togetherness for the betterment of our beloved country. To continue the strike is to pull the bull by the horn. To continue the strike is to put the cart before the horse. Most importantly, to continue the strike is to be day-dreaming of becoming – need I reiterate Prof. Ogundipe? – the best varsities in Africa. For the new Unilag VC go the eternal words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: “The only person you are destined to be is the person you decide to be”. As a matter of fact, the new VC must take courage to overcome the propensity to be on the verge of academic masochisms. Because “risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing” (Warren Buffet), the new VC’s vice-chancellorship will someday be a heyday of unprecedented achievements. And that is the crux of the matter!
.Ige writes from the Department of English,
University of Lagos Tel: +234 814 168 8084
Email: igesegunadebayo5@gmail.com