stoppage by a body of workers to enforce
compliance with demands made on an employer
or a group of employers. It is usually a form of
protest to force recalcitrant employers to respect
the value of labour and accord the latter its
rightful place taking into consideration the
historical exploitative relationship between
labour and capital. In organisations or countries where the principle of collective bargaining is not respected by the employers of labour, the tendency for workers to employ the strike option is very rife. Workers with deep class consciousness and a strong capacity to
understand the intriguing manipulations of their employers always exercise their democratic rights to fight industrial injustice and dictatorship.
The implication of the above is that the character of states and the nature of employers determine the frequency of work stoppages in a country or in an industry. Experience has shown that societies that are underdeveloped with an
accompanying irresponsible leadership go
through all kinds of strikes and industrial crises
with their deleterious consequences on the
people. This is because, as usual, the ultimate
sufferers of these strikes and industrial conflicts
are the ordinary people and other victims of the
society including the striking workers.
Apparently, because of the hypocritical nature of
the society, the striking workers who ought to
deserve the sympathy of the public at all levels
become derided and dismissed as agents of
destabilisation. In most cases, the issues that
would have led to the strike are ignored by
commentators who in their exasperation would
want the workers to go back to work .Some do
not even want to know "who is right or wrong".
All they want is industrial peace.
Quite a lot of people have responded to the
ongoing strike of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities. There are three broad categories of
people: Those who are in support of the union;
those who are opposed to the strike and even
strikes in general and those who are playing the
Ostrich game. This piece is meant for all the three categories of people. It is true that strikes by their nature are disruptive and that the
university lecturers' strikes have been too
frequent. The immediate question is: Why does
ASUU always embark on strike?
In answering this question, it will be important to look at the whole gamut of ASUU/FGN
relationship over the years since the coming into
being of ASUU. ASUU grew out of the Nigerian
Association of University Teachers (NAUT) which was formed in 1965. Those who formed ASUU in 1978 felt that NAUT was more like a "middle class fraternity" which did not have the much- needed vigour and orientation suitable for the development of Nigeria's university system in particular and education in general. Nigeria's post-colonial state had been hijacked by the military and allied forces who mismanaged the oil boom of the period. The freedoms of the people had been eroded; education at all levels was not getting the required attention; the oil boom, instead of catalyzing the development of the country became ironically a source of under development and real curse to the nation.
It was in the midst of these contradictions and
disenabling environment that ASUU emerged as
an intellectual force to challenge the powers-that-be and offer a credible alternatives for our
country.
Universities by their nature are democratic
institutions, hence they are opposed to any
manner of imposition either from within or
without. The 1978 Uthman Mohammed
Commission Report which took away the
disciplinary functions of the Governing Councils
of Universities provided a litmus test for ASUU.
This was because the government of the period
in question used the report as a basis to direct
some University Governing Councils to dismiss
certain members of staff from their posts
without giving them a fair hearing. In 1980, ASUU declared a Trade Dispute with the Shagari
government, making the issue of autonomy an
important matter.
ASUU also fought Shagari's government
following Justice Balonwu's Visitation Panel
Report which had directed the Council of the
University of Lagos to remove six senior
members of the academic staff from their jobs.
Given the nature of its mandate, ASUU fought the Federal Government under Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1980 and 1981 on issues bordering on funding,salaries, autonomy and academic freedom, brain-drain, the survival of the university system in particular and the direction of the country in general.
Throughout the military era, ASUU waged a lot of struggles revolving around conditions of service;funding; university autonomy/academic freedom;the defence of the right to education; broad national issues such as the anti-military struggles;actions against privatisation, SAP and other neo-liberal policies of the government including the World Bank's attempts to take over the Nigerian University system through its $120million loan under the regime of Babangida.
It should be recalled that ASUU had battled the
Buhari/Idiagbon regime's policy of retrenchment
of workers and freezing of wages; gave support
to the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and
the National Association of Resident Doctors
(NARD) when they went on their patriotic strike
to rescue the deteriorating health services in
Nigeria in 1984. ASUU, through strikes, also
supported the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)
and the National Association of Nigerian
Students (NANS) to protest the brutal murder of
the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) students by
Mobile Policemen in 1986. Again, in 1987 and 1988 the union was in the trenches. The union fought the illegal dismissal of its president, Dr. Festus Iyayi, and others in 1987. It participated fully in the 1988 general strikes occasioned by the effects of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) which the Babangida government had imposed on the country.
The earlier Elongated University Salary Scale
(EUSS) which the government was to implement
was abandoned. ASUU was banned but the
academics organised themselves under the
platform of Universities Lecturers Association
(ULA) and it was on this platform that the anti-
World Bank Conference to resist the Babangida
regime's attempt to obtain the $120 million loan
from the World Bank was held at OAU, Ile-Ife, in
1990.
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