The Fallacy in asking state universities to pull out from Asuu strike.

THE FALLACY IN ASKING STATE UNIVERSITIES TO PULL OUT OF ASUU STRIKE


Nigerians’ penchant for narrow reasoning or selectivity depending on their position on an issue at any given period is intriguing.

This is why you will see a person defend a position today and shamelessly oppose the same at another time, depending on where their current interest resides.

You see people deliberately pick out points, a lot of times out of context, to support their often biased positions at different periods.


This tendency is glaring in the current ASUU strike which is dragging into the seventh month, as it relates to state universities. Governing council members and vice chancellors of some state universities have come up with different arguments as to why their lecturers should pull out of the ASUU strike.

Some said their state governments have been meeting up with their financial obligations to members of staff hence they have no business joining a dispute between government and lecturers of Federal Government-owned universities.
If we even grant that they are correct, where is the place of solidarity which is a hallmark of labour struggles globally?

Are solidarity strikes not weapons used to put pressure on the powers that be to act on workers’ grievances?

Moreover, can they deny that state universities have been beneficiaries of past ASUU struggles?

The mushrooming of universities by state governments in expectation of funding from TETFUND (which was the brainchild of ASUU) is well known.
Also, but for the membership of ASUU by state universities which has made the union to intervene in matters of their welfare, workers in many of the state universities would not be enjoying the remuneration and other benefits they are currently enjoying.

It is also baffling that lecturers in state universities are being asked to get out of ASUU because, as one vice chancellor argued, the current government in his state is meeting up with its financial obligations to his university. So what happens if another administration comes and does not sustain the commitment after they have pulled out of the union? Such selective and puerile arguments that serves momentary purposes are hardly helpful in the long run.
Coming to the issue of solidarity in labour struggles, based on the contention that lecturers in state universities should back out of the strike because they have no disputes with their respective state governments, do we then say that the NLC is wrong in mobilizing other unions to embark on sympathy strike in support of ASUU?

The wise counsel from Senator Shehu Sani that state universities that pull out of the strike would be on their own when their state governments or managements choose to mistreat them sounds prophetic and should be heeded.

Daniel Yusuf,
Gombe.

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The Fallacy in asking state universities to pull out from Asuu strike.

| Education | September 9, 2022 4:36 am
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