The Academic Staff Union of Universities is the umbrella body of members of academic staff in Nigerian Universities. It is a labour union which protects the diverse interests of the Lecturers and advocates for better infrastructures, learning environments, research funding, and the general welfare of lecturers among others.
Nigeria has witnessed so many industrial actions from ASUU with the recent one being quite dire. At a time that violent crimes are on the rise in our clime, young men and women are kept idle in various homes in Nigeria even when we are all aware that the youth is the harvest field for sponsors of terrorism, kidnapping, banditry etc. ASUU and the government should know the dangers of keeping youth at home and everything within reason has to be done to get Nigerian students back to school.
It is disheartening that helpless parents who have paid tuition and accommodation fees for their undergraduate children have continued to live with those children since February, 2022 due to the strike action embarked upon by ASUU resulting from a breakdown of negotiations with the Federal Government. A full academic year has been lost, the rent paid by off-campus students is lost, applicants for fresh admissions into public universities wait endlessly, lecturers are getting frustrated, the government is feeling the heat, negotiations are not yielding expected results and the voices of well-meaning Nigerians have not changed the tide. It has become a disastrous situation in which every party loses.
Not knowing where else to turn for a respite, the Federal Government approached the National Industrial Court for judicial intervention in the protracted industrial action. By section 254C of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), the National Industrial Court is vested with exclusive jurisdiction in labour matters. Section 254C (1)(c) of 1999 Constitution (as amended) provides in particular, thus :
“Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 251, 257,272 and anything contained in this Constitution and in addition to such other jurisdiction as may be conferred upon it by an Act of the National Assembly, the National Industrial Court shall have and exercise jurisdiction to the exclusion of any other court in civil causes and matters- rating to, connected with the grant of any order restraining any person or body from taking part in any strike, lock-out or any industrial action, or any conduct in contemplation or in furtherance of a strike, lock-out or any industrial action and matters connected therewith or related thereto…”
The National Industrial Court sitting in Abuja delivered a decision which ordered ASUU to call off the strike action. Not satisfied with the decision, ASUU lodged an appeal against the decision to the Court of Appeal, the intermediate appellate court encouraged the Parties to go and hold further talks for amicable resolution of the trade dispute. ASUU and the Government failed to utilize the opportunity offered by the Court of Appeal leading to a decision by the Court of Appeal which ordered ASUU to ‘return to Class!’
According to the leadership of ASUU, they are still studying the decision and will react thereto in due time. One may opine that the Federal Government went to court in the interest of the suffering university students and the entire educational system. There is no celebration of any kind of victory by the government as the government is still persuading ASUU to return to Class while talks continue. As Nigerians, we all feel the pains of ASUU and understand some of the points made, however getting Nigerian students back to school should be the priority of ASUU at this time. Or does ASUU want to appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal?
By the provisions of section 243(4) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), it is difficult to see how ASUU can appeal against the Court of Appeal decision. The effect of section 243(4) of the Constitution is that the decisions of the National Industrial Court are appealable only to the Court of Appeal. Put differently, the section provides that there is no further appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal in any appeal against the decision of the National Industrial Court. The case of Skye Bank Plc. v Victor Anaemen Iwu (2017) 16 NWLR (Pt. 1590) 24 is a case where the Supreme Court made this position as clear as a bright crystal. The question then is, where does ASUU go from here? A humble and modest answer is, ASUU should in the interest of the nation, the students in public universities and their parents, return to Class while negotiations continue!
There is no victor or vanquished from the decisions of the courts. ASUU has clearly made a point understood by all and sundry to be in the interest of the better development of our educational system. The Federal Government has shown good faith in its commitment to join hands with ASUU to take Nigerian educational system beyond its present position. It’s getting to a point of losing sympathy due to handling, which will be a reflection of a story told by a professor of folklore whose name one will not mention.
In general studies lecture, the professor told the story of the tortoise who painfully offended his inlaw, but owing to the degree of the offence the inlaw tied the tortoise to a tree by the road. A passersby in the morning who had heard the details of the offence saw the tortoise, said it served him right and recommended tougher punishment for the tortoise. In the evening, the same passersby was returning and saw the tortoise still tied to the the tree and he bitterly deprecated the inhuman act of the inlaw in keeping the tortoise in that position for that long.
One urges ASUU not to allow this strike to be likened to the the story of the tortoise wherein the inlaw lost sympathy of the man who initially commended the inlaw’s punitive action.
One’s sincere plea is for the patriotism ASUU overtly express to lead them back to Class with a call on the Federal Government to continue the negotiations and not renege on any agreed term.
Everyday we hear about the rights of the Nigerian youth. But never has the need for that right to be actualized been more important than the necessity of Nigerian students to go back to school. That can only happen when the Strike action by ASUU is called off. In the interim, while negotiations are still being held, the court judgement should be obeyed with a return to class immediately.
Afterall, we must provide every Nigerian student the opportunity to learn in-person full-time. And it is apparent that this is one way of achieving it.
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