Apart from the demand to review conditions of service of ASUU members, adoption of ASUU-designed University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) and payment of earned academic allowances, the major issue at stake is the recent declaration by the Federal Government that it has no money to fund university revitalisation which would cost about N1.1 trillion
Federal Government's response
In a television interview, on Thursday, 4th March, 2022, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, said among other things: "In 2016/2017 the government said it doesn’t have the money, But we will find a way by which we can fund the universities. So, a committee was set up with ASUU as members. The committee even recommended that stamp duty should be taken. There was a proposal to get money from phone charges. Government made it clear that we don’t have the 1.1 trillion that is remaining.”
Apparently, the committee that was set up couldn't find sustainable sources of funds to fulfil the agreement's financial commitment.
Before you join those casting aspersions on ASUU over frequent strike actions, you need to understand that the ASUU is primarily fighting for ordinary Nigerian students, whose parents have no means to pay for foreign education or private university.
As of this week, the website of the National Universities Commission (NUC) depicts that there are more private universities in Nigeria than federal universities. Of Nigeria's 205 universities, 49 are owned by the federal government, 57 by state governments, while the remaining 99 are owned privately, mostly by religious organizations.
The systemic defunding of public universities would give private universities undue advantage, and this would further create problems of access and affordability. ASUU is agitating now so that what happened to public primary and secondary schools won't be repeated at the university education level.
The N1.1 trillion needed by the Federal Government to fund public universities would enable universities to provide a conducive teaching and learning environment. The revitalization fund would help to decongest the overcrowded lecture rooms.
Also conditions of service need to be reviewed, it's more than ten years that ASUU has been struggling to get the 2009 agreement fully implemented. ASSU is requesting that agreement on conditions of service be renegotiated so that ASUU members would be adequately compensated for their best efforts.
One of the possible means of sourcing N1.1 trillion being required for university revitalization funding, is to use funds in care of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND). During the interview Dr. Chris Ngige said: “unless you want us to go and take money from TETFUND and deceive you as it was done in that period, and place it for you on the table".
What is TETFUND?
It must be pointed out that TETFUND is a brainchild of ASUU, it was created during the military rule. The TETFund was originally established as Education Trust Fund (ETF) in 1993 and replaced with Tertiary Education Trust Fund in 2011.
Essentially, it's primary purpose is to provide supplementary sources of funding to all levels of public (federal and state) tertiary institutions namely: universities, polytechnics and colleges of education. Institutions use TETFund for rehabilitation, and restoration of facilities. Also, TETFund provides scholarship opportunities to academic staff to study abroad and carry out research.
TETFund generates funds through the two percent education tax paid from the assessable profit of companies registered in Nigeria. The Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) collects and remits the tax to the Fund.
Recently the outgoing Executive Secretary of TETFUND, Professor Elias Bogoro, impressively punctured the request by some private universities, asking that they should be entitled to supplementary funding from the Fund.
Prof. Bogoro, let them understand that for the sake of fairness, private universities cannot be entitled to supplementary funding. It is the only viable financial backup available for Nigerian public tertiary institutions.
Going Forward: Sustainable Funding of Tertiary Education in Nigeria
Personally I will suggest intensive collaboration between public universities and the private sector.
This is the era of knowledge-driven economy, hence knowledge workers have no reasons being limited by non-availability of funds to carry out research that will expand, drive human progress and expand frontiers of knowledge.
ASUU needs not be discouraged by the Government's lackadaisical attitude towards funding education, rather it needs to take proactive steps to reform its community service roles in line with the market dictates.
The weak connection between town and gown in Nigeria is partially responsible for massive unemployment in the country. Brilliant academic research outcomes should be commercialized for the benefits of society. The - FedEx Corporation, an American-based multinational company focused on transportation, e-commerce and courier services, was originally an academic research project that was turned into commercial success. The idea of FedEx was contained in a term paper submitted by Frederick Wallace Smith, while studying Economics at Yale University.
It is also instructive to note that even Google, the world's number one search engine, started as an academic research paper, Larry Page and Sergey Brin were both PhD candidates at Stanford University, the focus of their joint paper was on ranking of Web pages, basically to index Web pages. Both of them later abandoned the PhD program after establishing Google in 1997.
Nigerian universities could foster synergistic relationships with the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) with a view to work out modalities for setting up university industrial complexes across the country.
I understand that our universities are already producing sachet/bottled water and are running lucrative agricultural farms and bakeries. They could do better by going into production of electronic gadgets and building materials, which are being imported from China. Import substitution is one of the cocksure strategies of driving industrial growth.