ASUU STRIKE: ‘No agreement today; no agreement tomorrow’

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has told us this past week that government cannot afford the N92 billion (ASUU says its N87 billion) that striking university teachers are demanding as ‘earned allowances’. Her joining the Gabriel Suswan-led Federal Government negotiating team, which Suswan thought was very important as it would give a clear picture of the economy, has truly changed the tempo and tenor of the negotiation between the Academic Staff Union of Universities and Abuja.



The change Okonjo-Iweala brings to the discussion is however not so fundamental, for the song she’s singing is an old one that has left Nigerians jaded. It ranked top of the chart of past ASUU/government negotiations. Like a repeating clock, we shall be back here again soon when the contrived truce that would eventually end the ASUU/Government disagreement again breaks down for non-implementation. Even if the strike is called off as I write this, the damage to the academic calendar is already done.

It’s obvious Okonjo-Iweala’s message won’t sell in the ears of ASUU. And it can’t and shouldn’t sell when it’s clear that the same economy that we are told cannot sustain the lecturers’ demand somehow takes care of the claims of a grossly bloated government of seat-warming executive and legislative officials; so-called democracy that is by universal assent the most expensive and, one might say, irresponsible in the world.

EXTRACT FROM VANGUARD ARTICLE