ASUU and 49 UNILORIN lecturers

For the second time this year, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on a week-long warning strike to press home its demand for the reinstatement of the 49 lecturers sacked by the authorities of the University of Ilorin in 2001. Obviously, the union called out its members on strike again because the one observed last February failed to resolve the lingering crisis.

Though the dons shelved the declaration of their proposed indefinite nationwide strike scheduled for March 18, 2008, it has consistently argued that the Federal Government is not ready to fulfill its promise to reinstate the 49 lecturers despite several appeals. The union demands that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who is the Visitor to the university, should order the Governing Council of the university to recall the lecturers immediately.

ASUU says that it is fighting for justice for the 49 dons who have been out of job in the last seven years. The union claims that its strike will, in no way, affect the judicial process because ASUU is not in court but the affected individuals. The ASUU national President, Dr. Abdullahi Sule-Kano, insists that if ASUU is to wait for the Supreme Court’s ruling, it will take another seven years and “that will mean our colleagues will be out of job for 14 years.”

The FG’s position, however, is that the lecturers’ demand for a political solution to the case that has already reached the Supreme Court will compromise the government’s insistence on the rule of law and due process. The Education Minister, Dr. Igwe Aja-Nwachukwu, argues that it is disheartening that “in spite of the strides recorded so far at discussions, the union embarked on a one-week warning strike on a matter that is before the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court.”

The legal battle got to the apex court after the Court of Appeal had ruled against the sacked dons on July 12, 2006. About a year earlier, the Federal High Court in Ilorin had ruled in favour of the sacked lecturers and ordered for their immediate reinstatement. In February, the FG lost a legal move to stop the union from embarking on strike.

The current industrial row was sparked in 2001, when all lecturers who refused to sign an attendance register created by the authorities of the University of Ilorin as a way of foiling the 2001 ASUU nationwide strike, were sacked. The union claims that the sack of the 49 lecturers by the University of Ilorin was a violation of the 2001 FG-ASUU Agreement, which stipulates, among other issues, that no member of the union would be victimised on account of the strike.

While the UNILORIN authorities insist that the appointments of the affected staff were terminated for different reasons, the FG says it is not ready to impose the sacked dons on the university. In the past, the union had rebuffed the FG’s offer to reabsorb the embattled dons into other institutions, including the National Universities Commission and other universities.

It is very unfortunate that the face-off between ASUU and the FG on the fate of the 49 UNILORIN dons has dragged on for seven years. As public servants, the sacked dons have taken the right step by seeking legal redress for perceived injustice. Since the case is now pending before the apex court, ASUU should allow the dons to exhaust the judicial process. The court should be left to decide whether or not injustice has been done against the dons.

The local problem of one university should not be allowed to bring down the whole system. Incessant national strikes have inflicted too much harm on the entire university system. ASUU members should think of less disruptive ways of expressing their grievances. The government should immediately enact the University Autonomy bill so as to empower the dons to participate actively in the affairs of their individual universities.