| ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE ACADEMIC STAFF UNION OF UNIVERSITIES (ASUU) AT THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE THIRTEENTH NATIONAL DELEGATES CONFERENCE HELD AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALABAR 16-18 APRIL, 2004. Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, The President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), The President, Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) The President, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) The President, Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), The President, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), The President, College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), The President, Confederation of Free Trade Unions (CFTU), The Presidents, All Civil Society Organizations, present, Delegates from ASUU Branches, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, On behalf of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, I welcome you to the Thirteenth Delegates Conference of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). At the Twelfth NDC held at the University of Maiduguri, our union observed that the objective of global liberalism is to sustain a pattern, a structure of domination of the world by new methods; to present schemes of economic and political domination of the world, especially the post-colonial societies, through ideologically less suspicious currencies such as “democratization and “globalization. After all, we all want democracy. But what democracy? It is assumed that there is one viable model- Free Market, Competitive Democracy driven by the capitalist powers in Europe and America; that socialist democracy is out of the human agenda; democracy out of the market is ruled out. The participatory model is declared not feasible. Democracy in the sphere of economics is conceived so that the IMF and the World Bank define what counts as economic democracyLiberalization,Privatization,Commercialization, the dominance of the private over the public etc. It fails to see how the power of the private can deprive the majority of their freedom; how the impoverishment of the public and the political and economic power of the few can erode the basis of a genuine democratic society, as we have started seeing in Nigeria. We have now seen how these faulty assumptions of global liberalism Have systematically begun to be transferred from the spheres of economy into Education. Education, the Government insists, must be subject to the principles of the Market. Government fails to support this with good arguments. It needs to be shown that education is a commodity. But education is not a commodity. People are not given education so as to exchange their knowledge for other goods. The goal of education is not to make profits. But our government has accepted, from ideologically suspect sources, the idea that all human goods are commodities. So, as the policy goes, just as in the economic sector, the private sector must take a leading role in the educational sector. The World Bank should be the Chief agent of change in the Education Sector. The NUC is now involved in a drive to register Private universities in droves. The funding of education and of universities remains low. The 5.6%(N96 billion out of N1.6 trillion) allocation to education in 2004 is still lower than the average during the era of military rule. The FGN/ASUU Agreement on funding is honoured by breaching it. The Recurrent Grant owed the universities by the Federal Government since 2001 is about N200, 000,000. For 2003, the Agreement stipulates that the FG shall provide N66 billion. This should be increased in 2004.The Recurrent Grant for 2004 should be over N66 billion; but the actual budgetary allocation in 2004 is N37.4 billion. The Capital Grant owed by the Federal Government to the universities since 2001 is about N80 billion. The Federal Government allocated N25 billion and the National Assembly slashed it to N22 billion. Although the universities are already charging various fees, the Federal Government imposes, quite at variance with the autonomy of the universities, a N10, 000 arbitrary fee on each bed-space and withdrew it when popular resistance began to grow. In 2000, the same Federal Government announced that fees would not be demanded from parents until they were empowered. In 2004, parents have become more impoverished and more powerless. Yet, on December 1, 2003, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria called all Vice-Chancellors and gave them an open license to charge fees. In its efforts to get public support during ASUU strike, the Federal Government announced it was giving scholarships to needy students. In April 2004, the same Federal Government, through the President, announced the cancellation of scholarships to indigent students. Most state governments are not funding their universities to function decently Complaining of inadequate distribution of resources, many state governments spend more on sustaining themselves and their cronies in power than on social services. We have appealed to those state governments that own universities to fund their universities to facilitate the accreditation of their programmes. We are yet to get a reply. The equal opportunity idea embedded in Nigeria Constitution is threatened by the educational policy guided by the ideology of global liberalism. Given global liberalism, our educational system, just like our economy, will not emerge from the structure of domination imposed from Europe and America. National sovereignty will continue to be subverted. Education in Nigerian will be a preserve for the rich. Yet, democracy requires a well-educated citizenry at the base, and a decent minimum standard of living. The National Universities Commission (NUC) has been playing the role of executor of the World Bank agenda. It attempted, in cahoots with the Ministry of Education, to impose the World Bank NUSIP on Nigerian universities. ASUU and students resisted this. Ultimately, the World Bank withdrew from NUSIP because, according to it, the programme had been altered and it could not trust the NUC to implement the programme. The NUC is encroaching into the functions of Senate and Academic research committees in the universities. It is now taking over the control of research in universities; it is trying to determine the conditions of employment of lecturers. It is pursuing at the National Assembly the passage of an already-rejected Bill on University Autonomy. From the original intent of the enabling law assignment of a co-coordinating role, the NUC is taking the posture and becoming a controlling center, subverting university autonomy. Urged on by the Federal Government and the authoritarian streaks in the Federal Government itself, many Vice-Chancellors are promoting authoritarian tendencies in the universities. Academics, especially ASUU leaders, who scrupulously defend their members, have been suspended, or sacked on false charges, without fair hearing. The Federal Government support for the unjust termination of the appointments of 49 lecturers at the university of Ilorin is the model of the new authoritarianism in the universities. This is the state of the universities. Primary and Secondary education are already in shambles. We cannot rekindle the hopes of the present and the future generations if we continue on the path charted for us by global liberalism and its ideologists in Nigeria. But this is the context in which our union executes its goals and objectives, as our Constitution requires. It is a context of renewing colonial-derived domination of our people, with the active collaboration of a subordinate ruling class. The same context has defined for us the theme of the Thirteenth Delegates Conference: The Struggle Against Re-colonization. We thank you for honouring our invitation to this opening ceremony. We pray that wait and listen to the Guest Lecturers whose lecture, we trust, will leave all of us Nigerians with some food for thought. Thank you very much and welcome. Dr. Oladipo Fashina National President |
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ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT AT THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE THIRTEENTH NDC AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALABAR
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Wednesday, 05 March 2008 07:40
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