Logically speaking the idea of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) is misleading because it creates the false impression that there are unearned allowances. Surely every allowance must be earned or else it should not have been approved ab initio.
That said, the current system used in disbursing the EAA is too complicated and prone to manipulation by ASUU executive and management in the universities. Therefore it should be jettisoned and whatever allowances agreed upon with government can be mainstreamed into the salaries of lecturers based on academic rank and purely administrative duties.
The University of Lagos, Akoka, is one of few universities adhering to the approved abstruse template in sharing the money to beneficiaries. Still, many lecturers there are complaining because of anomalies in the sharing formula. In fact, across various universities nationwide unscrupulous lecturers, heads of department, top management officials and members of ASUU executive present dubious information and manipulate the process to increase their own share of the allowances thereby short-changing others, including Professors.
Again, in some schools meetings are held where less than twenty percent of members in attendance purportedly endorse setting aside a percentage of the EAA for projects such as building ASUU secretariat and funding the pension company floated by the union, a practice that clearly negates the very purpose for which the EAA was approved in the first place. The idea of earmarking a percentage of the earned academic allowances for anything other than paying lecturers is completely unacceptable. As I observed a moment ago the current method of disbursing the EAA is cumbersome, prone to manipulation and unsustainable. It should be scrapped without further delay.
Sometimes in my melancholic moments, I wonder whether ASUU leaders and some lecturers gain something from incessant strike given their enthusiasm for it whenever the issue is discussed during meetings. ASUU officials collect allowances for strike mobilisation and to cover sundry expenses while negotiating with government. In addition, strikeis beneficial to lecturers who have other streams of income aside from salaries, especially those indisciplines like law, medicine, engineering and so on because it gives them time to concentrate on their private practice and make more money, which protects them from economic hardship if government stops salaries of lecturers because of ASUU strike. Again, as long as government makes concessions only when ASUU paralyses the system, strike would continue in our tertiary institutions. ASUU probably deserves the shoddy treatment it has received from this government.
Aside from the fact that over the years senior academics including Professors have degraded the dignity and respect which naturally belong to the academia by genuflecting and serving as factotums to military dictators and extremely corrupt politicians, many of them campaigned vigorously for Buhari in 2015 and subjected those of us who questioned his electability and competence to vicious obloquy. A colleague of mine now deceased even spent part of his meagre salary supporting Buhari in the mistaken belief that he was the much-awaited messiah.
So in a sense some ASUU members helped sow the APC wind. Now everybody is reeling from the Buhari whirlwind. The lesson from all this is clear. As long as lecturers continue to sacrifice the disciplined consistent search for The True, The Good and The Beautiful on the altar of selfish interest government will normalise treating them with condescension and disrespect.
The current constitutional amendment by the National Assembly has completely destroyed the argument of those who claim that the best way to deal with our political problems is by applying relevant sections of the 1999 constitution that stipulate how changes in the document can be effected. The constitution itself is inherently flawed particularly with respect to the processes of its formulation, the false claims it contains and provisions that negate the fundamental principles of democratic secular federalism. Nigerians expecting agbata ekee politicians benefiting from the grotesque constitution to willingly make the necessary far-reaching changes in that document are living in a cloud cuckoo land. It will not happen. The best outcome from the ongoing exercise, if it succeeds at all, will be largely cosmetic: it cannot address the major weaknesses of the constitution. The group of over-pampered federal lawmakers who rejected provisions that can enhance the status of women and their participation in the political process cannot endorse any amendment that would enshrine consequential devolution of powers to the federating units, which is key to resolving some of the problems of nation-building in the country. And because the extremely defective 1999 constitution serves their vested interests and the bulimic interests of the owners of Nigeria mostly from the north the legislators cannot muster the moral courage required to change the status quo radically in a manner that serves the well-being of the masses.
The constitution contains too many unitarist and anti-secular provisions that make it unsuitable for a multiply-plural country like ours. Accordingly the most sensible thing to do is to revert to the 1963 constitution and fine-tune it to meet current realities. A very good example is replacement of the four regions with the six geopolitical zones as federating units. Unfortunately Fulani caliphate colonialists, their friends in the British establishment together with useful idiots from southern Nigeria and the middle-belt will not let that happen.
Besides, given that ordinary Nigerians are yet to develop the kind of revolutionary political consciousness that transcends primordial tribal loyalties which breed petty ethnic rivalries, religious affiliation, and myopic self-centredness the prospect for progressive political change is very dim at the moment. Unless something unprecedented happens, such as a successful political revolution that brings about needed changes in the fiscal and geopolitical structure, the country will continue to experience motion without real movement. One thing is sure, anyway: things cannot continue this way indefinitely. At some point fortuitous consilience of planned and unplanned events would either lead to the required reconstitution of Nigeria as a federation or confederation, or even dissolution into four or more independent countries. The rich, extremely complex, mosaic of world history has again and again validated Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s famous claim that no condition is permanent.
The situation in several states presently, including my home state, Imo, where Governor Hope Uzodinma and his lackeys have almost ruined everything,is gradually approaching the infamous Hobbesian state of nature. Yet President Muhammadu Buhari, his party loyalists and appointees seem alienated from the grim realities the people are facing and are busy manufacturing vapid explanations and excuses for the ugly situation.
Having realised the futility of blaming Dr. Goodluck Jonathan continuously for Buhari’s failures, sycophants in the presidency and elsewhere now hyperbolically parade projects like the second Niger Bridge, rail transport, and any bill signed into law by the President as great accomplishments.Wonders shall never end! The tendency to twist reality makes one wonder whether APC was established as an experiment to determine how far falsehood can be used as a strategy for governance. Take for example, the second Niger Bridge and modernisation of railway transport. There is documentary evidence that previous administrations made investments in these projects, which means that Buhari did not start them ex nihilo. Keep in mind also that despite the bogus claims of achievements, discerning Nigerians now acknowledge that the APC has ruined the country. In nearly 7 years Buhari, assisted by a lame-duck robber stamp National Assembly, has borrowed more than twice what governments of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) borrowed in 16 years, and now spends about N97 out of every N100 it receives to service debts. As I have argued repeatedly, in all indices for assessing leadership this government is acolossal failure. The very modest achievements of President Buhari’s administration since 2015 are equivalent to someone who graduates with a pass degree from the university and pale into insignificance when juxtaposed with his failed promises.
In conclusion, Buhari’s supporters who claim that history will be kind to him do not understand history. As Karl Marx stated, men make history, but not as they please. The history of his leadership can be summarised accurately in just one word written in capital letters: DISASTER. Concluded.
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