Vice-Chancellor of Federal University of Technology (FUT) Minna, Niger State, Professor Musbau Adewumi Akanji had an interactive session with journalists in Minna as part of activities to mark the 21st, 22nd and 23rd convocation ceremonies of the institution recently.
He spoke on ASUU strike and how to tackle it in future, the position of the university globally, efforts made so far in repositioning the university and many more.
FUT Minna was ranked as No 64 in Africa and No 4 in Nigeria, how do you feel about it?
With respect to ranking, it is done by looking at your presence globally. Things are happening in third world countries and unless you visit us, you won’t know them so bringing Professor Bala to talk about power. We have bandwidth problem so, this university at the beginning of this session, subscribed to a large bandwidth of 45 gigabyte at a cost of N48 m per annum; with that, our presence is assured 24 hours of the day. So, anywhere in the world, you can contact us.
All researches carried out by our lecturers and their publications are put on the web so that if you check our website and want to know anything about any of our lecturers, in any field, it is easy. With that, people can get to us from anywhere in the world. It makes us visible. It is sad to note that the first university in Nigeria is number 25 in Africa.
The first university in Africa is in Egypt. The next six are in South Africa. But these are changing; we now have 10 universities in Nigeria, instead of three, among the best in Africa.
Universities recently came out of a protracted strike action and incidentally, truce was brokered in your university.
However, we still have pockets of agitation from different universities about non-implementation of conditions that ended the strike. How far have you gone in implementing the terms as agreed upon by both government and ASUU?
We feel proud that the long strike by ASUU was resolved on our campus. As you rightly said, there were some terms that attended that resolution. After the terms, it devolved on various campuses to interpret the terms. If two people are reading the same letter, the interpretation will be different. And that is what is resulting in skirmishes you hear about on various campuses’ interpretation of terms. You will recollect that all those campuses that follow the regulation, have minimal problems.
Government provided some money to settle the allowances and government said that the figure claimed by the union was not likely to be real. They now gave certain percentage, saying go and pay this and let’s see how far it goes. But, there are some details that because of the heat of the moment were not attended to. Such details are causing the problems at various campuses now. We also have our problems here, but, one thing we do is, we continually talk.
The information from government is that we should make a return of the money they gave us. For example, here, they gave us N719 million for allowances, out of the N30 bn that was released. So, they said all the universities should make a return to the central body, by July 1.
They will now know what percentage has been covered, and what should remain. So, in universities where engagement with the union is constant, such problems are minimal. But in areas where there is an overload, breakdown usually occurs. But the Committee of Vice-Chancellors continually meets to compare notes. This gives an opportunity for members to know how individual universities handle peculiar problems that arise. So, it is ongoing, it has not been completely resolved.
How can strikes be avoided or tackled without having such protracted standstill in the sector?
As a person, I believe it takes two to tango. If you notice the history of strikes in the educational system, or even generally in labour, there will be discussions, but there is usually betrayal of trust. Personally, I believe government has its fault, we also have our fault because, government would agree we would do this, but they will not do it until they are forced to do it.
So, those who usually go on strike now believe unless we force you, you will not do what ordinarily you should do. So, they are encouraged to go on strike. It is my belief that if governments attend to their duties, their minimal responsibilities, strike actions will be reduced to the barest minimum.
Apart from government and labour, there are also intra-institutional strikes, resulting from disagreement between the administration and the workers. If administrators encourage discussions before the issues boil over, incidences of strike will be reduced drastically. In a nutshell, I don’t see an end to agitations until each party agrees to do its own bit without prompting.
In my own case, I personally believe in talking. I make every fact available to my staff, nothing hidden. In circumstances where I cannot disclose because of confidentiality, they appreciate it because they know my strength, they know my weaknesses. What usually brings problem is the issue of money. Since March this year I have been publishing income and expenditure of the university in the bulletin on weekly basis. So, you take our campus publication, you see the money received and how it is utilised.
During the salary week our expenditure far outweighs our income. Let me give you an example, for running cost, overhead, we are given an average of N7 million a month. We spend nothing less than N65 million. It is the right of workers to demand for more pay, but when I say ‘see what they gave me, see NEPA bill, see diesel bill,’ they pity me.
So, when we now give minimum, they are willing to accept. But when you are not open, they think you have millions in your kitty.
The strike has impacted negatively on the system, that is why we would not be able to give 2012/2013 certificates because we need 12 weeks between approval and readiness of certificates, and we were just able to get Senate approval. In fact, the academic staff was willing to assist.
They collapsed 2012/2013 with 2013/2014 without going on a day’s break, so that things will become normal in the next one year. The workers of the university are willing to sacrifice, we should go on three months leave, twelve weeks leave, but the workers have decided to sacrifice that period so that we attain normality from 2014/2015 session.
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