FG vs ASUU: Will Gambari Broker a Lasting Truce? By Mohammed Dahiru Lawal
POLITICS DIGEST – With the appointment of Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari as Chief of Staff to Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari last week, effectively replacing the late Mallam Abba Kyari who died of the novel coronavirus, so many expectations from entitled stakeholders in the Nigerian project have expectedly continued to mount at his doorstep; some founded, others unfounded.
Owing to his distinguished and illustrious career on two enviable fronts, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, CFR, OCORT, styled in the garb of a scholar-diplomat, is, based on the torrents of congratulatory messages that greeted his appointment, seen by many as the touch bearer that will exert a marked influence on the myriads of issues bedevilling the country. Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje went as far as describing his on boarding as “just,” emphasising that, “as a cerebral scholar who combines a high sense of diplomatic expertise, reserved and sagacious mind, makes his appointment to be apt and timely” while the University of Ilorin described him as a “renowned academic and consummate diplomat.”
While all these glorifications are not misplaced, as one who have served as a former Minister of External Affairs, Nigerian Ambassador to the United Nations (UN), President of UNICEF and Under Secretary-General of the UN and has taught at universities in the Unites States, Nigeria and Singapore with the authorship of a number of books to his credit, I do hope, Professor Gambari who has received several academic and national honours, including the “Commander of Federal Republic of Nigeria” (CFR), and the “Order of the Champion of the Oliver R. Tambo” (OCORT) of South Africa, will bring this acumen to the bare in resolving the current face-off between the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
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The battle between FG and ASUU is a protracted one and it can rightly be said that the issues of contention in this sustained skirmish are matters that have set the Nigerian Ivory Tower decades behind its global pairs – a worrisome trajectory.
ASUU and the FGN are always in conflict over funding of Nigerian Universities, better working condition among other ASUU demands.
The clash escalated when a directive that ASUU members should enrol in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as mandated by President Buhari during his budget presentation at the National Assembly last year. This was staunchly resisted by ASUU who claimed the move violates University Autonomy. The Union proposed its own alternative University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) which was designed to address the limitations of the IPPIS as it affects Nigerian Universities. President Buhari has in a meeting with ASUU on January 9th directed that the UTAS be integrated into the IPPIS, till today, bureaucracy and double dealings is preventing this basic technological task from being implemented.
Of the 14 times since ASUU has been on strike since this republic in 1999, 2001,2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2017, and 2018, this is the first time an academic will mount the much coveted saddle of a Presidential Handler.
As the pioneer Chancellor of Kwara State University, Malete, Professor Ibrahim Gambari is to the best of my knowledge still the current Pro-Chancellor and Chairmen of the Governing Council of Bayero University Kano.
I expect the New Chief of Staff not to turn his back on his constituent by using his position to brokers a truce in the protracted ASUU/FG face off, one that will supersede administrations to come.
Even if that will be his only legacy, future generations will ever remain indebted to him because of the indispensable roles of University systems world over, in National Growth and Development. If FG/ASUU is not on his priority list, he should please make it one.
Meanwhile, I will not congratulate the Chief of Staff on his appointment until he leaves an envious and worthy legacy behind his trail. May we live to see such a day.
[email protected] writes from Kano
