PROLONGATION OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT-ASUU IMPASSE IN NIGERIA TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS: A CALL FOR STAKEHOLDERS INTERVENTION
Keywords:
Prolongation, Federal Government, ASUU, Impasse, Stakeholders and InterventionAbstract
The prolonged nation-wide industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian universities (ASUU) over the failure of the federal government to meet their various demands of service has continued to attract heightened public concerns in recent times. Ever and Moji (2021) posits that education is widely acknowledged as a key agent of economic growth and important instrument for supporting sustainable development. Today, the nation is completely thrown aghast by the inability of federal government’s leadership to put an end to the imbroglio to reposition the education sector on the real path of growth and global landscape. To achieve this goal, the study utilizes primary and secondary sources of data while adopting the Maxian Classical theory as a theoretical foundation to guide the study. Also, a descriptive survey method and content analysis were used in analyzing data. The study reveals that the prolonged FG-ASUU impasse was characterized by lack of adequate funding both in terms of human resource and capital infrastructural developments, non-implementation of previous agreements which borders on non-payment of accumulated arrears of salaries/allowances and the insensitivity of the past and present governments over the lingering issues. Also, the absence of adequate stakeholders’ intervention to halt the crisis between the warring parties. It was recommended that the universities should be adequately funded by providing at least 35-45% annual budget duly implemented. The terms of the agreement document should be honoured forthwith while the various stakeholders both the federal government, state governors, national/states assembly legislators and non-governmental agencies should holistically intervene on the matters of educational funding to save the system from total collapse. The interventionist policy in this regard will not only check the excesses of bad administrators but put a final end to the imbroglio, restore our educational sector