At the 28th Convocation Lecture of Ekiti State University that I delivered at Ado Ekiti on 2nd April 2024, I presented data to show that the total time lost to National Strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in the period from 1988 till 2022 totalled six years and three months.
One had thought that the system would say no to any more strikes in the system. Man proposes God disposes. Meanwhile, the Federal Government had been trumpeting as one of its achievements that it had put paid to strike actions by ASUU (and the other staff unions). Events of the past few weeks had put paid to any claim of such relief as one woke up this morning, 13th October 2025, to the reality of yet another two-week warning strike by ASUU.
One matter that worries me has to do with failure of the Federal Government-ASUU Negotiation Committees over the years to reach an implementable agreement, in the spirit of collective bargaining. I think there is the underlying matter of a consistent imbalance in power relationship between the Federal Government as the *Oga at the top* and ASUU as the *underdog*. The Federal Government appoints its trusted hands as the Chairman of a Negotiation Committee that acts at its behest. The Committee concludes it’s assignment and submits a Report to the Federal Government as its Principal. Then the same Government is unwilling and/or unable to implement the outcome of the Negotiations. In its stead, the Government sets up yet another Committee to renegotiate the Agreement previously reached. The vicious cycle continues _ad infinitum_. A case of imperfect obligations! Meanwhile, the University teachers are losing their patience as their condition of service worsens steadily. The slave wages paid to the academics in unlikely to attract new hands to join the Faculty nor to retain them.
A checklist of such Committees from 2017 till date is given below.
1. In 2017= FG inaugurated the Wale Babalakin committee, but *the Chairman resigned* in 2021.
2. In 2021= FG inaugurated Munzali Jibrin’s committee, which also produced a draft that was *never signed*.
3. In 2022= FG inaugurated Nimi Briggs renegotiation committee, which produced a draft that the government *never signed nor implemented*.
4. In October 2024= the FG inaugurated Yayale Ahmed renegotiation committee inaugurated *to renegotiate* the 2009 agreement with ASUU
5. In August 2025= the education minister inaugurated a committee headed by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary *to look into the draft agreement* between ASUU and the Yayale Ahmed renegotiation committee submitted in February, 2025.
6. October 7th, 2025= Federal Government Tertiary Institutions Expanded Negotiation Committee (FGTIENC), to be headed by Yayale Ahmed
A typology of the four Federal Government appointed Chairmen of the Negotiation Teams from 2017 till date clearly indicates that they are/were eminent and distinguished men who had been Pro-Chancellor at one time or the other.
1. Dr. Wale Babalakin, SAN. Businessman, formerly Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council at University of Maiduguri and at University of Lagos.
2. Professor Munzali Jubrin; Deputy Vice-Chancellor Bayero University Kano; Executive Secretary National Universities Commission; Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council Federal University Gusau.
3. Professor Emeritus Nimi Dimkpa Briggs (1944 to 2023); Vice-Chancellor University of Port Harcourt; Pro-Chancellor Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ebonyi State & Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council Bayelsa Medical University.
4. Alhaji Yayale Ahmed; Secretary to Government of the Federation; Head of Civil Service of the Federation; former Minster of Defence; currently Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council Ahmadu Bello University Zaria
Hopefully the current crisis will be resolved amicably soon so that normalcy can return to the Nigerian Public Universities. Meanwhile, many of our highly trained scholars are emigrating to other lands to seek better future for themselves and their family members. Our system is the worst for it, after all said and done.
Prof. Olayinka is a former Vice Chancellor of University of Ibadan
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