A FRIEND of mine complained bitterly the other day about how his house has now been taken over by furious, stranded and distracted undergraduates. Three of them. His daughters. They have been at home for more than two months on account of the three-pronged strike that has paralysed Nigeria's public university system. Members of SSANU, NASU and ASUU, comprising both academic and non-academic staff unions of our universities are all on strike, and so far negotiations with the Federal Government have hit a brickwall. The Federal authorities, in a manner reminiscent of the military era have told ASUU that there will be no more negotiations until ASUU calls its members back to work.

The ASUU President in a war-like mood, retorted that he and his troops are prepared to die on "their feet fighting." The Federal Government says if that be the case, it will begin the war from its side by enforcing a "no work, no pay" order. And so we are faced with a gridlock in the education sector, likely to be made worse by the threat by the Nigerian Union of Teachers that primary and secondary school teachers in 19 states of the federation should also embark on strike with effect from September 1 to protest the non-payment of the special Teachers Salary Scale which the Governors' Forum promised would be paid by all states, following an earlier warning strike by NUT members.

Dispute between workers in the education sector and the authorities is not new, but the on-going face off is especially ironic given the fact that all the key leaders in Abuja who are in a position to address the crisis and find a solution, are all former members of the university system. In their earlier careers, the President, the Vice President and the Minister of Education were college teachers, and so, it may be difficult to accuse them of a lack of knowledge or understanding of the issues involved.

What the teachers at all levels want is fairly straightforward: better conditions of service, an upgraded school system, better funding, academic freedom, and due respect by the state for their contributions to the making of Nigeria. The devil may be in the details but both the Federal and State Governments have shown such arrogance that the teachers find infuriating: a refusal to honour agreements and promises and such snobbery that smacks of contempt. We are faced with an invidious power game in which the ego of establishment figures is perhaps the problem.

No matter the level of provocation, a government of the people must not be seen refusing to talk and negotiate with aggrieved parties in a matter where public interest is involved. The root of their disdain runs deeper and it is attitudinal. Many government officials are interested in the education sector only for its lucrative value, not its utilitarian relevance to the larger objective of nation building and human resource development. Other nations including Japan, India, Bangladesh, Singapore etc invest in education as a means of raising the country's national competitiveness index. In Nigeria, our sector managers are more interested in the opportunity to share and steal money, award contracts, and distribute positions and privileges to party cronies. Widespread corruption in the system has compromised the education system, and although the school-teachers and the managers themselves are no saints, the rot at the top has occasioned system-wide apathy. What has been Nigeria's education policy in the last ten years? Forget the fine print of the National Policy On Education, what is on the ground is a resort to ad hoc-ism, arrogance, even the school system at the secondary and primary levels has been toyed with so frequently, the mindlessness of it all is embarrassing. No one should be surprised therefore that our so-called educated leaders do not seem to care enough. Faced with such an attitude, should ASUU eat the humble pie as has been suggested and for the sake of our children, return to classes? No. The moral high ground belongs to ASUU and the other associations.

Indeed, ASUU should continue to force the issue until the Federal and State Governments climb down from their high horse. The Federal negotiators are insisting on a worker-employer negotiation between ASUU and the respective Governing councils. The distinction being forced between government and Governing council is sophistic. Governing Councils may represent all stakeholders, but the locus of authority is ultimately governmental. What is admissible in the present contention is that the principle of federalism should govern the negotiations with the state universities negotiating with the states and the federal universities with the Federal Government, but Nigerian authorities speak of federalism only when it is convenient to do so. The issues involved transcend labour disputes; the striking teachers are also demanding far-reaching commitments at the level of policy, the continual failure of which has crippled the Nigerian education system.

But the bigger victims are the Nigerian children who are forced to stay at home. It is now a regular pattern that average Nigerian students in public universities spend much longer time completing their programmes. Due to incessant strikes, a 4-year course of study now takes, in many instances, six years. When eventually the poor student graduates, he or she is forced again to spend months at home, waiting to get a slot in the National Youth Service Scheme. School experience used to be one of the best moments of one's life in this country. Each time I tell stories about the universities of old, younger persons wonder whether this was in this same country. The school to work transition of old has been disrupted due to the de-industrialisation of the past years and the failure of the Nigerian economy. Graduates no longer have a future to look forward to; education in Nigeria is no longer a ladder, it has become a zebra crossing. Many parents have abandoned the public school system and are either patronizing private schools or sending their children abroad, and abroad here includes Ghana, Togo, South Africa and Republic of Benin.

The damage is at the personal level. We are building a generation of young Nigerians who are being told that their country does not care for them. When the Federal Government tells ASUU to go to hell, the students who are the direct victims of the conflict are bound to feel abandoned. No one is really thinking about them: the waste of their time, the uncertainty of their circumstances and future. There have been reports in the papers of university students keeping themselves busy with all kinds of engagements: many have become motorcyclists, hair dressers, carpenters, drivers, criminals and according to the National Association of Female Nigerian Students, prostitutes! I imagine that by the time the schools re-open, most students would have forgotten half of whatever they may have learnt. The school calendar is no longer predictable; the syllabus is forever adjusted to accommodate disruptions, facilities are inadequate. The idea of the university is lost, and the cumulative evidence is seen in the poor quality of graduates, and the continuing anguish of employers of labour.

The Minister of Education, Dr Sam Egwu has advised ASUU to call off its strike "...in the interest of our students, our young ones in the universities." He is not telling the full story. The Minister of Education must be reminded that what remained in the negotiation between ASUU and the Federal Government was the signing of an agreement that had been reached after about two years of negotiation. On May 12, and again on July 22, the document arising from that was to be signed by both parties only for the Federal Government negotiators to claim that they had no mandate to do so. Who gave the directive reversing existing agreements, and stopping all further negotiations? Isn't dialogue one of the hallmarks of a democratic society? And how about our "young ones?"

For a government that is looking forward to the year 2020 as Nigeria's year of glory when it will become one of the world's 20 best economies, it should be clear enough that this cannot be achieved without a high quality human resource profile. The Nigerians who will drive the 2020 process are the same young ones who are perpetually sabotaged by the Nigerian system. The other month, I was a guest speaker at the Lagos Orientation Camp of the NYSC and I had spoken about the NYSC, the rebranding of Nigeria and the role of the youth.

The corps members waited patiently for me to say my bit, but when I threw the subject open for an interactive discussion, the excitement level rose. Most of the corps members wanted to say something too, and one thing they objected to was all I had tried to say about patriotism. They think Nigeria has treated them badly and that no one should tell them to give anything back to the country. They were so angry, the long queue of commentators had to be disbanded at some point. It is the kind of poor leadership that has been shown in the management of the education sector at all levels that infuriates these "young ones". While other countries are investing in the future of their young ones, Nigeria is alienating its own. It is creating an army of unhappy citizens who grow up believing that they are in the wrong country where nothing is ever properly handled: not even elections, not even power generation, not even infrastructure.

ASUU's latest position is that it is compiling and will soon release the list of the children of top government officials (from the president to members of the National Assembly and local council chairmen) who are studying abroad to prove that these officials have no interest in the education sector because their won children are not affected. ASUU should not waste its energies stating the obvious. What it needs to do is to mobilize other groups in civil society to support its strike action and compel the Federal Government to return to the negotiating table.