The ASUU Strike and the Cost of Producing Graduates in Nigeria

Apart from primary schools, where citizens are expected to acquire basic knowledge and skills for the nation’s benefit in all ramifications, higher educational institutions are other places where citizens are expected to acquire advanced knowledge and skills for the nation’s benefit. Throughout history, unions and pressure groups in the global north and south have put pressure on political leaders and those in charge of providing the correct processes for citizens’ development and acquisition of advanced and basic knowledge and skills. The argument was that a nation cannot progress if education is treated in a terse manner.

Various university unions used strike as a key instrument of calling government’s attention to age-long decay in the university system from the administration of Military President Ibrahim Babangida to the short civilian interim government headed by Late Earnest Shonekan and the civilian administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, including his military rule. This device was not only employed throughout the administrations mentioned, but it is also in use today.

However, our analysis reveals that unions have utilised the device more frequently after 1999, the year the country reverted to democratic governance. All of the unions, particularly the Academic Staff Union of Universities, desire a better teaching, learning, and research environment in public universities across the country. In addition to these, academics should be highly compensated in comparison to what is available in other African countries, if not in the global north.

While this piece recognizes the importance of addressing the issues presented by unions over time, it is also important to note that the cost structure of training and graduating students should be reconsidered. This is necessary as public universities continue to offer courses at costs that are not commensurate with amount being paid by the students. It is important to stress that the suggestion does not imply that institutions should charge expensive tuition fees or other fees without taking into account the socioeconomic circumstances of parents, guardians, and students. Recalculating the costs of training, according to our analysis, would assist interested stakeholders in the system in appropriately remunerating academics and other employees.

According to Statista, using various sources, “the most expensive federal university for undergraduate programmes in Nigeria is the Nigeria Maritime University. In 2019, the average annual tuition fee for its bachelor programmes was N81,050, around $198. The Federal University Oye-Ekiti followed with N69, 000, some $167.”

Examining these rates against those charged by other institutions reveals no discernible difference, even with the 2021 fees, in terms of charging fees that provide the necessary value to students, academics, and the government. When academics are paid pitiful salaries and receive meagre supervision fees, producing quality graduates and postgraduates will remain elusive. Our analyst discovered that PhD supervisors at one of the federal universities are paid less than N10,000 per year, while supervisors of undergraduate students are paid much less.