The don said the 'Oga' (boss) mentality that government ministers display during negotiations with the striking lecturers suggests the deadlocks are a test of wills.
A professor of English at Rutgers University, New Jersey, United States, Olabode Ibironke, has described the Nigerian government’s non-responsiveness to the Academic Staff Union of University’s strike as a dictatorial trait.
The don said the 'Oga' (boss) mentality that government ministers display during negotiations with the striking lecturers suggests the deadlocks are a test of wills.
Ibironke said there are strikes in universities abroad but not on a national scale, noting that in the past month, there have been strikes at Eastern Michigan and American University, Washington DC.
According to him, the structure in the US is significantly decentralised.
He said data shows that within the last two decades, since the inauguration of the Fourth Republic in 1999, 1,297 days have been lost to strikes, stressing that it is about four years of lost productivity.
Ibironke made this known during an interview with The PUNCH, adding that ASUU has chosen to negotiate with a lame-duck government.
He, therefore, lamented that the deadlock may not be resolved until after the next general elections - in 2023.
He said; "I have seen statistics showing that within the last two decades, since the inauguration of the Fourth Republic in 1999, 1,297 days have been lost to strikes.
"That is about four solid years of lost productivity. The cost-benefit analysis should tell you that years of lost productivity dwarf whatever increment or funding package government is unwilling to approve.
"And this is not just ASUU. Sectors of the professional class, the judiciary, and doctors have all been on strike. It is proof that the baseline of our economy is not, strictly speaking, productivity. The problem with extractive economies is the destruction of productive capacities.
"That there have been as many strikes as during military dictatorship proves that we are still in a dictatorship. President Buhari’s distinctive facial expression is that of contempt and impassivity.
"Being non-responsive to the public is a dictatorial trait. The Oga mentality that government ministers display during these negotiations suggests these deadlocks are a test of wills.
"Government is not Oga. The people are Oga. Voting, protests, and unionization of workers are equally expressions of democratic culture. Unions are not opposition parties.
"The University is the touchstone of modern culture and industry. It is one of the institutions that will take us out of our current state of nature and arrested modernity.
"What have Ministers of Education and Labor got to do with negotiating pay raises on behalf of the government without the input of an independent budget office like the Congressional Budget Office that can produce independent, nonpartisan scoring of ASUU’s economic demands and budgetary plans?
"No central command or clearinghouse overseeing all government expenditures that can provide input and analysis. We are flying blind.
"I have seen many analyses suggesting raises in tuition as an alternative to the government subvention. That would create a society in which only the rich would be able to afford a university education.
"We are at that stage where government investment in education is pivotal. If the government succeeds in punitively implementing its no-work no-pay policy, which is a union-busting tactic, it will deprofessionalize the professoriate. Professors have no choice but to take up side hustles to pay debts accumulated during the strike. That would further distract and devalue university education. How is that a victory for the government?"
According to Ibironke, the National Association of Nigerian Students is now a "gathering of student politicians who do not consider excellence when choosing their leaders".
"The mediocrity of students’ union leadership is a symptom of a more significant problem with the quality of education. It also demonstrates the damage wrought on society by the political class.
"Nigerian politicians, as public servants, are now the nouveau riche and model of success. Because they are both incompetent and powerful, they present a harmful alternative to the very training in excellence that the university offers young people.
"Interviews by the students’ national leader make one cringe. It is tragically comical. But it is the true reflection of the current state of our society and the immediate future of our political leadership itself," he said.