NIGERIA: PUBLIC UNIVERSITY STRIKE CONTINUES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 001645 SIPDIS STATE FOR AF/FO, AF/W, DRL; STATE PLEASE PASS TO USTR (AGAMA); LABOR FOR SUDHA HALEY; ENERGY FOR GEORGE PERSON; COMMERCE FOR 3317/ITA/OA (BURRESS); TREASURY FOR DAN PETERS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/10/2018 TAGS: PGOV ELAB PREL PHUM NI SUBJECT: NIGERIA: PUBLIC UNIVERSITY STRIKE CONTINUES Classified By: Political Counselor James P. McAnulty for reasons in sections 1.4. (B) and (D) -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) members told LabOff August 29 in Ibadan of their determination to continue a two and one-half month strike until the Nigerian Government (GON) met all their demands. The GON has pulled out of negotiations and threatened to ban the professors from university campuses and stop payment of their wages. The deadlock has prevented students from taking final exams and seniors from graduating, leaving many youth idle and angry. Nonetheless, student representatives told LabOff that they firmly backed their professors and even staged their own protest September 2. The public university strike, one of 11 nationwide strikes since January 2009, could inspire primary and secondary educators to follow suit. END SUMMARY. -------------- NATIONWIDE STRIKE BY UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS -------------- ¶2. (C) During the last three months, the ASUU has mobilized a nationwide strike of public university educators, that began immediately before scheduled final examinations. At an August 29 roundtable in Ibadan, ASUU Chairman Ademola Aremu, University of Ibadan faculty directors of Science, Math, and Theater, and university students told LabOff of their determination to continue. Aremu said the strike had not occurred overnight but after a five-year effort to convince the GON to honor commitments negotiated in 2004 by the ASUU and Ministries of Labor and Education. ¶3. (C) Aremu confirmed that he had heard the mid-July press announcement by Minister of Labor and Productivity Adetokunbo Kayode that "the GON has finally acceded to ASUU's demands." (The Minister's assistant Adesoji Adesugba confirmed to LabOff one month later that the GON had met all ASUU demands, except for the level of the wage increase.) Such concessions supposedly included granting public universities autonomy over personnel, revenue generation, and curriculum design; raising the retirement age to 70; and increasing wages by 40 per cent. Aremu brushed off the Minister's announcement as "publicity nonsense" and told LabOff that Kayode and Minister of Education Sam Egwu instead threatened university educators with a new "no work, no pay" rule after the ASUU refused to end its strike. Aremu said university professors across the country remained "resolute" and "prepared to shut down the university system for more than two years8 as their Ghanaian counterparts did in 2006. -------------- STUDENTS SUPPORT STRIKING PROFESSORS -------------- ¶4. (C) University of Ibadan students at the roundtable conveyed full and unconditional support for their professors, and informed LabOff that they planned a large protest for September 1. Nigerian Youth in Motion (NYM) student organizer Amuda Bamidele told LabOff that "the neglect of Nigeria's corrupt leadership is disgusting and we stand with our professors in refusing to accept it anymore.8 He continued that &if the professors and students had guns, you would be hearing us shoot bullets by now, but the only weapon we have now is our voices.8 Bamidele described growing frustration among youth, warning that the Boko Haram violence in the north was only part of much wider frustration by youth, who, he said, &have reached their breaking points with living in a polluted system." Student journalist Kayode Bello told LabOff that it is "beyond comprehension that the ABUJA 00001645 002 OF 002 government is willing to negotiate with Niger Delta militants, but not its own educators, who are part of the solution to Nigeria's development." ¶5. (C) Four days later, hundreds of University of Ibadan students, organized by NYM, staged a peaceful protest, including barricading the university's entrance. Referring to President Obama's speech in Ghana calling for strong institutions and not strong men, Bamidele and Aremu told LabOff that they wanted to publicize student support for ASUU demands for the GON to strengthen educational institutions rather than enrich corrupt leaders. Adding that education was key to development, Aremu declared that, "If we don't speak out, then we become collaborators." -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶6. (C) Despite their inability to complete final exams and graduate because of the strike, students appeared supportive of their striking professors. Thus far, the GON has tried only to negotiate side deals with individual unions. Meanwhile, there is growing discontent and discord and potential for more national strikes, including by secondary and primary teachers. END COMMENT. ¶7. (U) Embassy cleared this telegram with Consulate General Lagos. MCCULLOUGH