Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09ABUJA1645
2009-09-04 13:32:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Abuja
Cable title:  

NIGERIA: PUBLIC UNIVERSITY STRIKE CONTINUES

Tags:  PGOV ELAB PREL PHUM NI 
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VZCZCXRO8981
PP RUEHPA
DE RUEHUJA #1645/01 2471332
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 041332Z SEP 09
FM AMEMBASSY ABUJA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6971
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 2073
RUEHYD/AMEMBASSY YAOUNDE PRIORITY 1026
RUEHOS/AMCONSUL LAGOS PRIORITY 1926
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK PRIORITY
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
-------

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