Blame Finance Minister For Strike – ASUU

Dr Olusegun Ajiboye, ASUU University of
Ibadan branch chairman shares why the
Finance Minister of the federation should be
blamed for the ongoing ASUU Strike.
This is a government that signed an
agreement with us on January 24, 2012, to the
effect that they would inject N100bn as
funding into the universities in the first
month; and that before the end of 2012, they
would inject another N300 bn."
Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala increasingly is cutting
a sorry figure as Finance Minister. And nothing
has demonstrated this fact more than her
utterances on the strike by the Academic Staff
Union of Universities, ASUU.
To start with, she announced, as if it was true,
that government cannot pay the N92 billion
causing the present palaver. She turned out to
be wrong on three counts at least – none of
which does her reputation as a global
financial expert any good. It was poor defence
and exposed her as someone who did not do
her homework very well before commenting
on a vital national issue.
First, as Dr Ajiboye pointed out, N92 billion
represented a figment of the imagination of
the former World Bank Managing Director.
Ajiboye, a valid representative of all the ASUU
creditors, told us that the amount due to them
was N87 billion; not N92 billion. Even for a
wasteful administration, overpaying by N5
billion would have been reprehensible. There
is a lot of good work which government can
do with N5 billion instead of throwing it away
carelessly. Throwing public money away
carelessly was what led to the fuel subsidy
scam which tarnished her reputation in
2011/2012 when she jumped into the fray
without checking her facts properly.
Second, her statement about government's
inability to pay lacked credibility and was soon
discredited by the President. There is a
distinct difference between "can't pay" and
"won't pay". The former admits of financial
weakness or destitution; the latter connotes
willful refusal to honour an agreement into
which government voluntarily entered.
For the Minister of a government which
allowed the country to be defrauded of over
N1 trillion to claim that government cannot
pay N92 billion or less than one per cent, is an
insult to the intelligence of Nigerians and
discredit to government itself. As if to prove
that the Minister spoke, not for government
but herself, the President a few days after
ordered that more than N92 billion be
released to the universities. That order by
Jonathan had elevated Okonjo-Iweala's claim
from the realm of the incredible to a colossal
lie. Where will government find N100 billion to
carry out the President's instructions if it
cannot afford N92 billion?
But, all those pale by comparison with Dr
Okonjo-Iweala's real contribution to this awful
national calamity. Read Dr Ajiboye's assertions
again and the astute reader can readily see
the genesis of this whole mess. In January last
year, long after the 2013 budget had been
presented to the National Assembly, obviously
with no provisions for paying the N87 billion
owed to ASUU, the President, who at that time
was facing a national revolt on account of fuel
price increase from N65 per litre to N141 did
not want another ASUU strike to add to the
uprising. So, government, perhaps ill-
advisedly and hastily promised ASUU N400
billion additional money; that brought the
total debt payable in 2013 to N487 billion.
Call it incompetence or lack of courage and/or
integrity, but given a 2012 budget, from which
any provisions for ASUU had been excluded,
promising eleven per cent of last year's budget
to the academic staff of universities was
fraudulent. When Jonathan Swift, 1667-1745,
wrote that, "Promises, like pie-crusts, are
made to be broken", (VANGUARD BOOK OF
QUOTATIONS p203), he must have had a
government like the present one in mind. It is
one government on whose promises nobody
should rely. So 2012 ended without
government honouring its agreements. That
was bad enough.
Any financial officer, involved in budgeting,
knows that when planning the budget for any
year, you must take into account all the bills
past due as well as those likely to fall due
during the year – if the decision is to pay. They
can only be ignored if there is a willful and
conscious decision not to pay and to damn
the consequences.
The fiasco this time around has occurred
because the Finance Minister either forgot to
make provisions for paying the N487 billion,
not even N92 billion as she claimed, or
because she deliberately excluded those
outstanding bills. Forgetting such a huge
liability demonstrates incompetence and gross
negligence – for which the nation is now
paying dearly. Remembering that the debts
are long overdue and deliberately ignoring
them is proof beyond reasonable doubt of
lack of budgetary integrity. It does not require
the towering intelligence of a Harvard
graduate to predict the outcome of that
benign neglect of government's obligations.
Unfortunately for the government, for the
Minister and all the other stakeholders, "All
things do help the unhappy man to fall",
according to Shakespeare, 1564-1616, this
years budget is in shreds. The same Finance
Minister has been leading the government
officials telling us about the shortfall in
revenue on account of alleged crude oil theft.
As much as 400,000 barrels a day is stolen –
apparently with government helpless to check
the pillage.
A recent report estimated that oil revenue in
July of this year dropped by 42% compared to
the same period last year. By a cruel twist of
fate, the country had moved from won't pay
closer to can't pay. There is no money in the
budget to pay ASUU N487 billion; that is
certain. Just as sure is the fact that, even if
Okonjo-Iweala had not been careless, there
probably would have been no money to pay
the entire bill.
Realising the government's partly self-imposed
predicament, Jonathan had approved part
payment of the outstanding debts. Ordinarily,
that should have induced Nigerians to rise up
and urge ASUU to accept the half-loaf and wait
till next year for the balance. However, given
government's reputation as a dead-beat, on
whose words nobody can rely, there has been
no outcry against ASUU for refusing the offer.
This is the closest thing to an economic
Mexican stand-off that anyone can imagine
and only divine intervention can resolve the
mess – thanks to the Finance Minister; who
should know better. Nobody, with the
minutest experience in drawing up budgets
should have made that mistake.
The most important question now is: will the
2014 budget reflect the payment due to ASUU
– even if the lecturers accept the offered half-
loaf? If it does not, ASUU's return to the
campuses will be short-lived. They will be out
again in 2014.
Finally, the Finance Minister has probably
antagonized the one group every public office
holder should avoid at all costs. University
dons are not only articulate, they are the most
vocal group in the country and the most
influential opinion molders. Henceforth, they
will cease every opportunity to cut her down
to size. This episode, however it ends, has
once again raised the possibility that Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala might not be around much
longer. She was recruited to build confidence
in the government's economic policy team.
Starting with her staunch defence of the
subsidy removal, based on falsified data, she
had stumbled from one controversy to
another. Instead of offering solutions, she is
increasingly perceived as part of the problem.
She probably has not come across that
famous statement by Arthur Dewing in the
Harvard Business Review, October 1923.
"Behind the facts of economics are the facts of
psychology..the emotions of fear and
confidence… ". A lot of people are losing, or
have lost confidence in the Minister. That's
bad for her and bad for Nigeria.