STRIKE AND EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES PLANNING IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES: IMPACT AND POSSIBLE SOLUTION FOR TODAY AND BEYOND

Education is a tool for any meaningful development of any society. Thus any activities that result to set back of the sector operation should be address with all amount of resources both human and material. The paper titled “Strike and Educational Activities Planning in Nigerian Universities: Impact and Possible Solution for Today and Beyond” is poised to drawing attention of the general public to the implication of industrial strikes to the development of tertiary education in Nigeria the paper discussed the concept of strikes types and causes of strike. Therefore, the paper discuss the concept of strike, types of strike and causes of strike it also proffered possible solutions which if applied, could help address the issue of incessant strikes in our tertiary educational system. The paper further x-ray the positive and negative impacts of strike on staff, students, institutions, and the general public respectively. The paper ended by examining the implication of incessant strike actions for the school system. It was suggested among others that government and the organized labour organization should be involved in a collective positive bargaining to bring lasting solution to the frequent strike action in Nigerian Universities for high productivity which permeate national development.


INTRODUCTION
Poor welfare package among others is known to have a long standing history which account for the incessant industrial actions embarked upon by the organized labours in Nigerian public Universities. Academic activities imbalances and our tertiary institutions may not be unconnected with the issue of strike.
In this context, Strike can also be defined as a process by which an organization organized stopping of work by employees because of some agreement on wages and salaries. It is also refusal to work as a protest. It can also be a period of time when an organized group of employees of a company stops work because of a disagreement over pay of conditions. The first known strike was in the 12 th century B.C., in Egypt when workers under Ramses 111 stopped working on the Necropolis until they were treated better while the word got its name from modern times in 1968 when sailors in London "struck" or removed the sails of trade ships at port. In Nigeria, the first ever recorded strike was the General Strike of 1945 led by Michael Imoudu; has given rise to rapid spread of union activity which equally led to further spread and growth of unions most likely due to its success, (Okenwa in Joan & Fidelis (2013). Strike is a collective, organized, cessation or slowdown of work by employees, to force acceptance of their demands by the employer (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (4 th edition)). In most cases, to embark on a strike, it requires the following criteria: (1) a strike must be approved by the majority of the employees in a secret ballot, (2) the ballot must be subject to independent verification if the number of employees exceeds a number (commonly 50), (3) a notice of the impending strike ballot must be given to the employer a certain number of days in advance (commonly seven), (4) the employer must be provided with the results of the ballot and thereafter, (5) a notice of the union"s intention to proceed with the strike must be given to the employer a certain number of days in advance (commonly seven). Also called strike action or industrial action. Asaolu in Edinyang, (2013), asserted that effective learning in schools occurs when the stakeholders adequately perform their roles. That effective learning can be hindered when there is conflict among the stakeholders especially when one fails to perform its required responsibilities and disrespect others" rights. Therefore, good human relations are important to teachers and students" wellbeing as well as effective learning (Asuquo, 2010). However, conflict in the school setting disrupts academic progress and adversely affects effective teaching and learning of education. The University as the apex of the educational system and the highest stage/level of human capital development (manpower) has bonds of loyalty not only to the nation which supports it but also to the international universities all over the world.
To this end, the government need to put in adequate resources to motivate universities, lecturer to put in their best because within the educational setting, where ever a discussion is thrown open on human resources management, the learners tend to form the central focus point. Hence, strike hamper every academic activities which brought setback not only to individual but also to the entire economy. The Nigerian educational system especially at the tertiary levels has in recent times experience closure of schools as a result of strike action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) (Joan and Fidelis, 2013). The goal of every university is to impart knowledge, skills, attitude, values and norms to learners in other to bring about development in the lives of every student and for national transformation and development (Offem, Anashie & Aniah (2017). Strike action is a phenomenon that suggest disharmony between employers of labour and employees; and it cuts across all facets/sectors of the nation"s economy. Strike can be defined as a process by which an organization organize stopping work by employees because of some disagreement on wages and salaries. It can also be described as a period of time when an organized group of employees of a company stops working because of a disagreement over pay or working conditions. Employees have over time resulted to strike actions as a way of making their demands known to their employers and the general public. Strike comes in different forms and several scholars have attempted to explain the types of strike and they include: wild cat, boycott, sympathy, sit-in, go-slow and others. Some of the notable causes of strike are: unfair treatment to workers, victimization, violation of legislation or rule and poor application of provision of collective bargaining. The educational sector is one of the sectors that have greatly suffered from this industrial action strike. All the tiers of the nation"s educational sector primary, secondary and tertiary have at one point or the other embarked on strike as a way of registering their grievances to their employers (Olakunle, 2011). The first notable strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was in 1988.

OGBAN OGBAN NKANU, OFFEM ODIM OTU AND INUNG SUNDAY UTU-BAKU
During this period, the nation"s universities were closed down; and academic and research activities were halted. Ever since, there have been series of strike actions by ASUU.

CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION
The term strike has been reviewed differently by scholars. A generally acceptable definition has been difficult to have at a particular period in time, because of difference perception among the scholar or reason that brought about the strike either governmental or non-governmental organization.
Strike refers to as a situation whereby a group of people stopped working in a given organization as a result of one reason or another or agreement that could not be fulfilled in time. On the other hand, strike refer to as not working as form of protest against an employer, often to achieve a specific objectives that could lead benefit to striker and the employer as a result of more productivities. Strike can also be defined as a process by which an organization stopped working as a result those employees refused to work for not paying them their wages or salaries as and when due. Strike has remained a recurring phenomenon in Nigeria and several scholars have attempted to research into it. Strike is defined as a concerted and temporary withholding of employee services from the employer for the purpose of extracting greater concessions in the employment relationship than the employer is willing to grant on the bargaining table. The Trade Dispute Act (1976) as cited in Clark (2012: 20) defined strike as: The cessation of work by a body of persons employed acting in combination, or a concerted refusal or a refusal under a common understanding of any number of persons employed to continue to work for an employer in consequences of a dispute, done as a means of compelling their employer or any person or body of person employed, or to aid other workers in compelling their employer or any other person or body of persons employed, to accept terms of employment and physical conditions of work. This definition is indeed a comprehensive one as it sort to analyzing all the salient issues and parties involve in strike. It is pertinent to note that under the Trade Union Act (1973), it is provided that one of the matters to be provided for in the rules is the condition that no member shall take part in a strike unless a majority of the members have in a secret ballot voted in favour of the strike. The strike is therefore a temporary cessation of work as the workers intend that, as its conclusion, they will return to their jobs and employers themselves view the strike in the same light. Strike, despite being used as a tool by of trade or labour unions in compelling their employers to accept or not to accept terms of employment and physical conditions of work; there are still some employees or sectors that are not allowed to embark on strike because they are considered to be proving essential or sensitive services to the people.

TYPES OF STRIKE
There are several forms of strike as documented in different literatures. In this paper, the following types of strike are examined: 1.
Recognition Strike: This is a form of strike that is primarily geared at forcing the employer to recognize and deal with the union (Clark, 2012). In a country, there are several unions. Some of the unions are more recognized than the others. The perceived less recognized union will result to embarking on strike as a way of drawing the attention of their employers and the general public to recognize and deal with them. The strike actions sometimes embarked upon by the Non Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASUU) may be described as recognition strike as this has a way of drawing the attention of the government to recognize and deal with them, and not ASUU alone.

2.
Economic Strike: This is one of the most popular forms of strike in Nigeria. It is the typical strike based on a demand for better wages hour and working conditions than the employer is willing to grant (Clark, 2012). It is sometimes called "bread and better strike". The first strike embarked upon by ASUU in 1944 was on this ground and the recent strike actions embarked upon by ASUU, ASUP and COEASU was also based on economic considerations (that is, better wages/salaries and working conditions).

3.
Wildcat Strike: It is described as a quick, sudden and unauthorized type of work stoppage. It is not approved by union leadership. It is often masterminded by a subgroup of employees who have not achieved satisfaction through regular collective bargaining procedures.

4.
Sit Down Strike: It is a form of strike where employees come to an organization and remain at their jobs in the organization but fail to attend to their work. It is often regarded as illegal since it constitutes an invasion of private property.

5.
Sympathy Strike: It is a form of strike that is embarked upon as solidarity for other union. It is described as sympathy strike because other unions who are not party to the original strike consent to strike in sympathy with the original union (Clark, 2012). It is an attempt to exert an indirect pressure on the employer. This type of strike is common in tertiary institutions in the country where NASSU embarked on sympathy strike because of ASUU and vice versa.

6.
Green Ban Strike: A green ban is a strike that is done to get the company to adopt more environmentally friendly practices. 7.
Student and government: This is a type of strike that occur as a result of one reason or the other, for example, in a given society where student has right, he or she can protest or stopped doing anything if the government enforce him to do what is beyond the rule and regulation or in the process of breaking the rule and regulation. 8.
Emergency Strike: This is also a type of strike that takes place by stopping the discharging of some duties by employer to the employee without given notice or as a result of short notice which will not allowed the employees, to organize themselves. 9.
Lockout and employees Strike: Refers to as a refusal of entry to workers for example an occasion can occur when workers are prevented from entering into their workplace, this is a tactic sometimes used by management in an industrial dispute, this will lead some of the workers to protest against the management. 10.
Jurisdictional Strike: This occurs when two unions argue about which one has jurisdiction over a type of work and attempt to exert pressure upon the employer to allocate it to one or the other (Clark, 2012). This strike is a "fall out" from the multiplicity of unions in a given profession or discipline. This strike is described as illegal as their employer is caught in the middle between the two warring unions.

11.
Constitutional or illegal Strike: This is another type of strike that can happen, when government use some laws to reduce its workers. For example, former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Mr. Soludo asked the Federal Government of Nigeria to reduce workers strength, for the purpose of her economic stability ahead, if government reply by saying that it has no lawful framework, it is said to be illegal because such statement will be documented in a file which will be used when any new government take over office and falls into shortage of economic stability as requested by the former CBN governor. 12.
Go-Slow Strike: It is a protest that workers make by doing their work more slowly than usual, when they do that, and the management refuse to pay their salaries they will protest and go on strike. This is also a type of strike that can occur as a result of some parts of an organization delaying others unnecessary, like in the organization sale department refused to sell the manufactured goods in time in order to distract more customers by not displaying the products publically, for this purpose, the customers will not see goods and make impulse buying, which will lead the workers of production department to protest against the action of sales department.

13.
Sit-in Strike: This is a form of strike involving occupation of building in which people occupied a building or public place and refused to leave until their demands have been met or negotiated. 14.
Boycott: It is a process in which workers refuse to take part in a something as a way of protesting. This is a form of strike in which workers cease or refuse to work or deals with something such as an organization, company or process can protests against its effort it to become more unacceptable among others. The unfair treatment of workers or employees by their employers has been identified as a major cause of strike actions in Nigeria. Once employees perceived that their personal goals are not given attention, to an extent, there is bound to be job dissatisfaction which will eventually lead to strike actions. There is no doubt that any employee will want to continue in The violation of legislation or rule has been reported as one of the major causes of strike actions in Nigeria. This is often interpreted as failure of the government or employer to honour the employment contract or court provisions. The law has certain provisions regarding various occupations/unions. Once there is a breach of this provision, it has a tendency of degenerating to strike actions. Some employers may not want to implement the decision of the industrial court; and this is not healthy for the system because it may lead to strike actions. 4.

CAUSE OF STRIKE ACTIONS IN NIGERIAN
The poor application of provision of collective bargaining is indeed one of the notable causes of strike actions in Nigeria. Therefore, International Labour Organization (ILO) in Clark (2012) defined negotiations as: Negotiations about working conditions and terms of employment between an employer a group of employers or more employers organizations on the one hand and one or more representative worker"s reaching agreement. 5. According to Offem, Anashie and Aniah (2017), it is popularly said that "there is no action without a course", or "there is no smoke without fire." Strike does not occur in a vacuum, there are many reasons why workers engage in strike which may include; dissatisfaction with company policy, wrongful discharge or dismissal of workmen, withdrawal of any concession or privilege, hours of work and rest intervals, dispute connected with minimum wages, Political views on conflicts between the working class and their employers; and Introduction of new technology which affect the traditional ways of doing business in particular company.

Poor and inconsistent Payment of Salaries:
University workers are often underpaid and most times the Government pays part salaries to lecturers. Lecturers are not happy due to the fact that many politicians go home with bags of money even when such politicians are not as educated as they. According to Amadi and Urho in Offem et al, (2017). The underpayment of university staff vis-à-vis their counterparts in other economic sectors and the discriminating salary structure between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) have been a major cause of their dissatisfaction. 7. Poor conditions of Service: Teachers are not offered additional incentives and working conditions as their counterparts. For example, those in health and other sectors receive extra payment for hazards in their jobs but such cannot be heard of in education even though there are also hazards in discharging teaching duties. According to Amadi and Urho in Offem et al, (2017), this condition of service or employment include such features as working conditions (i.e. working environment, hours or work, over time shift work, flexible working hours), fringe benefits, (i.e. sick pay, subsidized meals, pension scheme, company goods at a discount, company cars) and application of fair judicial procedures. For instance, University lecturers could demand for the immediate reinstatement of their colleagues who have been unfairly dismissed or punished by government while acting on their behalf, failure of which might result in strike action.

Political interference in Education:
Many times the university has no autonomy to operate as an entity without the leaders in political offices trying to use their positions to influence activities. Schools are not allowed to make educational decisions without such interference. This creates problems when educational administrators refuse to buy into the idea of such leaders. According to Amadi and Urho in Offem et al, (2017), noted that, the seats of Vice-Chancellor and Registrar of universities are keenly contested for. It was noted that one of the reasons why people leave universities is because there is a lot of interference in academic freedom. Sometimes, however, government intervention is inevitable where there is an ongoing rift among university staff.

Poor funding of the education sector:
The United Nations in an attempt to improve education in Nigeria, recommended that 26 per cent of the Nation"s budget should be channeled into the education sector. It has been noticed that the Government has never met such conditions, this further results in many universities being under funded and poor infrastructural supplies, poor payment of salaries and poor maintenance of existing plants. Strike may be caused by this if staff get upset with the poor work flow and poor remuneration pattern. According to Amadi and Urho in Offem et al, (2017) noted that the annual budget on education is low compared to the budget made for other things in the state. For example, budget for elections and numerous huge amount of money mismanaged could be responsible for the existing poor teaching and learning facilities in our universities and poor quality graduates produced. 10. Non-Compliance to Agreement: Workers and employers usually reach agreements after negotiations but in some cases one party may refuse to honor the agreements. For example, Since December 2002 ASUU has been on total strike following Federal Government failure to honor the agreements it reached with ASUU in 2001 over proper funding. The 2017 ASUU strike occurred due to Government failure to comply with already signed agreements and memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2009 and 2013.

Unnecessary Delay in Payments of Salaries and other Emoluments:
When there is a delay in payment of salaries without a justifiable reason for such delay, workers may embark on strike for such salaries to be paid. Ezeagba, (2014), noted that in Nigeria many organizations always delay or refuse to pay their workers' salaries and other emoluments even when the organizations concerned have sufficient funds to pay. For example, secondary schools in Anambra state have been on strike for over a year for nonpayment of salary.

IMPACTS OF STRIKE
The impact of strike could be seen in two directions, either positive or negative. This section shall examine the positive and negative impacts of strike on staff, students, institutions and the general public respectively. during strike actions which do not support effective learning of practical based course as education. According to Offem and Ogban (2019) other negative impacts the school seems to face include: 5.
The institution will not generate internal revenue because the student will not be there to pay their fees and other changes 6.
It delays the institution in terms of course allocations and supervision of students project as compared to private universities 7.
General shout down of campus 8.
It causes the institution to lose competence hands to foreign university Positive impacts of strike action on the general public 1.
Some student use the strike period to help their parents in gameful activities such as farming, trading industrial, etc. This goes a long way to boost the family per capital income for funding education 2.
It creates awareness that actually the government is not meeting the needs of schools in terms of funding and policy implementation 3.
It gives room for collaborating funding of institutions of learning with non-governmental organization and other well meaningful Nigerians 4.
During strike, students stay at their respective comfort zones. This assures parent of their security and safety 5.
It adds to the population of the people. students stay at home may help to generate a good census figure for the government if it occurs simultaneously Negative impacts of strike action on the general public Offem and Ogban (2019) highlighted the following negative impact of strike on the society at large 1.
Brain Drain: Brain drain during strike is a hindrance to human capital development in Nigeria. This reduces the number of academic staff available in the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education require in training students.

2.
Poor quality of product of education institutions is emanated from striking period. This is as a result of the dearth of resources to conduct the teaching and learning process 3. 4.

5.
Inadequate of funding programmes due to corruption and mismanagement of resources during strike action Workers feel the nostalgia with a tinge of guilt, arising from strike responsibilities. Though the same work force called for the strike, but I can tell you that not all its members are always in full support of the action. Also, academic workers who are still in their "evolving process" too get affected during strikes. Example of this is the postgraduate students that lecture in universities. ASUU strike also grounds their study. 6.
The poor masses worked in the closed environment. These referr to the motorcyclists, drivers, traders, tailors, carpenters and others that make ends meet by their activities in the academia. Most of these people are belowaverage Nigerians that have family members who look up to them to survive owing to the penny they get from their toil in the now closed academic community. 7.
The loss of credibility is a grave danger applicable to our schools as a result of incessant strikes. It"s quite unfortunate these days that only few foreigners will prefer to send their wards to study here in Nigeria as a result of the back drops from strikes while we move our children en-mass to schools abroad thereby exporting the fund that is supposed to be expended locally to economically add values to our system.

Possible Solution to Nigerian Universities Strike
The following are possible solutions to Nigerian Universities strike: a.
There should be adequate provision of resources in the nation"s tertiary institutions. These resources are in the forms of human and non-human resources. From the literatures reviewed so far, most of the strike actions in the country were the outcome of the inadequacy of resources in the institutions. The recent ASUU strike of 2013 was centered on condition of service and especially on provision of resources in the nation"s universities. Once these resources are provided in the right quality and quantity, there may be no need to result to strike actions. b.
The parties to collective bargaining should honour its provisions; and implement the outcome of collective bargaining. The failure of employers or employees to honour the outcome of collective bargaining has been identified as one of the major causes of strike actions in

OGBAN OGBAN NKANU, OFFEM ODIM OTU AND INUNG SUNDAY UTU-BAKU
Nigeria (Clark, 2012). The 2013 ASUU strike was caused by this factor. It is therefore pertinent for employers of labour to stand by their own side of the bargain while the employees will also reciprocate such. c. There should be a policy that our leaders children/wards should school equally Nigerian public Universities. d.
Also, financial autonomy should be granted to public Universities. e.
The welfare of academic staffs should be upward review in every 6 years for adequate motivation. f.
There should be special research grants for academic staff. g.
Post doctorate research should be compulsory for all young academic staff.

Implication for the school system
The implication of this paper is for universities goal to be achieved if striking lecturers in the university should be giving adequate attention through positive collective bagging system. This is because academic staff are endowed with range of abilities, talent and attitude to influence productivity, quality and profitability. They staff set the overall strategies and goals (planning what to teach), design work system (they plan how to teach, prepare lecture notes, go to class to deliver lessons and administer examinations appropriately), in order to produce good services to public Offem and et al (2021) further buttressed that the mission of education at a tertiary is to train necessary man power for industry and establishment (depending on the level of degree obtained, working in commerce and public sector of the economy, taking up management position and so on). This can only be achieved if education is effectively managed to enable it function effectively. Thus the dire need to ameliorate all forms of disruptions and academic imbalances mechanism including strike into the streamlined educational activities for proactive teaching and learning outcomes in our higher citadels of learning.

CONCLUSION
This paper has examined the implications of incessant strike actions on educational activities planning in Nigerian Universities. The paper explained relevant concepts relating to strike actions and some notable strike actions in Nigerian Universities. Based on the literatures that have been reviewed, it is important to conclude that strike actions have great negative implications on educational activities planning in Nigeria which results to setback to national economic activities and increases youth restiveness in the society. Collective bargaining, therefore, has become an important mechanism for setting the procedures for the settlement of industrial disputes and also for resolving disputes when they inevitably occur. Most of the strike actions in Nigeria have resulted due to the poor application of provisions of collective bargaining. For instance, the 2013 ASUU strike actions were based on the poor applications of the provisions of collective bargaining as resulted from the failure to implement the provision of collective bargaining. This is same as the just concluded eight (8) months strike. as a result of 2009 agreement and 2020 renegotiations.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the relevant of the paper, the following recommendations were made. i.
All parties to collective bargaining should comply with the outcomes of the bargaining; ii.
Government should ensure adequate provisions of infrastructures and facilities in various institutions (Universities); iii.
Government should ensure adequate provision of skilled manpower in the various institutions (Universities); iv.
Employers of labour in universities should apply appropriate motivational strategies to motivate their employees for greater productivity and to bring an end any form of strike action in the system. v.
It was suggested among others that government and the organized labour organization should be involved in a collective positive bargaining to bring lasting solution to the frequent strike action in Nigerian Universities for high productivity which permeate national development.