• ASUU, stakeholders brainstorm on how to save university sector
By Gabriel Dike
The National Delegates’ Conference (NDC) of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was an opportunity for the union and stakeholders to take stock of the situation in the Nigerian University System (NUS). Held at the University of Jos (UNIJOS), it also discussed how to address issues in the NUS through adequate funding and policies.
The four-day conference attracted representatives of Borno and Katsina state governors, UNIJOS Vice Chancellor, Prof. Tanko Ishaya, two state VCs, ASUU president, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, and principal officers, past presidents, zonal coordinators, branch chairmen, national president of Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), Dr. Smart Olugbeko, chairman, Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Plateau State, representatives of sister unions on campus and Olu Adegboruwa, SAN, speaker at the conference.
ASUU UNIJOS chairman, Dr. Larazu Luke, captured the importance of the gathering when he said the NDC meeting brought members and stakeholders to discuss issues affecting the NUS: “We will be happy if VCs see the union as a friend and not as an enemy.”
Ishaya said: “What ASUU is fighting for is for the benefit of NUS and the nation. Sometimes I wonder why VCs, who are supposed to be ASUU number one member in their various universities, fight the union.
“During the eight-month strike, VCs’ salaries were also stopped. Some people thought we were being paid. It is sad what we are facing in public universities.
“We need to look at the current trend. The Federal Government is not handling primary education well. Public primary schools are dead. Government is deliberately killing primary schools. Public primary schools are nothing to write home about. This trend is gradually creeping into public universities.
“Unfortunately, private universities are springing up. If care is not taken, public universities will suffer the same fate. The current salary is nothing to write home. Without TETFund, UNIJOS may not exist.
“We need to fight about the continued existence of public universities. During the IPPIS crisis, if all the unions were united, we will not be where we are today. The unions must work together to move the NUS forward. Let us stay united in the NUS to champion our issues. We must stay together otherwise we are gone. I expect at the end of the NDC, the union and stakeholders will come out with an action plan to better the NUS.”
Osodeke said: “The conference is holding at a critical period in the university system and the nation in general. The supreme authority of the union is vested in the NDC. The conference will undertake a holistic review of union policies, review reports from principal officers, elect new officers, and grant chart to new branches.’’
He said at the NDC in May 2021, soon after the election, the union faced struggles, tribulations and threats from agents of the government, especially the Ministry of Labour Productivity headed by Dr. Chris Ngige. He saluted the resilience of its members and their families in the face of an unequalled regime onslaught on ASUU: “The despicable efforts to annihilate ASUU brought out the best in us and reinforced the aphorism, ‘a people united cannot be defeated’.
“Let us remember that the battle is not yet over. Hence, at this conference, all the commissions must deliberate and develop innovative strategies for reinventing our struggle for the NUS and Nigeria as a country.
“The past two years have been challenging for members and the union due to deliberate efforts of government to scatter the struggle to demand a better deal for the education system and university education.
“In federal and state universities, ASUU members were pauperised and brutalized for challenging government to make their institutions and welfare packages attractive and competitive.
“Those who could not stand the humiliation have fought with their feet and fled the country. And it is the grace of Almighty God that has kept those of them left behind going. May we never see such terrible times in our union and our country again?
“It is our hope that the incoming administration will consider all the issues and resolve them comprehensively for the benefit of the NUS and Nigeria as a country.”
On the state of the union, Osodeke reminded the delegates that the challenges in the past two years have been enormous and devastating. Critical among these are challenges resulting from the implementation of the 2009 agreement, renegotiation of the agreement and visitors, particularly visitors of state universities such as Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Kaduna State University, Kaduna and Kogi State University, Anyigba:
“I must commend and salute our members nationwide for standing firmly with the union during this period, especially those whose salaries were withheld for about eight months and more.”
He explained that the government’s deliberate refusal to implement the outstanding issues in the 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement as captured in the December 2020 Memorandum of Action led to a four-week roll-over strike declared by the union on February 14th, 2022. He said the outstanding issues including the funding for the revitalization of public universities, earned academic allowances, salaries shortfall/payment of arrears of promotion, the proliferation of universities, the release of visitation panel reports, re-negotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, issues of IPPIS and ASUU’s University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
Osodeke said: “The ASUU industrial action lasted for more than eight months because of the government’s lackadaisical attitude toward resolving the issues. During the period, the union reached an agreement with the government’s team led by Late Emeritus Prof. Nimi Briggs.
“The 2022 draft agreement was expected to put a closure to the process of renegotiating the 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement; a process, which began way back in 2017 under Dr. Wale Babalakin.
“Unfortunately, government demonstrated bad faith by rejecting the new agreement at the point of getting it signed. Instead of giving its nod to the meticulously worked out welfare component of the draft document, the government provocatively threw at the union a ‘take-or-leave-it’ award.
“And expectedly, the union rejected this. Then, the Minister of Labour and Employment dragged ASUU to the National Industrial Court (NIC) to force the union to suspend its industrial action.
“Dr. Ngige and his cohort in government intensified their orchestrated plan to get ASUU proscribed and replaced with some pliant and amorphous groups as unions of academics.”
Vice Chancellor, Borno State University, Prof. Umar Sandabe, described ASUU as a partner in progress to development not only in the education sector but the NUS: “Most people in government don’t know about the working culture of ASUU. Most buildings in state universities are through TETFund, which ASUU fought for its establishment.”
Representative of Katsina State governor appreciated ASUU for the struggle to better the university system and education in general: “Don’t allow anybody to disrupt your struggles. Don’t allow the government to divide you. Throughout the strike, ASUU members at Umaru Musa Yar’adua University Katsina were paid their salaries.”
The NLC, Trade Union Congress (TUC), Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU), National Association Academic of Technologists (NAAT), Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (CEASU) presented solidarity messages at the ASUU delegates’ conference.
They acknowledged the contributions of ASUU to the struggle to make NUS and the education sector better. They promised to partner with ASUU to achieve the desired result in the nation’s education sector.
At the end of the conference, Osodeke and other principal officers were re-elected for another two years.