- Public varsity lectures earn same salaries since 2009
By Gabriel Dike, Lagos
The Academic Staff Union Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday disclosed that the administration of President Bola Tinubu has not addressed any of the union’s lingering demands.
ASUU’s position is contained in a communique of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the union held at Niger Delta University (NDU), Wilberforce Island from Saturday 10th to Sunday 11th, February, 2024 and signed by ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osokede.
He disclosed that at the NEC meeting, the union undertook a comprehensive review of the state of its engagements with Federal and State Governments on how to reposition Nigeria‟s public universities for global reckoning by arresting the worsening living and working conditions in the universities and the nation at large.
Osodeke said: “The meeting was alarmed, going by the reports it received, on the failed promises of the Tinubu-led administration toward addressing the lingering issues that forced ASUU to embark on the nationwide strike of February–October 2022.”
According to him, NEC was seriously alarmed by reports of the increasing number of Nigerian academics who have died or are currently nursing life-threatening ailments as a result of work-related stress and chronic pauperisation arising from failed promises by the governments and the general macroeconomic climate of the country.
He explained that the communique is intended to update Nigerians on developments since the suspension of its last national strike on Friday, 14th October, 2022 and the union’s engagements with the current administration since its inception.
On the prolonged negotiation, he said the union’s demand for dialogue with the Federal Government is anchored on the International Labour Organisation‟s (ILO) Convention No. 98, which underscored the principle of collective bargaining.
“The last FGN/ASUU agreement was in 2009. The union has been without a renegotiated agreement with the government for 15 years. It would be recalled that, owing to the union‟s persistent call for the review of the 2009 agreement, the Federal Government set up the Wale Babalakin-led Joint Renegotiation Committee in 2017.
“For irreconcilable reasons, especially due to the chairman‟s insistence on the re-introduction of the Education Bank, the process was stalled for over two years. Consequently, the renegotiation committee was reconstituted with Prof Munzali Jibril as convener. Under the new chairman, much progress was made as the draft agreement was ready within three months,” he disclosed.
Osodeke said the government refused to sign the draft agreement for some inexplicable reasons and a new chairman, late Prof. Nimi Briggs was appointed.
He added that renegotiation with Briggs was completed within six months but the then Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, truncated the process at the point of finalising the reviewed draft agreement.
ASUU stated: “From 2021 till date, the document has remained in its draft form. The most obvious implication of the truncation of the renegotiation of the agreement is that university teachers in Nigeria have been on the same salary regime since 2009 when the value of naira to a dollar was N120! Today, it is above N1,500.
“It is no longer news that the salaries of the highest paid professor, on the average, has been reduced to a meagre $210/month. This is one of the least in the world! Unfortunately, even the unilateral award of 35% and 25% by the despotic Buhari administration, which has been activated through the National Wages, Salaries and Income Commission (NWSIC) through a circular, remains a promise in thin air one year after.
“It appears members of the Nigerian ruling class are totally indifferent to the implications of the continued pauperisation of academics for the Nigerian dream and the future of the country. If they truly love Nigeria, they must have realised that no nation can truly be greater than the quality and commitment of its scholars.”
Other issues ASUU NEC raised include withheld salaries, arrears of earned academic allowances, illegal dissolution of governing councils, rejection of core curriculum minimum academic standard, proliferation of universities, victimisation and threats at Federal University of Technology, Owerri, TETFund intervention, underfunding of universities and deepening socio-economics crisis.
Osodeke said the union used the opportunity of the meeting to draw the attention of Nigerians to the serial insensitivity of the government with respect to agreements and care for the welfare of hard-working lecturers in Nigerian public universities.
He noted that despite the good intentions of Nigerian academics to make the universities globally competitive, government has continued to unleash hardship on the lecturers and students.
“ASUU remains undaunted in this patriotic mission. We call on other patriots in the media, labour movement, student groups and civil society organisations to join our resolve to reposition the Nigerian university system for a transformed Nigeria,” he stressed.