•Says demands not yet met, gives one month to resolve issues

From Fred Ezeh, Abuja

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has announced the suspension of its two-week nationwide warning strike with effect from midnight, yesterday, October 22.

President of the union, Prof. Chris Piwuna, said at a press conference in Abuja yesterday that the decision was painful to the union, but it was left with no other choice for the sake of the university system in Nigeria.

He, however, notified all relevant stakeholders, including the government that the union was providing a one-month window for all issues to be resolved and that failure to act within the time, could force the union to resume the strike.

He stated that the chances of resuming the strike was high, considering the fact that the Union’s demands were not met, but acknowledged that efforts were being put in place by the renegotiation committee led by Yayale Ahmed to resolve the issues as quickly as possible.

“We have met twice with the government’s team since the warning strike started, and our assessment of the situation is that we have made some significant progress with the renegotiation committee. We, of course, had some reservations because there were items that were supposed to be timed, which the Minister of Education was unable to deliver on.

“But, when we look at the entire issue, we realize that we have made some progress. And we also believe that there are individuals or groups that have asked us to consider discontinuing with the action. The Senate of the Federal Republic was one. We also had massive support from the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC). They also understand that the point has been made and that we have the capacity to go full throttle.

“Since we have achieved that by bringing the government’s team back on the table to present to us their own position on this matter, we think that it’s about time we suspend the action.”

He, however, denied the claims by the government that it had met a large chunk of the union’s demands. “That’s not true. They haven’t met any large chunk of the demand. It is because the government’s team desires that we bring this matter to a close, and we saw the genuineness in the team.

“In fact, one of the items, particularly our salary, was rejected by all the 89 branches that attended our emergency NEC meeting. No single branch thought that the 35 percent offer was sufficient; none at all. And so, it’s a total rejection but we believe that it can be sorted out on the dialogue table.

“Also, the issue of tax in our allowances was also one of the points in our discussion with the government’s team. But, our next meeting will be on October 28, and we hope that at that meeting, some of the issues will be considered.

“Our decision to suspend the strike was not informed in any way by the ‘no work, no pay’ actions of the Federal Ministry of Education. To us, the Ministry failed woefully to address the issues. And we hope that this suspension will give them the opportunity to go back and look at our demands, notably, the third-party deductions that we talked about, our pension, promotion arrears and all other things they promised to do that they have not done.

“So, Nigerians would even wonder, if that is the case, why are we suspending the action? We are suspending the action because we have seen the goodwill on the part of the government’s team as well as the appeal by top government individuals, including the Deputy Senate President, who personally discussed this matter with us.

“And honestly, we think it will also help our students and their parents to see that we are happy to come back to work. We are ready to resolve this matter. And if it is looked from that perspective, I think even our members will understand why we had to take this decision.”

ASUU president appreciated the Yayale Ahmed-led Federal Government renegotiation committee for their seriousness and determination to resolve the issues. “They have given us a counter offer to what we initially presented to them. This is the first time since 2017 that the government is coming back to the table with a counter offer, the very first time in eight years that they are bringing an offer back to us. And we want to thank those who have made this possible.

“We also realise that this counter offer was discussed with the President, Bola Tinubu, and he’s aware of the content. And so that they have reached him and have brought back a counter offer. We hope that the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, will follow up on what his people are doing to ensure that these things are brought to a conclusion as quickly as possible.

“Meanwhile, as responsible citizens, we were (are still) convinced that suspending the strike was the most expedient thing to do in order to save our university system from imminent collapse; a cause we have championed for more than three decades.

“The decision was borne out of respect for our students and their parents, the media, the NLC and other well-meaning Nigerians, who have mediated in the last 10 days and have continued to do so. We owe them a great debt of gratitude for their understanding, resilience and demonstration of solidarity.

“Consequently, the union’s National Executive Council (NEC) resolved to reciprocate the overwhelming support of Nigerians. But, we resolved that a one-month window should be given to the government to conclude the ongoing renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU and fully address other outstanding issues.

“NEC hopes that the government would take advantage of this opportunity to timeously resolve all the issues in order to guarantee industrial harmony and ensure stability of our academic calendar as it has always promised.

“In summary, the emergency NEC meeting resolved that the warning strike is hereby suspended with effect from midnight, Wednesday, October 22; should the government fail to resolve the issues within the one-month window, ASUU reserves the right to resume the strike action without further notice and ASUU appeals to patriotic Nigerians and stakeholders in education to prevail on the government to speedily conclude the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement and other outstanding issues.

“Certainly, we are not where we were prior to and at the commencement of the strike. This shows that, had the government positively responded to the union’s earlier notices and appeals, there would have been no need for the strike in the first place.

“As you are aware, the Federal Government responded to our declaration of warning strike with threats of salary denial and directives to Vice-Chancellors on ways to make the union’s action ineffectual.”