From Jude Owuamanam, Jos
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has asked the Federal Government to begin immediate implementation of the renegotiated agreement of 2009.
ASUU expressed dismay that since the suspension of its last nationwide strike on October 14, 2022, and its subsequent engagements with the current administration, the situation has remained unchanged.
Addressing newsmen in Jos on Friday, the union regretted that after many strikes in the past decade and after three committees had renegotiated the agreement, the Federal Government is still foot dragging on the issue.
Acting Zonal Coordinator, ASUU Bauchi Zone, Prof. Naumwa Voncir, who addressed journalists at the briefing, said that the union was deeply disturbed by the reports it received on the failure of the Federal Government to fulfill its promises to the union.
ASUU regretted that for the past 15 years, the union had engaged in renegotiating the FGN/ASUU 2009 Agreement.
The statement read in part: “For the avoidance of doubts, the FGN/ASUU agreement is made up of three important components: conditions of service; funding; and university autonomy. ASUU’s demand for negotiated wages with the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) is anchored on the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Convention No. 98 which provides the principle of collective bargaining. Following the FGN/ASUU Agreement reached in 2009 in which it was provided that it would be reviewed every three years, the union has been without a renegotiated agreement with the FGN for 15 years.
“Recall 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 reasons known to the government, and the insistence of the chairman on the introduction of tuition fees, the process was stalled for over two years. Consequently, another renegotiation committee was reconstituted with Prof. Munzali Jibril as chairman.
“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 N1,700. 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,” he stated.