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- Says a professor earns less than four hundred dollars
By Gabriel Dike
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Wednesday asked Nigerians to hold the Federal Government responsible if the union embarks on an indefinite strike over non-completion of the ongoing renegotiation.
The Coordinator of ASUU Lagos Zone, Prof. Sola Nassir, made the declaration at a briefing held at the Lagos State University of Education (LASUED) to inform Nigerians on the progress of the ongoing renegotiation between government and the union.
According to him, the ultimatum of four weeks to complete the renegotiation issued by the union is less than 72 hours away and ASUU National Executive Council (NEC) will meet to take a decision.
Nassir recalled that ASUU and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) gave the Federal Government four weeks (ending 20 November) to conclude the ongoing renegotiation.
His words: “Once this window of opportunity expires, NEC will meet for the next line of action. It will take a miracle for ASUU not to embark on an indefinite strike.
“We have related with all we could in the country to plead with the government to resolve this lingering debacle, all to no avail. We in the Lagos Zone of ASUU, comprising seven universities, are therefore putting government on notice of our total commitment to whatever course of action declared by ASUU at the national front in addressing this matter.
“Without mincing words, the crisis in our public universities has gained the status of a drastic disease which can only be redeemed with a drastic surgical operation.”
Nassir alleged that rather than address ASUU’s demands, government functionaries are busy attacking the union while the Minister of Education, Dr Olatunji Alausa, is setting up other unions against ASUU.
He disclosed that many aspects of ASUU’s demands have not been implemented and insisted that the country has the resources to turn around university education.
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The Coordinator revealed that the two-week warning strike was suspended because the union noticed a change in government’s nonchalant attitude that compelled the strike.
Nassir stated without any fear of contradiction that, contrary to the minister’s celebratory disposition, the recent part-payment of promotion arrears dating back to 2017 and the release of third-party deductions, which are part of members’ unpaid benefits for years, cannot be counted as achievements and must not be framed as the substantial issues of the negotiation process.
On funding, Nassir noted that the government appears not to appreciate the perilous position of the future of the education sector and the future of the nation’s children given their refusal to reverse the derisory budgetary allocation to education.
He said rather, the government appeared to have shifted a lot of its responsibility onto TETFund, which is only an intervention agency.
“It is sad to note that Nigeria’s funding of education has stagnated below 10 per cent in the last decade and is currently less than 1% of its GDP contrary to about 2% for Egypt, 3% for Ghana, over 3% for Gabon and over 6% for South Africa. The consequence of this is obvious for all to see.
“The Nigeria’s political class must be told in unmistakable language that they are underdeveloping the country and this must stop. The country has the resources to turn our educational fortune around. It must start with prudent management of our resources, large-scale war on corruption, recovery of funds locked in various revenue generation agencies (NNPC, CBN, Customs, FIRS, etc.) which must be streamlined to ensure appropriate remittances into the Consolidated Account,” he stated.
On salary, Nassir said in the 2009 negotiation, a professor earned about three hundred dollars and currently takes home less than four hundred dollars.
The Zonal Coordinator explained that ASUU rejected the 35% offered by the government team, which is below what the union agreed with the Prof. Nimi Briggs negotiation team: “Even with the 35% increase, the salary of a professor is not up to ₦1 million. When you remove tax and other deductions, professors are left with about ₦700,000.”
He disclosed that the issues that led the union to embark on numerous strikes and the last two-week warning strike are: completion of renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement; sustainable funding of public universities; funding for revitalisation of public universities; victimisation of our colleagues in Lagos State University, Kogi State University (now Prince Abubakar Audu University) and Federal University of Technology, Owerri; payment of 12 months 25-35% wage award arrears; payment of promotion arrears of over four years; and payment of outstanding third-party deductions of cooperatives and union check-off dues.
Nassir further revealed that the renegotiation was supposed to continue on Tuesday in Abuja but the government team did not show up, forcing the ASUU team to leave the venue.
