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• ASUU ends mobilisation of members for strike, takes case to public court
By Gabriel Dike
•ASUU Lagos zone officials
Lecturers in the public universities are agitated and angry with the Federal Government for non-implementation of their demands, dating back to 2009.
As a result, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting at the Niger Delta University (NDU), Wilberforce, Bayelsa State, constituted a mobilisation team. The team visited branches and sought members’ views on government’s attitude to their demands.
Daily Sun learnt that members expressed displeasure at government failure to address the union’s demands since 2009.
At the recent briefing of ASUU Lagos Zone, some of the branch chairmen told Daily Sun that their members are agitated by government failure to implement their demands.
The demands included non-conclusion of FG/ASUU 2009 agreement, withheld salaries and outstanding Earned Academic Allowance. ASUU has moved to engaging members of the public through the media, described as “very crucial.”
Two weeks ago, ASUU mandated the zones to take their case to the public court through press briefings on the situation and to seek stakeholders’ intervention before moving to the next level of agitation.
NEC shocked over failed promises
ASUU president, Prof. Emmanuel Osokede, said NEC was alarmed, going by the reports it received, on the failed promises of the Tinubu-led administration toward addressing the lingering issues that forced the union to embark on the nationwide strike of February to October 2022:
“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.
“The briefing is to update Nigerians on developments since the suspension of the last national strike on Friday, October 14, 2022 and its engagements with the current
“We have used the opportunity of this press conference to draw the attention to the serial insensitivity of the government with respect to agreements and care for the welfare of hard-working lecturers in Nigerian public universities.
“Despite the good intentions of Nigerian academics to make our universities globally competitive, the 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 (NUS) for a transformed Nigeria.”
Outstanding demands
The renegotiation of FGN/ASUU 2009 agreement remained major bone of contention between the two parties, leading to series of industrial actions.
Osodeke explained: “The last FGN/ASUU agreement was in 2009. The union has been without a renegotiated agreement with the Federal Government for 15 years. Owing to the union’s persistent call for the review of the 2009 agreement, the 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, progress was made as the draft agreement was ready within three months. However, government refused to sign the draft agreement for some inexplicable reasons.
“The late emeritus Prof. Nimi Briggs became the next chairman. ASUU did not meet with the Nimi-Briggs committee until extracting from it the mandate of its principal to conclude the process which had dragged for more than four years. Renegotiation with Nimi Briggs was completed within six months.”
Osodeke claimed that former Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, truncated the process at the point of finalising the reviewed draft agreement: “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 salary of the highest paid professor, on the average, has been reduced to a meager $210 a month. This is one of the least in the world. “Unfortunately, even the unilateral award of 35 per cent and 25 per cent by the Buhari administration, activated through the National Wages, Salaries and Income Commission (NWSIC) through 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 ought to have realised that no nation can truly be greater than the quality and commitment of its scholars.”
Other outstanding demands
Among the union’s outstanding demands are the withheld salary, unpaid arrears of earned academic allowance, Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, public universities and the Treasury Single Account, revitalisation fund and recall of sacked five ASUU-LASU officials.
ASUU Lagos Zone Coordinator, Prof Adelaja Odukoya, last week observed that there has been no tangible intervention by the present administration to inspire hope: “As a matter of fact, despair is on the rise, as many Nigerian academics languishing under very terrible working conditions, while many have either passed away or are currently undergoing life-threatening illnesses that are primarily induced by poverty and enslaving working conditions.”
He said after the nationwide strike, suspended on October 14, 2022, the interaction with the Tinubu administration has not yielded any positive results. He warned of possible consequences of the lack of actions on the part of government.
Three Lagos concerned parents, Mr. Dominic Nwankwo, a trader with a son at the University of Ibadan (UI), Alhaja Bisi Tajudeen, a banker with a son at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and Mr. Sule Adetunji, a teacher appealed to the government to address the demands of the union.
The trio said the Nigerian University System cannot afford another strike and hoped government would do the needful before ASUU contemplates another strike.
From all indications, a major storm is brewing in the universities. After the mobilisation of its members, ASUU has taken it case to the public court. It also sought intervention of prominent Nigerians on the issues involved.
