UPDATED: ASUU issues fresh strike notice

Mr Osodeke noted that ASUU met on Thursday, 19 September, to review the government’s response and was dissatisfied with it.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the umbrella body for Nigerian university lecturers, has issued the Nigerian government a 14-day ultimatum to meet its demands to avert industrial action.

ASUU President Emmanuel Osodeke, a professor of Soil Science, disclosed this in a statement.

The union had on 20 August issued a 21-day strike notice to the government over its failure to address lingering issues with the union, particularly the 2009 Federal Government-ASUU agreement. The initial ultimatum expired on 9 September.

Earlier, as part of efforts to avert the threatened strike action, the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, also a professor, met with the leadership of the union two times on 28 August and 6 September.

The minister also set up a subcommittee to investigate the union’s demands, but the outcomes of the efforts could not be ascertained as of the time this report was filed.

Alleged govt poor commitment

ASUU’s Wednesday statement noted that the union met on Thursday, 19 September, to review the government’s response and was dissatisfied.

The statement reads in part: “ASUU resolves to give the Nigerian Government another 14 days, in addition to the earlier 21 days, beginning from Monday, 23rd September 2024 during which all the lingering issues must have been concretely addressed to the satisfaction of the membership of the union.

“The union should not be held responsible for any industrial disharmony that arises from the government’s failure to seize the new opportunity offered by ASUU to nip the looming crisis in the bud.”

Mr Osodeke noted that the government’s failure to fully implement the demands has “continued to exacerbate crises in public universities.”

He said the recent wage increase of 25 and 35 per cent for university workers cannot replace the finalisation of agreement which he said was based on collective bargaining principles.

“In particular, the government’s failure to conclude the renegotiation of the FGN-ASUU Agreement that has lingered for upward of seven (7) years, and implement the agreement, has not helped matters especially given the current economic realities in the country,” he said.

Union rejects govt’s claim on lack of funds

ASUU said the information available to it does not support the government’s claim that it doesn’t have sufficient funds, adding that it is simply the lack of political will.

The union also accused the government of not prioritising the welfare and well-being of Nigerian academics, “otherwise the prolonged engagements with ASUU should have yielded fruitful outcomes for stability and industrial harmony in the universities.”

“The substantial inflows from subsidy removal and devaluation of the Naira, translating to the humongous monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) disbursements to the three tiers of government make nonsense of the outlandish claims,” the union stated.

The union said its engagement with the government has revealed that the government is using “old antics, characterised by bureaucratic bottlenecks, time-buying tactics, denial of documentations, and lack of budgetary provisions, to confound and complicate matters.”

Contentious issues

At the top of the union’s demands as listed by Mr Osodeke, is the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement between the union and the federal government, the release of three-and-a-half months’ salaries withheld during the 2022 strike action and the continuous use of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) for payments of university workers’ salaries.

Other issues, as listed by the ASUU president, are: “the release of unpaid salaries for staff on sabbatical, part-time, and adjunct appointments affected by the IPPIS; release of outstanding third-party deductions such as check-off dues and cooperative contributions; funding for the revitalisation of public universities, partly captured in the 2023 Federal Government Budget; payment of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), partly captured in the 2023 Federal Government Budget; proliferation of universities by Federal and State Governments; implementation of the reports of visitation panels to universities; illegal dissolution of Governing Councils; and University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as a replacement for IPPIS.”

2009 FG-ASUU Agreement

The renegotiation of the 2009 agreement has been the major source of the perennial disputes between the government and the academic union. This agreement includes the negotiation of wage scale and other earnings of Nigerian academics.

The renegotiation had stalled since 2017 and has had three heads of the negotiation process. Wale Babalakin, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and the pro-chancellor of the University of Lagos, led the renegotiation team constituted by the government from 2017 until his resignation as pro-chancellor in 2020.

In 2020, Munzali Jibril, an emeritus professor of English and then pro-chancellor for the Federal University, Lafia, Nasarawa State, took over. With him, the negotiation fared relatively smoothly with him turning in a draft agreement in May 2021. But the government never signed or implemented the agreement.

When the union embarked on another nationwide strike in 2022, the government constituted yet another committee –this time headed by the late-Nimi Briggs, also an emeritus professor. Mr Briggs committee also renegotiated the 2009 agreement and submitted a draft to the government in June 2022. It was never signed or implemented, forcing the 2022 strike action to last until October when an Industrial Court asked the union to suspend the strike after a suit was instituted against them by the federal government.

On IPPIS

The union is also protesting the continuous payment of its salaries and entitlements using the IPPIS platform. ASUU said the platform is fraudulent and is shortchanging its members of their entitlements.

In December, the education minister, Mr Mamman, said President Bola Tinubu directed the exclusion of universities from the IPPIS. But the union said a ‘new IPPIS’ is being used to pay its members, adding that it is the same platform as the IPPIS.

ASUU also wants the government to replace the IPPIS platform with the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), developed as an alternative to the IPPIS.

Furthermore, the government’s failure to implement the recommendations of visitation panels and amend the National Universities Commission (NUC) Act to prevent the proliferation of public universities.