Is FG Listening to ASUU?

With the two-week ultimatum issued by the Academic Staff Union of Universities to the federal government nearing its deadline, Davidson Iriekpen writes that urgent government intervention is needed to address the union’s demands once and for all to avert another industrial action

Once again, it seems the federal government has gone on silence since the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the umbrella body for Nigerian university lecturers issued a 14-day ultimatum to meet its demands in order to avert industrial action.

Its President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, in a statement penultimate week, said the union should not be held responsible for any industrial disharmony that arises from the government’s failure to seize the new opportunity it offered to nip the looming crisis in the bud. He noted that the government’s failure to fully implement the demands has “continued to exacerbate crises in public universities.”

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

The union had on August 20 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.

In a belated effort to avert the threatened strike action, the Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, who is preoccupied with how to stop the university education of young Nigerians below the age of 18 years, met with the leadership of the union on August 28 and September 8. He also belatedly set up a subcommittee to investigate the union’s demands, but as of yesterday, the federal government was yet to reach an agreement on the union’s demands.

While the government has constantly said it does not have sufficient funds to meet ASUU’s demand, the union said the information available to it does not support the government’s claim, 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.”

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

“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,” ASUU stated.

At the top of ASUU’s demands as listed by 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.

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

Other issues, as listed 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 federal government’s 2023 budget; payment of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), partly captured in the 2023 federal government’s 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.”

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

The renegotiation stalled since 2017 and has had three heads of the negotiation process. Wale Babalakin (SAN) led the renegotiation team constituted by the government from 2017 until his resignation as Pro-Chancellor of the University of Lagos 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. However, 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. 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.

Strike actions are often an issue of major concern to students in higher institutions. The planned strike could be averted if the federal government acts expeditiously to resolve some of the key issues that always lead to industrial action.

During the campaigns to install Muhammadu Buhari in office as president or during his own campaign, President Tinubu had promised to ensure that strikes would not be allowed. He even vowed that any student studying a four-year course would graduate in a record time.

This is why the Federal Ministry of Education, the NUC and organs of the government should urgently intervene to resolve the issues.

A cursory computation by a Nigerian online newspaper revealed recently that in the 19 years since Nigeria returned to civil rule under the Fourth Republic, universities have embarked on strike 16 times which saw them stay away from work for over 50 months. 

Each time there is a strike in the universities, the students suffer because it prolongs their stay in school. For instance, on many occasions, students end up spending six years in university for a four-year course.

To avoid the frequent and disruptive strikes by university unions, many parents go to great lengths, often with financial strain, to send their children to private universities. This is simply not the time for another strike in Nigerian universities. With the current economic hardships and students eager to complete their education, the country cannot afford another setback in the academic system.

Critical stakeholders in the education sector need to join hands to find a lasting solution to what has become a perplexing national challenge.

By doing this, the federal government should take the initiative, so that the country can collectively come up with ways to reposition tertiary education. Unfortunately, disputes are always occasioned by broken promises and unfulfilled agreements by the federal government. The country cannot develop until efforts are made to revitalise key sectors like education.