ASUU threatens to go on strike, asks Nigerians to blame FG

By Stephen Gbadamosi, Ibadan & Tom Garba, Yola

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to embark on another industrial action following a three-week ultimatum issued by the union last month to the Federal Government.

The union, however, called on well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the Federal Government to honour the agreement reached with the union.

The lecturers made the call on Friday at separate briefings held in the northern and southern parts of the country where they said the government’s action has left them with no other option than to withdraw their services.

At the end of a meeting of the Ibadan Zone of ASUU held at the University of Ilorin, the zonal coordinator, Professor Oyebamiji Oyegoke, said the union has been pushed to the wall over the non-implementation of the Memorandum of Action (MoA) reached with the government in 2020.

He explained that the union was planning another strike because of the failure to fully implement the MoA.

He said: “Government, by its piecemeal implementation of the contentious issues in the MoA of 2020, is not sincere in fulfilling its part of the agreement,” said the don. “Selective treatment of issues in dispute instead of a comprehensive approach will no longer be acceptable to our members; we shall no longer take the issue of welfare of our members for granted.

“Any treatment of MoA of 2020 that precludes its full implementation and rejection of IPPIS will be incomplete. If it has taken ASUU’s position of resuming a suspended strike action to rouse the government from its sleep of non-implementation of the MoA of 2020, one needs to ask, how many of such reminders should ASUU give before its demands are met?

“It is on the basis of the failure of government to meet up with the promises made as attested to in the MoA of 2020 that the union is calling on Nigerians to intervene at this critical moment. The demands of the union are realistic and holistic in the common interest of the country’s educational and developmental pursuits. If nothing is done, we will be left with no other choice than to withdraw our services until reason prevails.”

Professor Oyegoke stated that the agreement was supposed to address the issues of revitalisation of public universities, full payment of the academic earned allowance, withheld salaries and promotion arrears, inconsistencies in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) payment, and renegotiation of the 2009 agreement.

He accused the government of demonstrating an intention to embarrass the collective resolve to save university education from total collapse.

“ASUU cannot succumb to this insensitive disposition. As we celebrate Human Rights Day today, 10th December, we recall the declaration of 1948 which acknowledged the struggles of the oppressed people around the world.

“So, we use this opportunity to ask the Nigerian government to respect the rights of the people to education and decent working conditions,” Prof Oyegoke stated.

The Ibadan zone comprises the University of Ibadan, University of Ilorin, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Osun State University, and Kwara State University.

At a similar briefing held by members of the Yola Zone of the union at the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the Adamawa State capital, on Friday, the zonal coordinator, Dr. Reuben Jonathan, also appealed to Nigerians to add their voices by calling on the government to implement the MoA of 2020.

The ASUU Yola Zone comprises Adamawa State University (ADSU), Mubi; Federal University Gashua (FUGA); Modibbo Adama University (MAU), Yola; Taraba State University (TSU), Jalingo; University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID); and Yobe State University (YSU), Damaturu.

He asked Nigerians to hold the government responsible should the union embark on another strike, stressing the need for traditional and religious leaders among others to intervene so as to avert a looming strike.

Comrade Reuben Jonathan said the Zone convened at Modibbo Adama University (MAU), Yola on Thursday, December 9th, 2021, and reviewed the Memorandum of Action (MoA) entered into with the Federal Government on December 23, 2020 after prolonged strike action by the union and the nonchalant attitudes displayed by Government functionaries in addressing the issues in dispute.

“Recall that in our previous press conference here in Yola on September 15th, 2021, we briefed you on the Government’s refusal and foot-dragging in implementing the said Agreement. Since then, nothing has been done by the Government to address the issues besides propaganda and blackmail.

“The issues remain: Renegotiation of the 2009 Agreement and all efforts by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the promise made to address the issue of Renegotiation have not yielded any result so far. The refusal of the Government to address the issue of Renegotiation has left us on the same salary for 12 years even as the Government has reviewed the minimum wage twice,” the statement read in part.

The Immediate past zonal coordinator of the union, Professor Augustine Ndaghi while responding to questions by newsmen reiterated their firm decision not to shift grounds this time around for whatever reason, adding that Nigerians should beg the Federal Government to respect all agreements reached within the context of labor matters.

On University Transparency Accountability Solutions (UTAS), State of the State Universities, Revitalisation funds for public universities and Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), the union in the statement said: “Recall that our union has developed a robust and dynamic system known as the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), which is better.

“Alternative to the pro-corruption Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS). It may interest you to know that UTAS has been subjected to and passed all the integrity tests without any shortcomings. However, beneficiaries of corruption-laden IPPIS have continued to ensure that UTAS does not see the light of day, thereby subjecting our members to untold hardship. The question here is whose interest IPPIS is protecting and at what level was IPPIS ever tested?

“The role of state-owned universities in providing tertiary education cannot be overemphasized in Nigeria. It is worrisome to note that the state governments in recent times have politicized the establishment of state universities, leading to the neglect of the noble values of universities as universal entities. Similarly, undue interference in the governance of these universities is counterproductive and erodes the autonomy of the universities.

“In the sequence of meetings with the Federal Government, it has been revealed that only twenty billion naira out of the thirty-billion-naira revitalization grant were released to the universities one year after the MOA was signed.

“On Earned Academic Allowances (EAA): the entitlement was to be paid at the latest in May and June 2021, but as of this moment, nothing has been released to that effect”.

ASUU further said: “Education is an inalienable right of every Nigerian child, we are aware that due to the flagrant neglect and frustration of Nigerian public universities, government functionaries are deliberately denying the poor Nigerian children access to university education as their children are secured in private universities all over the world. We, therefore, call on the general public and concerned citizens to save public universities by compelling the government to honor its agreements.”