Looming ASUU strike: Government must comport itself with integrity
Drumbeats of strike within the Nigerian education system has begun to boom again. The reverberation as the norm of the leading rancour zooms from the Public Universities’ System. The leading stakeholders of the system, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is once again pushed to the wall for another reaction over breach of agreements. Threats of a full blown strike is expected to culminate from the outcome of a Council meeting at the University of Lagos slated for February 12 and 13, upon which it is threatened that should nothing be done by the Government between now and then, the lecturers may resume another log of strike.
In the build-up, a statement issued after a congress of the Union held on Monday, as signed by the Chairman of ASUU in the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Dr Biodun Olaniran, and Secretary, Dr Toyin Abegunrin, had seen another caveat to embark on an indefinite strike should the Federal Government fail to accede to its demands on time. The Union had lamented that the failure of the Government to fully implement the agreements was worrisome, hence the resolve to embark on an indefinite strike.
The statement had read partly: “Our union, ASUU, is using this medium to call upon the Federal Government of Nigeria once again to implement the agreement it signed with ASUU. It is unfortunate to mention that the FG signed an agreement with the ASUU since 2009, but the agreement is not implemented till date. The agreement was renegotiated in the name of peace. But to our dismay, the government has refused to sign the renegotiated agreement. In order to make the implementation of the agreement easy for the FG, the union has limited its demand to only three. These include the signing/implementation of the renegotiated agreement of 2009; and the adoption of the University Transparency and Accountability Software instead of the controversial IPPIS.”
It would be recalled that in a seeming warm-up for build-up actions towards the intending strike, the body had directed a work-free day to be observed by its chapters across the Country. The Union had slated the work-free day for sensitisation of members of the public on the situation between the Union and the Federal Government. While the work free day was set to commece Monday, February 7, 2022, some chapters of the Union have taken the campaign beyond limit. As stated by the National President, ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Oshodeke, “each branch is expected to pick a day and have theirs. Then, we will meet and collate all the findings and address the press. The National Executive Council will meet and take a decision going forward,” he was quoted.
The Union had described as unsatisfactory the claim of the Federal Government on the payment of N30bn Revitalisation Fund and N22.5bn Earned Academic Allowance as a significant progress in implementing the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) the government reached with the Union. According to ASUU, the subjects that formed the MOA is largely pronounced than the said sum.
Recall that ahead of fresh threats of resuming strikes by stakeholders in the Country’s public university system, which may lead to another season of academic lockdown for the institutions, President Muhammadu Buhari had urged the aggrieved stakeholders to consider the fiscal constraints of the Government. This was just as he renewed the promise of the Federal Government to honour the agreements reached with the stakeholders. In December, ASUU had renewed warnings to embark on strike over alleged non-implementation of the Memorandum of Action (MOA) signed with the Federal Government. Addressing journalists at the end of its zonal meeting held at the University of Ilorin, the Ibadan zone coordinator of the union, Prof. Oyebamiji Oyegoke, had called on Nigerians to intervene “at this critical moment before our members withdraw their services.”
Subjects of concern in the MOA include “Funding for Revitalisation of Public Universities; Payment of Earned Academic Allowances, Withheld Salaries and Promotion Arrears; Renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement; Inconsistencies in IPPIS Payment and University Transparency and Accountability Solution.” The fear of the disruptions that such strike would incur in the County’s education system should it take course, had informed a meeting by members of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) with President Muhammadu Buhari last Tuesday, February 01, 2022, in Abuja, where the latter vowed the Federal Government would keep to its promises. According President Buhari, the Federal Government was committed to honouring promises made to the ASUU to prevent disruptive strikes, engender uninterrupted academic programmes and improve funding of education institutions. President Buhari who made a pledge when he received members of NIREC led by the Co-Chairs, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, and the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Rev. Samson Ayokunle, in Abuja had said though challenged by fiscal limitations, the Government “remains committed to honouring our promises.” Mentioning that it was important for the Union to be cognisant of the fiscal pressures the Government is currently facing, he had urged ASUU to continue to work with the Government towards finding resolutions to the challenges confronting it.
“However, they should be cognisant of the fiscal pressures that we are currently facing. Nevertheless, we remain committed to honouring our promises. For their part, I will like to encourage ASUU to continue to work with us toward finding resolutions to the challenges that confront us. My administration is committed to this engagement and dialogue, and I urge them to stay the course toward a joint resolution in the best interest of our children and nation,” Buhari had said.
On the contested subject of the practicality of the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS) or the University Transparency Accountability Solutions (UTAS), which has been a major source of dispute between both parties, Buhari had said efforts were ongoing by the appropriate bodies to see to the adoption of the alternative University Transparency Accountability Solutions (UTAS) as agreed.
In their intervention move, the CAN President, who spoke on behalf of the Council, had said the meeting with the president was on the single point of averting strikes in the universities and the challenges of ASUU, which they considered to be of national interest. According to the CAN President in the outcome from NIREC’s meeting with ASUU on Jan. 10, 2022, the university lecturers outlined that the bone of contention between the union and the Federal Government centred on eight issues. The identified issues include the inconclusive renegotiation of 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement, UTAS, IPPIS and distortion in salary payment challenges. Also forming contentious issues were visitation panels to Federal Universities report, funding for revitalisation of public universities, earned academic allowance, state universities and promotion arrears. He had submitted that with renegotiation on some of the practicality of some agreements put in place, other issues will be adequately addressed along the line. “If the renegotiation process continues to conclusion, issues that the government is not comfortable with can be renegotiated with a view to reaching only implementable agreements. We believe that with renegotiation in place, other issues will be adequately addressed along the line,” the NIREC co-chair, Ayokunle, had said.
Arguments over the implementation of the MOA have been berated by stakeholders who have questioned why President Muhammadu Buhari would assign two ministers who were not privy to the agreement to oversee its implementation. Arguments have been premised on the allegation that the Federal Government is trying to dodge its responsibility by directing ministers to oversee the implementation of the MOA. The stakeholders have thus, alleged that the Federal Government is up to taking away university autonomy through its designed programmes.
Recall that the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife branch of ASUU had on Monday, 31, 2022 declared an indefinite strike following the non-payment of Earned Academic Allowance to its members. The decision to commence strike was part of the resolutions reached at the ASUU emergency Congress held on Monday, January, 31, 2022. At the wake of the planned protest of the Nigeria Labour Congress last month against the proposed removal of subsidy, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) in pledge of support had lamented the breaches in the agreements. Speaking at its 41st Regular National Executive Council, NEC, meeting at the Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile Ife, Osun State, the SSANU President, Comrade Mohammed Haruna Ibrahim, had lamented that “The present Federal Government of Nigeria is not doing any better in its relationship with our labour unions. SSANU in particular is facing the most difficult period of its existence because our members are going through a lot in terms of hardship, in terms of denial, we have had a 2009 Agreement which is about 12 years down the line, just less than 40% of that agreement has seen the light of the day. Even those that have seen the light of the day, they are coming in different forms and sizes that are not encouraging and not also friendly to our membership Today what our members go through is mutilation of salaries, non-payment of promises made such as that of the new minimum wage arrears, non-implementation or partial or lopsided payment of the hazard and responsibility allowance, issues of staff schools that have become an issue of concern to all our membership.
“Funding of state universities has become so terrible, some universities in Nigeria of state extraction suffer 12 months or two, three years of non-payment of salaries and allowances. Inter-university centres that are supposed to be part of our struggle have been denied of their legitimate rights and privileges of accessing allowances that have been approved and agreed upon with the federal government of Nigeria. The renegotiation of the 2009 Agreement is still wobbling and dancing. We also see today in our Nigerian universities this dangerous and reckless usurpation of our duties of our members by some Vice Chancellors who give out our duties as specified in our callings to other people who do not know better than we do.”
Recall that a nine-month-old strike which commenced in March 2020, was suspended in December 2020 with the MOA, which the stakeholders have lamented had largely not been observed by the Federal Government. Upon agreements, on the 23rd December, 2020, following the MOA, reached between the Union and the Federal Government, former ASUU National President, Biodun Ogunyemi, at a briefing to declare the Union’s resolve, had then warned that the Union would return back to strike in any case of breach of the Agreements reached. “What we have done is to give the government the benefit of doubt and that is why we have added the caveat. Should the government renege, our members are not tired of withdrawing their services,” he had said.
Rumblings over salaries have continued to add up to the grievances with vociferous lamentations. On Tuesday, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, ASUU Chapter, lamented that academic staff of Nigerian universities are being paid what was described as “slave wage,” against the “stupendous take-home paid to National Assembly members and other political office holders.” The Union had described the Federal Government as a “deliberate serial defaulter.”
Briefing journalists, on behalf of the Union, ASUU Chairman, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, (MOUAU), Professor Chike Ugwuene, lamented that “a professor in Nigeria university earns less than $1000 per month. The salary we earn today has been a slave wage relative to the stupendous take-home paid to National Assembly members and other political office holders,” he lamented. According to him, “academic staff of Nigeria universities have been receiving the same salary for the past 13 years” following the Federal Government’s refusal to review its 2009 agreement with ASUU. Accusing the Federal Government of flouting its various agreements with ASUU, he said: “The Federal Government is a deliberate serial defaulter in terms of honouring its agreements. The FG is in arrears of several billions of Naira in terms of the NEEDS Assessment funds and the Earned Academic Allowance.”
The Union has also lamented that the failure of the Federal Government to release in full the N30 billion EAA it promised in 2021, had led to infrastructural decay and gross inadequacy of students hostels on campuses. “Students and their sponsors are at the mercy of shylock landlords who take advantage of the gap to exploit our indigent students while the children of political office holders and their cohorts leisure in comfort in very distant universities outside of our shores at the expense of our commonwealth,” ASUU mentioned.
“In spite of numerous audit reports indicating that the federal government is losing billions of Naira to IPPIS, the vultures feeding fat from the blood of Nigerian workers whose salaries are omitted, mutilated or mangled at will by the operators of IPPIS who have continued on their campaign of calumny against UTAS. The drummers (FG) are beating the drums. The dancers (ASUU) are rehearsing to take the stage. If we take the stage we will remain there. ASUU has given the FG a benefit of doubt for too long,” it further decried.
The tagging of the Federal Government as a “deliberate serial defaulter” speaks no good representation of the Government. It is important to note that superficially reaching agreement without substance and pragmatic will to honour same, as a strategy just to hurriedly get aggrieved stakeholders back to work, is not honourable. While it may be understood that the Government, as it has argued, may be faced with financial constraints, it is a breach of trust for it to strike agreements it would not fulfill. The serial breaches which have formed the Government’s disposition over time has accorded it the stench of ignoble representation – a posture which the government would have to struggle with. The sprees of the disposition over time have made it irreconcilable for the stakeholders to reason with its (Government’s) plea to give consideration to its case of perceived financial constraints, since even at the time of financial boom, clear cut agreements were disregarded by the Government.
It is indisputable that the disruption which another strike would usher into the recuperating university system, worst hit with academic inconsistencies, in the Country is largely undesirable. It behooves the Government to conduct itself reasonably and responsibly to the best justifiable intervention necessary to prevent another disruption. Since, the clamour has been centred on calls on the Government to honour hitherto signed agreement, it behooves the Government to fulfill its part of same with honour, integrity and dignity.
