Strike: ASUU rejects salary increase of 23.5%
…As FG sets up committee to mull ‘no work, no pay’ decision, other grey areas
…Varsity lecturers fighting a good cause — ADC presidential candidate
Abimbola Abatta and Deborah Onatunde
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has rejected the Federal Government’s offer to increase lecturers’ and professors’ salaries by 23.5% and 35% respectively.
The union is demanding a salary increase by more than 100%.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, made this known on Tuesday on the sideline of a meeting between the Federal Government, Vice Chancellors and Pro-Chancellors of public universities in Abuja.
Adamu said ASUU rejected the offer because the union felt it was “inadequate to fulfill their various requests needed to handle the difficulties facing the university sector.”
Earlier, the Minister had said, “The Federal Government can only afford a 23.5% salary increase for all category of the workforce in Federal Universities, except for the professorial cadre which will enjoy a 35% upward review.
“Henceforth, allowances that pertain to ad-hoc duties of the academic and non-academic staff shall be paid as at when due by the Governing Councils of Universities to which such services are rendered and to the staff who perform them.”
He added “that a sum of N1150 billion Naira shall be provided for in the 2023 Budget as funds for the revitalization of Federal Universities, to be disbursed to the institutions in the First Quarter of the year, and that a sum of 50 billion Naira shall be provided for in the 2023 Budget for the payment of outstanding areas of earned academic allowances, to be paid in the First Quarter of the year.”
The Minister, who described the indefinite strike as an anguish and internal turmoil to him, said he wanted the parties to reach an amicable resolution of all the issues contained in the 2009 Agreements because the past two weeks had been a very dark period in the education sector.
“I used to think in a climate of frankness, and with mutual goodwill, an end or solution would have been found to incessant strikes in the education sector. This has not been possible or, at least, not as easy and straightforward, as I used to think,” he said.
He went further to note that the “Government and ASUU have no option than to continue talking, until our universities are reopened to students who, clearly, are the principal victims of the seemingly unending strike.
“In this circumstances, therefore, all councils and senates of our universities are enjoined to rise up to their responsibilities.
“We must, together, continue to work to restore our public universities to where they are in the 60s and 70s.
“As the most important officers in our university system, Pro Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors, must demonstrate more commitment to ending the ongoing strike.”
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has again set up a 14-man committee to look into the grey areas of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) demands.
The Spokesperson of the Minister of Education, Mr Ben Goong, disclosed this at a press conference at the end of the meeting in Abuja.
Members of the committee are Prof. Nimmi Briggs, Chairman, ASUU/FG negotiation team, Prof. Olu Obafemi, Chairman, Governing Council, Federal University, Minna, and Udo Udoma, former Minister of Budget and National Planning.
Others include Prof. Bashir Dalhatu, an elder statesman, Prof. Kabiru Bala, Vice Chancellor, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Prof. Kayode Adebowale, Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan and Prof. Lilian Salami, Vice Chancellor, University of Benin.
Also, Prof. Duro Oni, the President, Academics of letters, Prof. Akinsanya Osibogun, President, Academics of Medicine and the President of Academic of Science made the list.
Prof. Charles Igwe, Vice Chancellor, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, JAMB Registrar and Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC) are also included.
According to Goong, “After enormous two-hours deliberations, the meeting constituted a committee made up of four Pro-Chancellors, five Vice Chancellors and others, to be chaired by the minister of education to further look at the grey areas ASUU is demanding, particularly the areas where there has been no consensus.
“Two basic areas that the committee will be looking at is the ‘no work no pay’ issue and the issue of remuneration of university lecturers.”
On the demand of ASUU to use the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), Goong explained that it was not part of the areas under consideration as government had already set up a committee to fine-tune the two payment platforms including the existing IPPIS.
He said that in few days’ time, the committee would conclude and thereafter meet with President Muhammad Buhari.
On if the earlier Nimi Briggs committee would be jettisoned in place of the new committee, Goong said the new committee was in continuation of the Briggs committee.
“The meeting is on government side. There have been appeals for the government to take a second look at the ‘no work, no pay’ measure and that is one of the issues that the committee will look at,” he said.
Speaking, the Chairman, Governing Council, National Open Universities (NOUN), Prof. Peter Okebukola, expressed worry over the prolonged shutdown of the universities.
Okebukola, however, promised that the dark cloud would soon clear as lecturers would in no time resume work, saying that the committee would conclude in no distant time.
Varsity lecturers fighting a good cause — ADC presidential candidate
Meanwhile, reacting to the ongoing strike, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Sani Yabagi, has declared that the union is fighting a good cause.
Yabagi disclosed this yesterday evening during a Channels TV programme, Politics Today.
Stressing how crucial education is to his party, he said, “My party will look at education, and we will give it the utmost attention. Since 2014, the Government has been promising to develop the education sector, but it had failed.”
Yabagi said ASUU has a good cause as the union is fighting for a better administration, payment of salary, and some other favourable policies.
According to him, the federal government is to blame for the ongoing industrial action since it failed to fulfilling its agreements with the union.
He said, “Believe me, ASUU has been very passionate. They are fighting for the payment of their salaries. The issue of the Government saying no work no pay is also some kind of double standard.
“ASUU’s demand to be paid for the months they were not at work is right because whose fault is it they are not at work? It’s because the government went back on its agreement.”
For a financial analyst and former Director General of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Muda Yusuf, the federal government is facing a major financial crisis.
According to Yusuf, what the federal government has paid is more than the revenue that has nd realised.
He also noted that “As institutions can get funding from sales of jamb form, post utme etc, money realised from such sales are significant and should go back to the industry.”
Meanwhile, efforts to reach the ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, for comments on the latest development proved abortive as he did not respond to the calls and message sent by our correspondent.
