On Thursday, the Academic Staff
Union of Universities (ASUU) suspended its three-month nationwide strike.
ASUU National President,
Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, announced this at a press conference in Abuja, the
nation’s capital.
The union suspended the
industrial action, following its latest meeting with representatives of the
Federal Government led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris
Nigige.
Ogunyemi has now released a
statement, explaining what led to their decision:
See full text below:
ACADEMIC STAFF UNION OF
UNIVERSITIES (ASUU), NATIONAL SECRETARIAT. TEXT OF A PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE
ACADEMIC STAFF UNION OF UNIVERSITIES (ASUU), THURSDAY, 7TH FEBRUARY, 2019, AT NIGERIA
LABOUR CONGRESS HEADQUARTERS, PASCAL BAFYAU HOUSE, ABUJA
Protocol
Friends and compatriots of the
Press, On Sunday, 4th November, 2018, the Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASUU) resumed its strike action which was conditionally suspended on 14th
September, 2017.
The action of 2017 was suspended
following the signing of a Memorandum of Action (MoA) in which the Federal
Government of Nigeria (FGN) promised to address the contentious issues within a
timeline that was to end in October 2017.
While announcing the suspension
of the nationwide action, however, our Union made it categorically clear that
“ASUU will not hesitate to review its position should government renege on the
signed Memorandum of Action”.
Predictably, Government
implemented the MoA in the breach, thereby forcing ASUU to resume the suspended
strike action.
Comrades and compatriots, as we
have always argued, the last thing ASUU members love doing is to cause
disruption in smooth intellectual engagements with colleagues, friends and
students right on our university campuses.
This has nothing to do with the
dubious advertorial of “non-disruption of academic calendar” by proprietors and
administrators of some cash-and-carry universities and other self-styled
enemies of ASUU.
Rather, it is about deep-seated
pains members of the Union undergo to prevent strike actions and the equally
painful consequences strike situations bring to all who are genuinely averse to
the mercantile disposition to university education.
Why Strike Action? The question
has been asked time and time again: Why does ASUU like embarking on strike
action that causes disruption and dislocation in the universities?
However, ASUU is strongly
convinced that if academics fail to fight the cause of university education,
the fate that befell public primary and secondary schools would soon become the
lot of the public university system in Nigeria.
ASUU’s advocacy on the need to
stem the continued slide into rot and decay in public universities since the
1980s has fallen on deaf ears. Our experience, as a trade union, shows that
successive governments in Nigeria always entered into negotiated agreements
only to placate those pleading the cause – be it education, health,
transportation, employment or any other issue of meaningful living.
This proclivity of the Nigerian
ruling class, irrespective of which wing of the insensitive stock they belong,
must be continually be tracked, engaged and resisted by all people of goodwill.
ASUU ‘s action strike, which
started on 4th November, 2018, was situated in the context of accumulated
records of indifference and lackadaisical attitude of Government to negotiated
agreements with the Union.
At our media interaction in
University of Lagos on 23rd December, 2018, we highlighted the outstanding issues
in the crisis to include the following:
– Funding for the revitalization
of Public Universities based on the FGN-ASUU MoU of 2012, 2013 and the MoA of
2017
– Reconstitution of the current
Government Team to allow for a leader and Chairman of the FG-ASUU Renegotiating
team who has the interest of the nation and the people at heart.
– Release of the forensic audit
report on Earned Academic allowances (EAA), offsetting the outstanding balance
of the EAA and mainstreaming of same into the 2018 budget.
– Payment of all arrears of
shortfall in all universities that have met the verification requirements of
the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA)
– Provision of a platform by the
federal government for ASUU to engage Governors on the proliferation of
universities, underfunding of university education and undue interference in
the affairs of the universities
– Release of PFA operational
license to NUPEMCO
– Payment of EAA to loyal ASUU
members at the University of Ilorin A new Memorandum of Action and Our
Resolution To date, ASUU has had a total of ten (10) interactive meetings with
representatives of FGN which have culminated into a Memorandum of Action of 2019.
Highlights of the MoA include the
following:
In addition to the N20 billion
for 2018, the sum of N25 billion only would be released in April/May 2019,
after which government would resume full implementation of the MoU of 2013.
Part-payment of the outstanding
arrears of the earned academic allowances; defraying the balance up to 2018 in
4 tranches within 36 months; and mainstreaming further payments of EAA into the
annual budgets beginning from 2019 budget.
PICA verification and the release
of the arrears of salary shortfall at the Federal University of Agriculture,
Makurdi, not later than 15th February 2019.
Strengthening the Consultative
Committee on State-owned Universities (CCSOU), inaugurated on Monday, 28th
January, 2019 to look into the issues of proliferation, underfunding and
governance to consistently deliver on its mandate.
Payment of the outstanding EAA
arrears of all eligible staff in the University of Ilorin, especially the loyal
ASUU members whose appointments were illegally terminated by today, 7th
February, 2019.
Acknowledgement and appreciation
of Government for facilitating the release of the final letter of approval for
the granting of operational license to NUPEMCO.
Visitation to all Federal
Universities would commence tentatively by 11th March, 2019.
Provision of documented
guidelines on procedures and roles of parties in the process of renegotiating
FGN-ASUU Agreement of 2009 which would commence not later than 18th February
2019 and end by Friday 29th March 2019.
Based on the initial proposals
from Government, the Union made extensive consultations through its various
organs. The final level of consultation was the meeting of the National
Executive Council (NEC) which took place 6th-7th February 2019.
NEC resolved that: Following a
careful review of the report of engagements with the Federal Government on
proposals for addressing all outstanding in the 2013 MoU and 2017 MoA, NEC
resolved that the current strike action by the Union should be suspended
conditionally with effect from 12.01 a.m on Friday 8th February 2019.
However, should Government fail
to fulfill its part of the agreement as reflected in the 2019 Memorandum of
Action, ASUU shall resume its suspended strike action as the Union deems
necessary.
Conclusion
ASUU notes, with serious concern,
the covert and overt roles of some vice-chancellors in the management and
application of funds attracted by our Union to Nigeria’s public universities.
Consequently, we condemn, in the
strongest terms, Vice-Chancellors who have made efforts to undermine and, in
some cases, attempted to break our patriotic struggles for the revitalisation
of public universities in Nigeria.
ASUU will not shy away from
taking headlong those Vice-Chancellors who are reputed for acts of impunity,
nepotism and other forms of conduct which are antithetic to university culture
and the progressive development of our universities.
Our union will compile all their
shenanigans and forward them to relevant authorities for further action.
Finally, ASUU acknowledges the
understanding and support demonstrated by patriotic Nigerian students and their
parents all through the strike period.
We equally appreciate the
comradely assistance from the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), represented by the
newly re-elected President, Comrade Ayuba Waba, who has stood by us throughout
the struggle.
We also acknowledge the
solidarity of the civil society organisations, especially the Joint Action
Front (JAF) and the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), and members of the
progressive wing of the media who have consistently partnered with us in our
mission to rescue Nigerian public universities from imminent collapse.
While we put a closure to this
phase of the struggle, it is our hope and desire that the Nigerian governments
(Federal and State) will play the roles expected of them in order to make the
new Memorandum work.
We shall never abandon our
obligation to ensure the survival of a sound university system.
For ASUU, the struggle certainly
continues!
Thank you for listening.
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