Govt lied, no agreement on strike suspension date - ASUU

The National President, Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, said on Tuesday the union did not reach an agreement with the Federal Government that it would suspend the strike on December 9, 2020.

Recall that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, in a statement said ASUU promised to resume on December 9, 2020.

Ngige also said promises made to ASUU could only be achieved if the union returned to the classroom.

But Ogunyemi, in a press statement signed by him, said, “ASUU leadership did not reach any understanding with the government to suspend the strike on December 9, 2020, and there is nothing in the government offer of November 27, 2020, to suggest that conclusion as allegedly claimed by the Minister of Labour and Employment.

“At our last meeting in the office of the Minister of Labour and Employment on November 27, 2020, the ASUU leadership promised to faithfully present the latest government offer to its members through the established tradition.

“The latest offer by the government makes proposals on nearly all items of demand by the union with timelines. Among others, the document which was signed by the Hon. Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, contains proposals on the inauguration of the reconstituted FGN-ASUU Renegotiation Committee (1st December 2020); release of details about Visitation Panels (1st December, 2020); working on the actualisation of the release of the withheld salaries of ASUU members (Wednesday, December 9, 2020).

“Clause 9 on the document reads, ‘Based on these conclusions reached on items 1-8, ASUU’s leadership will consult its organs with a view to suspending the ongoing strike.'”

He explained that the principal officers and trustees who constituted the core of representatives of ASUU at negotiation meetings with the government were not constitutionally empowered to suspend any strike action.

“Whatever comes out of an engagement with agents of the government is an offer which must be taken back to the branches through the various organs of the union. Views and perspectives on offers by governments are aggregated and presented to government agents as counter-offers.

“This trade union strategy of offer and counter-offer is continually deployed until the National Executive Council (NEC) of ASUU – consisting of all recognised chairpersons – finally approves what it considers an acceptable offer from the government. It is only then that any strike action by ASUU can be suspended.”

Ogunyemi also said the strike was needless if the government had implemented agreements it signed with ASUU.

“It was a needless crisis in the first place. It happened because the government has consistently failed to faithfully implement the agreements it freely signed with the union.

“ASUU members, as stakeholders in the Nigerian university system, are equally worried and embarrassed that those in the position of authority, over the years, displayed seeming indifference to the rot and decay in Nigeria’s public universities.

“We think it is not too late to do a rethink; we believe if there is the will, there will be away,” the ASUU president added.