Strike: Government yet to meet our demands – ASUU

After eight months’ strike, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) said the government is yet to ‘satisfactorily’ meet its demands.

Following a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the union on Thursday night, ASUU announced the suspension of the strike that began on 14 February in a statement by its president, Emmanuel Osodeke, a professor of soil science, on Friday.

In the statement, ASUU said the suspension of the strike was in obedience of the ruling of the court of Appeal and respect for President Muhammadu Buhari’s appeal that the strike be suspended.

“As a law-abiding Union and in deference to appeals by the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, and in recognition of the efforts of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, and other well meaning Nigerians, ASUU NEC resolved to suspend the strike action embarked upon on 14th February 2022,” the professor said.

“Consequently, all members of ASUU are hereby directed to resume all services hitherto withdrawn with effect from 12:01 on Friday, 14th October, 2022.”

Demands not metThe academic union, however, noted that the government is yet to “satisfactorily” resolve the issues that led to the dispute.

The issues, according to ASUU, include the release of revitalisation funds of public universities, earned academic allowances for its members, a halt to the proliferation of public universities, the release of White Papers from the reports of the presidential visitation panels to the universities and the adoption of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as a payment platform for university staff.

READ ALSO: Buhari joins religious leaders begging ASUU to discard strikeThe union said: “While appreciating the commendable efforts of the leadership of the House of Representatives and other patriotic Nigerians who waded into the matter, NEC noted with regret that the issues in dispute are yet to be satisfactorily addressed.”

In September, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, referred the dispute with ASUU to the National Industrial Court.

At the court, the government sought for an injunction to order ASUU to suspend the strike while the court heard the substantive matter.

ASUU then said: “The National Industrial Court in its wisdom gave an order compelling ASUU to resume work pending the determination of the substantive suit.

“Given the nature of the order, and in the opinion of our counsel, there was the need to appeal the interlocutory injunction granted against our Union at the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal acknowledged the validity of the grounds of the Union’s appeal but still upheld the order of the lower court and ordered our Union to comply with the ruling of the lower court as a condition precedent for the appeal to be heard.”

ProgressASUU added that the series of meetings with the leadership of the House of Representatives led by the speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, as well as intervention efforts of other Nigerians both within and outside government ,yielded some progress.

The leadership of the House of Representatives facilitated meetings between ASUU and affected Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government.

At the meetings, the government agreed to modify the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) with the feature of UTAS to accommodate the peculiarities of the university and its staff.

The government also included, in the proposed 2023 budget, N170 billion for the revitalisation of tertiary institutions and N300 billion for salaries. It is, however, unclear if those budgetary provisions meet the demands of the lecturers.

On the ‘No Work, No Pay’ stance earlier announced by the government, Mr Gbajabiamila has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to make concessions, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.

A source within ASUU NEC had earlier told PREMIUM TIMES that the union was waiting for Mr Buhari’s decision on the payment of the lecturers’ salaries for the period they were on strike. Mr Buhari is yet to make a pronouncement.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.