ASUU Strike: No end in sight

ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi and other executives

Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan
Hope that the strike action embarked upon by Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, is about to come to an end appears dashed as congresses of universities met across the country to deliberate on the recent agreements reached between the leadership of the union and the Federal Government.
Feelers from the congresses that have met indicate that the unions were not ready to call of the strike because the government is yet to show the necessary commitment to their plights. For instance, in congresses held yesterday at the University of Ibadan, UI, and Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, EKSU, members of the union decided to continue with the strike action on the ground that the Federal Government’s offers are not acceptable to them.
According to reliable sources, the staff are not comfortable with the fact that only about one of the seven demands, which is the issue of staff schools of the universities was convincingly addressed by the government. Government only made promises as regards the other demands which do not show any difference from what was on ground before the strike.
As at the time of filing this report, UI was devoid of activities as all unions on campus both academic and non academic have embarked on indefinite strike.
A lecturer from EKSU said, “We have agreed that the strike must continue until the Federal Government is ready to grant our demands in practical way not in promissory act”.
In one of the interaction with the media after the last meeting the union had with the government, ASUU President, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi said that he could not determine when the union would call off its strike adding that calling off the strike would be determined by the entire members of the union.
However, the effects of the strike has began to manifest as some students who have secured employments have decided to abandon their academic programmes.
A Master’s Degree student of UI who did not want his name mentioned said, “I have been looking for a job for a while now. Because I don’t want to be sitting at home, I obtained a postgraduate form and I was admitted. We were about to start our exam when the strike action began. Now I have a job. I can’t trade the job with the Master’s prpogramme. If I decide to leave the job and go back to school when the strike action is over, what gives me the impression that I will get a job as soon as I am through with the Master’s programme? I will do the Master’s programme when it is more convenient”.
Another student said, “I am considering private university, maybe BABCOCK or Lead City University. Government universities in Nigeria are becoming a problem and time waster. Unfortunately, we don’t have responsible government who will be ready to do what the unions are asking for. First, people in government will chose to embezzle people’s money or mismanage it rather than using it for public good. Since Nigeria has been in recession, have you heard political office holders reducing their salaries and allowances? Go to the National Assembly, and see the exotic cars they are buying. Their salaries are been paid as at when due. Under the nose of President Muhammadu Buhari, those in the executive are also stealing. How many thieves will Buhari catch? Except the system is working, nothing good can come from Nigeria”.
To some female students, the strike action is a blessing to them as some pregnant female students delivered babies. One of them said, “I thank God because I don’t know how I would have coped. I gave birth within two weeks the strike action commenced. That means that I would have given birth to my child while my first semester examination is on-going. This means that I might have not been able to write all my papers. So you can see now that it is a blessing for me. If the strike action is called off now, at least I can sit for my exam and graduate when my mates are graduating”.

Source: P.M. NEWS Nigeria

ASUU strike: Varsities to get N220bn within one month

University lecturers are close to calling off their one month old strike after reaching a fresh agreement with the Federal Government on their demands.

 Top of the agreement  reached at a 15-hour meeting that ended early yesterday in Abuja,is the immediate release,by government, of N220 billion to the universities to fund the revitalization of federal universities in the country.

The sum is expected to be paid not later than next month.

The money is to enable the institutions buy working tools needed for effective discharge of their responsibilities.

 Representatives of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)  are scheduled to present details of the agreement to the National Executive Council of the union within the next one week for ratification, and possible calling off of the strike.

 Besides, government at the   conciliatory meeting, coordinated by Labour and Employment Minister,Chris Ngige, agreed to commence the immediate payment of the salary shortfall to the lecturers.

Ngige told reporters at the end of the meeting that government had also commenced the payment of the earned allowances of members of the union.

He said the meeting also discussed how to set up the National Universities Pension Management Company as well as the issue of university staff schools and the Treasury Single Account.

 His words: “We also discussed the issue of university staff schools and treasury single account with a view to finding how the system could accommodate funds for research grants that need to be independent from the government. We also discussed the issue of how the Federal Government could be involved in the running of state universities.”

He said the meeting agreed to set up a seven-man committee on the  implementation of the proposals.

The union and the federal ministry of education will each be represented  by three persons on the committee, while government will be represented by one person who will serve as chairman .

Continuing, Ngige said:  ”There’s the  fund for revitalization of public universities and the issue of Earned Academic Allowances; the issue of University Staff Schools on which there is a court judgment; the issue of National Universities Pension Management Company; and the issue of salary shortfalls for lecturers and staff of universities. There is the issue of TSA exemption and the problems in the state universities. All are the issues that ASUU felt that government should address.

“Most of these issues stemmed from the 2009 agreement that government had with ASUU and also from the 2013 Memorandum of Understanding that the government had with ASUU. Government is a continuum. Most of those issues were not issues that cropped up from the Buhari administration, we inherited them.

“But be that as it may, we are to ready to address those issues.

“But ASUU has to take back this our proposal to their organs, so we decided that there’s an agreement for government to make some funds available in September and October to show that they are not repudiating their agreement and to also show sign of good faith.

“On the issue of Earned Academic Allowances, we have listened and payment has started in that direction and the same with staff schools. Government is though not appealing, we have agreed that the decision should be conveyed to the various universities.

“The Issue of NUPENCO was addressed and ways have been fashioned out for the registration of that company. Salary shortfalls for lecturers and university staff were also addressed and government has shown their commitment and evidence that payments have started in order to liquidate the outstanding allowances.

“The issue of TSA exemption was also discussed and an agreement or proposal was muted by which the Central Bank would open a special account.

  ”State universities which have been the concern for ASUU and everybody who has been looking for quality education in the country was also discussed and the Minister of Education was mandated to take the memo to the council of state and the Federal Executive Council.

“Based on these discussions, ASUU leadership will consult with its organs and revert back to government within one week. They will consult with their organs with a view to calling off the strike. And we expect them that within one week, they will get back to government. These are the highlights of the meeting and I can tell you that the meeting took place in very cordial atmosphere.”

Also speaking, ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, said the proposals made by government were concrete, but said  the ASUU team would   take the offers back to their colleagues  for consideration within the next one week, and  the position of the members would  be communicated to government.

He said: “We have had useful deliberations and we had some concrete proposals that we will take back to our members as part of our consultations.

“And like the Honourable Minister of Labour has said, we plan to come back here to take decisions as advised by our members.”

Also at the marathon meeting were the President of the Nigeria Labour Comgress, Comrade Ayuba Wabba and the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters, Ita Enang.

ASUU embarked on the  strike on August 13, following government’s failure to implement the agreement reached with the union in November 2016.

Source: The Nation Nigeria

ASUU Strike: Federal Govt appoints Osinbajo as "Chief Negotiator"

Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Acting President. Chief Negotiator, ASUU Strike

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has assigned Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to henceforth chair the concluding part of the ongoing negotiation between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

ASUU, an umbrella association of lecturers in the nation’s universities, is demanding the full implementation of the 2009 agreements reached with the federal government bordering on improvement in welfare and payment of backlog of salaries and entitlements, among other issues.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, confirmed this development while fielding questions from State House correspondents after the meeting of the FEC in Abuja on Wednesday.

Ngige stated that this was part of the council’s resolutions at the meeting which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, his first meeting with all the members of the cabinet, since his return from medical vacation on August 19.

“This is the first national strike that this government is facing and we want to discuss.

“At council today, the Vice President has taken over some of the aspects of the negotiations and discussions.

“So, we are continuing the meeting in his office and when we finish meeting, we will get back to ASUU for another round of meeting and we are hopeful that we will be able to go to an appreciable extent to solve some of the outstanding issues that is preventing them from going back to work,’’ he said.

On the national minimum wage committee, the minister stated that the federal government team was ready for the commencement of negotiation with the labour unions and other stakeholders.

He said already four ministers, Head of Service of the Federation and the acting Secretary to the Government of the Federation had been appointed to be part of the government team.

“The chairman will be unveiled when we have full component of the committee. The aspect that is delaying from inaugurating the committee is the organised private sector.

“The organised private sector has eight representatives of which Nigeria Employers Committee Assembly has four nominations and they have not sent their nominations.

“Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has two nominations, their nominations just came in yesterday. Nigeria Association of Small Medium Enterprise has one, they have not sent in their nomination.

“NACCIMA has not sent in their nominations. So we are waiting for these nominations, when they come in the government will nominate the chairman and inaugurate the committee,’’ he explained.

P.M. NEWS Nigeria

Strike: ASUU's demands unrealistic- Ezekwesili

A former Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, on Sunday said that the demands by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) were unrealistic in light of the current economic situation in Nigeria.
Ezekwesili said this while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan while reacting to the ongoing strike embarked upon by the union.
The former minster said that lasting solution to the crisis bedevilling the education sector could only be found from strong analysis of the issues raised by ASUU and evidenced based policies.
“Money is not limitless and yet everyone must acknowledge that investment in education is crucial and it is key.
“There are, however, some fundamental reforms that the sector needs in order to ensure that it is not about the size of the funding but about the productivity of the funding.
“You cannot simply express a desire, it must be founded on reality and that means you must know what can be achieved within a given period,” she said.
According to her, a structural and policy change which allows public and private investments should be integrated into the university system.
“If you remember, the ASUU negotiation started in 2007 when I was the Minister of Education and we constituted a government negotiation team, led by the late Gamaliel Onosode,
“Even though that period was short, one of the major issues for me was for us to make sure that we were being evidenced based in the way we were solving the problem,
“We considered issues like the existing model in countries similar to us in emerging economies,’’ she said.
The former minister said the team also considered what could be done by the public and private sectors about university funding among others.
“Those are the kinds of evidence that we had and on the basis of which we hinged our negotiation at that time,
“It was a very short period and then we had to leave and the next government that took over had to continue.
“I do not know the basis of the final agreement they reached with ASSUU, but if it was not anchored on analytical evidence, I am not surprised that there has been inability to implement it.”
Ezekwesili urged both the Federal Government and ASUU to return to the negotiating table and work on the basis of analysis and evidence to find lasting solution to the dispute.
NAN reports that ASUU on Aug. 14, embarked on an indefinite strike to press home its demands for the implementation of an agreement signed between it and the Federal Government on condition of service.
ASUU is also asking for increased funding of university, autonomy of the institution and academic freedom. (NAN)
Source: The Nation Nigeria

Universities to resume on monday August 21st

The Academic Staff Union Of Universities ASUU, after hours of meeting with The Federal Government and all involved educational bodies has finally come to the conclusion that the on going strike will be called off on Monday 21st 2017.

naijaloaded.com.ng

Universities to resume on monday August 21st

The Academic Staff Union Of Universities ASUU, after hours of meeting with The Federal Government and all involved educational bodies has finally come to the conclusion that the on going strike will be called off on Monday 21st 2017.

naijaloaded.com.ng

In the interest of students, suspend your strike- FG tells ASUU

The Federal Government pleaded with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Tuesday to suspend their ongoing strike in the interest of the nation, and the students.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen Chris Ngige said ASUU should call off the strike because the government was already negotiating the issues in dispute with the Association through Babalakin Committee.

In a statement signed by the Deputy Director, Press in the Ministry, Samuel Olowookere, the Minister said there was an on-going renegotiation of the 2009 agreement between the Federal Government and ASUU by the Committee.

According to the statement,

“The Federal Government has set up the Babalakin Committee on 13th Feb. 2017, which is already addressing the issues raised by ASUU.

“Though the Federal Government did not wish to apportion blame, it is important to note that ASUU did not follow due process in the declaration of the industrial action.

“As it did not give the Federal Government, the mandatory 15 days’ notice as contained in the Section 41 of Trade Disputes Act, Cap T8, 2004.

“In fact, it was on 14th Aug., 2017 that the Office of the Minister received a letter dated 13th Aug. 2017 from ASUU, that is, one full day after it commenced the strike,” he said.

“The Federal Government therefore wishes to appeal to ASUU to consider students who are currently writing degree and promotion examinations. Please call off the strike and return to the negotiation table.’’

ASUU ban: Kogi Varsity management orders lecturers to resume work Monday or face consequences

In view of the order given by the Kogi State governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, banning the operations of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Kogi State University chapter, the management of the state owned institution has ordered lecturers to resume work tomorrow Monday 24 July, 2017 or be ready to face the consequences. The management […]