The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has again threatened to embark on indefinite strike over what it called the failure of the Federal Government to honour the 2009 agreement with members. However, parents and students have demanded urgent resolution of the outstanding issues as the deadline given by the union expired yesterday. Assistant Editor Bola Olajuwon writes
Despite President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s resolve to continue to promote education and tackle issues affecting the sector, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to embark on an indefinite strike over failure of the Federal Government to honour the 2009 agreement reached with it.
Tinubu, who was represented by the former Minister of State for Education, Yusuf Sununu, on Tuesday in Ilorin, spoke at the 39th Convocation of the University of Ilorin (Unilorin), again reiterating his administration’s resolve to improve the educational system and foster youth engagement in nation-building.
He emphasised the importance of education in shaping Nigeria’s future and the role of young graduates in addressing the nation’s challenges. Tinubu highlighted the government’s initiatives to support students and educational institutions, such as the disbursement of student loans, and encouraged the students to take advantage of the scheme.
He reiterated the government’s commitment to maintaining an uninterrupted academic calendar, and called for peaceful engagements between university staff and the government. The president explained that the government had taken steps to resolve staff shortages in universities, with recent waivers allowing institutions to recruit more personnel.
ASUU on outstanding issues
But, ASUU on Sunday, threatened to embark on indefinite strike over failure of the Federal Government to honour the 2009 agreement reached with it. Osodeke, who gave yesterday as the union’s deadline, said that ASUU’s planned strike notice over the payment platform and other issues was still standing, but the union had only given the government space to conclude on the new renegotiation committee that was set up.
He explained why the union rejected two payment platforms of the government and insisted on University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) that ASUU created as alternative.
ASUU had rejected the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), a platform the Federal Government uses to pay no fewer than 789,000 of its workers in various sectors of the economy. ASUU members are also currently on the platform.
The union had also rejected Government Integrated Financial Management and Information System (GIFMIS), the platform the government recently approved that ASUU payment should transit to, with effect from November.
Other lingering issues, according to him, were poor funding for the revitalisation of public universities, none payment of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) as captured in the 2023 budget, proliferation of universities, non-implementation of the reports of visitation panels to universities, among others.
Govt’s panel to renegotiate deal
To tackle the lingering crisis, the Federal Government re-established a seven-member renegotiation committee to address the 2009 agreements with university-based unions.
Former Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, at the committee’s inauguration in Abuja, gave them a three-month deadline to conclude negotiations.
The committee brings together representatives from ASUU and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).
Mamman stated that President Tinubu’s government aimed to improve the education system and maintain peace on campuses. He noted that renegotiations began in 2017 but were delayed due to unforeseen circumstances.
He said that the previous committee, led by Prof. Nimi Briggs, produced a draft report covering significant areas.
The minister urged the reconstituted committee to work diligently and produce realistic agreements addressing the challenges facing the Nigerian University System (NUS).
Committee Chairman, Dr. Yayale Ahmed, appealed to the government to support universities in achieving global competitiveness and to consider lecturers’ salaries as investments.
Osodeke thanked the government and expressed hope that the new committee would succeed where previous ones failed. He emphasised the unions’ readiness to renegotiate, provided the government worked towards a stable academic calendar.
Tinubu will end ASUU strikes, Akume
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, said incessant strikes by university lecturers, under the aegis of the ASUU, will be a thing of the past under the Tinubu administration.
He called on the ASUU leadership to always embrace dialogue instead of resorting to strikes.
Akume’s comment came after the Federal Government set up a 31-member panel to renegotiate the agreement with the union in an effort to avert a fresh strike, following a threat by ASUU.
The SGF assured Nigerians that strikes would stop under the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
A statement by the Director of Information and Public Relations, OSGF, Segun Imohiosen, said Akume disclosed this when the leadership of the Conference of Alumni Association of Nigerian Universities led by its President, Prof. Yakubu Ochefu, paid him a visit in Abuja.
The statement read, “Having urged the association to complement the government’s efforts in the development of the nation’s tertiary institution, the SGF also assured that industrial action will soon be a thing of the past under the present administration and urged the leadership of tertiary institutions to always toe the path of dialogue rather than resorting to strike.”
ASUU: why we reject IPPIS, GIFMIS
Osodeke, on Sunday, said that ASUU’s planned strike notice over the payment platform and other issues was still standing but awaiting the seriousness of the new renegotiation committee.
He explained why ASUU rejected two payment platforms of the Federal Government and insisted on UTAS that it created as alternative. The ASUU President said the union’s stance was in line with the autonomy of the nation’s tertiary institutions. According to him, UTAS conforms to the statutory provision that the university’s finances should be managed by its governing council.
“ASUU’s position is that the finances of the university should be managed by the Governing Council. That’s what the law says. It does not say by the Accountant General’s office.
”Every year, the governing council directs the vice chancellor to defend its budget at the National Assembly. When the budget is approved including salary, remuneration, overhead, it will go to the President for assent and it becomes a law.
“That money should be released to the Governing Council to pay its staff members. That is the autonomy of the university we are talking about, as stipulated in the law,” he said.
Osodeke stressed that the universities should be given autonomy, to be able to plan for its staff members’ recruitment and how to pay their salaries.
He recalled that the union rejected IPPIS because its implementation does not only erodes university’s autonomy, but meddles with its internal affairs and violates Section 24A of the Universities Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment) Act 2003.
Osodeke also faulted the recent guidelines by the Federal Government detailing the process for the formal exit of Federal Tertiary Institutions (FTIs) from IPPIS.
In a circular issued on October 8, the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Dr. Oluwatoyin Madein, said the payroll for FTIs in the month of October 2024 will still be processed on the IPPIS platform.
She added that, starting from November, the payrolls will be processed by the institutions themselves and then be checked by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation’s (OAGF)’s IPPIS department.
According to her, the payment will be made through the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) platform.
Osodeke, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the directives, stating that the AGF was playing games with the union. He said the insinuation in certain quarters that ASUU was insisting on UTAS, its own developed solution, to shield lecturers teaching in more than one institution, was misconceived. According to him, the establishment Act of university permits lecturers to teach in two institutions, but with laid down guidelines.
According to him, it is not a new development, but the only caveat is that the maximum number of university a lecturer can practise such is two. Teaching beyond two institutions is tantamount to breaking the law.
”It is a global standard and that is why we have visiting professors from London, Ghana, among others coming here to impact their knowledge,” he said.
He said that ASUU’s planned strike notice over the payment platform and other issues was still standing.
Parents seek more funding for education, urgent deals
NAPTAN Deputy National President Adeolu Ogunbanjo yesterday told The Nation that ASUU has been for long demanded resolution of the outstanding issues.
“Well, it’s a current decimal that the ASUU members are saying that such issues should be addressed. Government should also try to address it, because it’s been recurring. That is something the government have not yet addressed. So, we plead to the government this time. Yes, they have set up a panel, and hopefully this time, the panel will be able to resolve it.
“However, ASUU should try and work with the panel. For me, I would want the government, for the very last time, to sort these things out. ASUU should suspend whatever thing they want to do. I mean, children will now come back home staring at us. It’s something terrible and the private universities are benefitting from the deficit of the ASUU strike. So, we won’t say ASUU is deliberately going on strike so that private universities can thrive. Government is also not making things easy. Let government sort it out for the very last time. ASUU should suspend their strike and give the government a last opportunity to sort the situation out,” Ogunbanjo said.
Also in a report, the NAPTAN National President, Alhaji Haruna Danjuma, urged the federal and state governments to allocate at least 26 percent of their annual appropriations to the education sector.
According to him, doing so would be in tandem with the recommendation by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) that developing nations should allocate such percentage to the sector to be able to do some catch up with developed countries in the sector.
However, he was delighted that the Federal Government set up the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to help support state funding of the sector.
Students seek urgent resolution of outstanding deals
The university students said they could not afford another shut down of universities with it grave consequences on their academic pursuit and their lives.
They expressed deep concern over the potential disruption to the academic calendar and the negative impact on their future, urging the Federal Government to as a matter of national urgency dialogue with the lecturers and resolve all the contentious issues.
A student, who craved anonymity, said: “We are all aware of the recurring disruptions caused by strikes in our universities. These strikes, often as a result of unresolved issues between university lecturers and the government, bear far-reaching consequences on our educational journey.
“We can only appeal to the government to take immediate and effective steps to prevent the lecturers from resorting to another strike. We are counting on the government to act decisively and with a sense of urgency to prevent the devastating impact of another strike.”
A student of University of Lagos (UNILAG), David Adedayo, noted that he ought to have completed his four-year course in the institution, but ASUU’s prolonged strikes have prolonged his stay on campus.
He pleaded with government and the lecturers to urgently resolve the outstanding issues, adding that he could not wait to resume from the institution’s long vacation.
