Unfulfilled promises: ASUU gears up for another showdown with FG
There are fears that the nation’s university workers under the umbrella of Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, are gearing up for another confrontation with the federal government over issues bordering on members’ welfare, working conditions, among others.
This is even as the university workers have expressed disappointment over President Bola Tinubu’s failure to fulfil promises to release their withheld eight months’ salaries resulting from the 2022 industrial action, the six-month N35,000 wage ward and upward salary review.
The union is now saying it is tired of the federal government’s unfaithfulness to promises made to the union, lamenting that it has yet to implement all its agreements with the organised labour, particularly ASUU, since the administration came in.
YOUTH NIGERIA MEDIA reports that the current administration has taken no significant visible action to address the grievances by ASUU despite Tinubu’s assurance and promise that his administration would take all necessary actions to ensure universities do not embark on strike again.
Tinubu, who spoke at the 33rd convocation ceremony of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, had expressed hope that the cooperation of the unions with the federal government would ensure the needed educational development in the country.
He promised that his administration would tackle all challenges confronting the education sector and reposition it, adding that the federal government was willing to establish synergy with all the academic unions within universities in the country and exhaust all avenues for dialogue before any strike.
“I would like to enjoin all the unions in our universities to cooperate with the government in order to deliver the needed development by ensuring an atmosphere of peace and tranquility on our campuses.
“On our part, we will ensure that motivational activities are put in place to ensure improved productivity. Reciprocative actions would be expected from our universities as the government works hard to raise the bar of a conducive teaching and learning environment.
“To whom much is given, much is expected. Dialogue, patience, and positive engagements are better means of achieving results than strike actions. Industrial disharmony does nothing but disrupt life, waste time and elongate the academic calendar.
“Therefore, all avenues for dialogue must be explored and exhausted before strike actions are considered, and as a last resort,” Tinubu said.
YOUTH NIGERIA MEDIA reports that it is now almost four months after Tinubu approved the partial waiver of the ‘No Work, No Pay’ order instituted against striking ASUU members in 2022 under former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Recall that ASUU members had embarked on an eight-month industrial action, which began on February 14, 2022, and lasted until October 17, 2022, but the federal government insisted on implementing the ‘No Work, No Pay’ policy for the period the university workers were away from their duty posts.
However, nearly sixteen months after the academic staff members returned to work, they have continued to lament the unyielding response of the government to their withheld salaries.
YOUTH NIGERIA MEDIA reported that Tinubu, in November last year, directed the grant of an exceptional last waiver of the ‘No Work, No Pay’ order on ASUU, which would pave the way for members of ASUU to receive four months of salary accruals out of the eight months withheld during the strike.
According to the President, the move, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, was in line with his administration’s determination to mitigate the difficulties in the face of the implementation of key economic reforms in the country.
Tinubu also added that he recognised the faithful implementation of terms agreed upon during the fruitful deliberations between ASUU and the federal government.
Not happy about the development, ASUU has embarked on a nationwide consultation with members over the non-implementation of agreements by the Federal Government.
ASUU said it regrettable that despite the gentlemen’s agreement between the union and the federal government, no dime had been paid to its members, creating unnecessary hardship for their families.
Apart from the withheld eight months’ salaries, the university workers said they were yet to be removed from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, IPPIS, as directed by the President.
YOUTH NIGERIA MEDIA recalls that the Federal Executive Council, FEC, recently approved the removal of university staff from the IPPIS.
The minister of education, Mamman Tahir, who disclosed the development while briefing State House correspondents after the weekly FEC meeting presided over by Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said the President also directed the Vice Chancellors to be removed from taking permissions from the office of the Head of Service of the Federation, HOSF, before they could engage staff for their institutions.
According to the President, “they (Vice Chancellors) do not have to go to the Head of Service for approvals to engage the service of new workers anymore. They will now be paying their own staff directly.”
Before now, ASUU had called on the government to abolish IPPIS and embrace its own creation, the University Transparency Account System, UTAS.
The union argued that UTAS would better take care of the weaknesses inherent in IPPIS, telling the government to consider the peculiarities of universities.
Similarly, in October 2023, the administration ordered the immediate implementation of a new wage award of N35,000 to each federal civil servant as a palliative to cushion the harsh effects of the removal of fuel subsidy.
Speaking recently in an interactive session with journalists during the week at the Gidan Kwano Main Campus of the Federal University of Technology (FUT) Minna, the Niger State capital, the National President of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, declared that the government has not implemented all the agreements it reached with the organized labour, particularly between ASUU, since the administration of President Bola Tinubu began.
Osodeke stated that members of the National Executive Council, NEC, were currently in a nationwide consultation with the branches of the union to decide on the next line of action after the NEC meeting later this month.
“Well, none has been implemented. On the issue of wage awards and the issue of seven-and-a-half salary arrears, I can tell you that nothing has been implemented. In fact, as I am talking to you now, none of our members has been paid,” Osodeke declared.
The ASUU leader stated that the association would present all the suggestions gathered during its nationwide consultations at the NEC meeting before taking the necessary action to press home their demands.
“That is why we have come to see our members, and we are seeking their views about the next line of action which we are taking to our NEC meeting in February (this month). And at the NEC meeting, we are going to make a decision”, Osodeke said.
Speaking to newsmen about the matter, the ASUU UNN branch chairman, Comrade Nobert Oyibo Eze lamented that things have become extremely difficult for the union members as their salary was no longer capable of meeting their needs.
Eze said it was sad that the government would always rush to the press and say all kinds of things but would not fulfil what it announced.
He stated that President Tinubu, who promised to resolve most of the union’s demands if elected, has not lived up to his words despite his repeated assurances.
He said, ‘‘It is extremely difficult for everyone in the university now; very very difficult because not only that the salary is not commensurate anymore, remember that this salary started in 2009, about 16 years now. It has not improved.
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