THE Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) threatened to embark on a nationwide strike over the federal government’s failure to meet its demands.
The nnion president Emmanuel Osodeke, at a press conference held at the ASUU national secretariat in Abuja, on Tuesday, May 14, charged the government to act within two weeks to address all outstanding demands, including constituting a governing council for the universities.
The ICIR reports that in June, the National Universities Commission (NUC) dissolved the governing councils of all federal universities after a directive from President Bola Tinubu.
However, months later, ASUU argued that the dissolution is ‘illegal,’ noting that it has paved the way for various illegalities in the Nigerian university system.
While criticising the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government’s approach towards academic matters in Nigerian Federal Universities, it also objected to the recent salary increments of 35 per cent for professors and 25 per cent for other academics.
ASUU emphasised that salary awards could not replace a negotiated agreement, highlighting that the federal government/ASUU 2009 agreement encompassed comprehensive measures for a competitive university system.
Citing the ILO’s Convention No. 98 on collective bargaining, Osodeke noted the renegotiation efforts since 2017, which led to a draft agreement in 2021 under Nimi Briggs, and not approved by the former President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
According to Osodeke, available reports to its national executive council indicated that an increasing number of Nigerian academics died while thousands of others are nursing life-threatening ailments occasioned by work-related stress, pauperisation, and multidimensional insecurity.
The union said the press conference was prompted to inform Nigerians about the ongoing crisis in universities, “which began when former Minister of Labour Chris Ngige and his collaborators halted a negotiated agreement in 2021 after over five years of government engagement with ASUU.”
He further decried the erosion of public universities’ autonomy due to the “illegal dissolution of governing councils by the Tinubu and various state governments.”
The union chairman noted the development had led to unauthorised actions by university administrations, such as appointing vice-chancellors and managing finances without proper oversight.
Osodeke listed ASUU’s demands to include maintaining the sanctity of legally constituted governing councils for universities, renegotiating the 2009 federal government and ASUU agreement, providing revitalisation funds for public universities, paying all earned academic allowances and withheld salaries, and addressing promotion arrears.
Other issues are the proliferation of public universities, the non-payment of arrears of earned academic allowances and non-release of owed salaries, “creeping fascism” in some Nigerian universities and core curriculum minimum academic standard.
The ASUU chairman warned that failure to address the demands could lead to an industrial crisis.
He added that the union would reconvene after two weeks to review the situation and take decisive action.
Meanwhile, if the strike proceeds, it will be the first industrial action under the Tinubu administration since it assumed power on May 29, 2023.
The union went on strike five times in five years under Buhari.
The group was on strike in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2022. However, a hitch-free academic year was recorded in 2023.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: [email protected]. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M