08/02/2019
Why We Called Off Strike - ASUU
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has,
Thursday, suspended the over three months-old strike it
embarked upon since Sunday, 4th November, 2018.
ASUU Strike: INEC alleges 2019 Elections under threat
The union suspended the strike after a memorandum of
Action, MoA, it reached with the Federal government
towards the revitalisation of public universities.
The ASUU National President, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi
who announced the suspension, however, said that the
union had embarked on the strike to “stem the continued
slide into rot and decay in public universities since the
1980s.”
He however decried the unpatriotic attitudes of some
university chancellors whom he said tried to undermine
the union’s struggle towards ensuring that universities in
the country are revitalised.
The statement reads thus:
“ACADEMIC STAFF UNION OF UNIVERSITIES (ASUU),
NATIONAL SECRETARIAT. TEXT OF A PRESS CONFERENCE
BY THE ACADEMIC STAFF UNION OF UNIVERSITIES
(ASUU), THURSDAY, 7TH FEBRUARY, 2019, AT NIGERIA
LABOUR CONGRESS HEADQUARTERS, PASCAL BAFYAU
HOUSE, ABUJA
Protocol
Friends and compatriots of the Press, On Sunday, 4th
November, 2018, the Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASUU) resumed its strike action which was conditionally
suspended on 14th September, 2017.
The action of 2017 was suspended following the signing
of a Memorandum of Action (MoA) in which the Federal
Government of Nigeria (FGN) promised to address the
contentious issues within a timeline that was to end in
October 2017.
While announcing the suspension of the nationwide
action, however, our Union made it categorically clear that
“ASUU will not hesitate to review its position should
government renege on the signed Memorandum of
Action”.
Predictably, Government implemented the MoA in the
breach, thereby forcing ASUU to resume the suspended
strike action.
Comrades and compatriots, as we have always argued, the
last thing ASUU members love doing is to cause
disruption in smooth intellectual engagements with
colleagues, friends and students right on our university
campuses.
This has nothing to do with the dubious advertorial of
“non-disruption of academic calendar” by proprietors and
administrators of some cash-and-carry universities and
other self-styled enemies of ASUU.
Rather, it is about deep-seated pains members of the
Union undergo to prevent strike actions and the equally
painful consequences strike situations bring to all who are
genuinely averse to the mercantile disposition to university
education.
Why Strike Action? The question has been asked time and
time again: Why does ASUU like embarking on strike
action that causes disruption and dislocation in the
universities?
However, ASUU is strongly convinced that if academics
fail to fight the cause of university education, the fate that
befell public primary and secondary schools would soon
become the lot of the public university system in Nigeria.
ASUU’s advocacy on the need to stem the continued slide
into rot and decay in public universities since the 1980s
has fallen on deaf ears. Our experience, as a trade union,
shows that successive governments in Nigeria always
entered into negotiated agreements only to placate those
pleading the cause – be it education, health,
transportation, employment or any other issue of
meaningful living.
This proclivity of the Nigerian ruling class, irrespective of
which wing of the insensitive stock they belong, must be
continually be tracked, engaged and resisted by all people
of goodwill.
ASUU ‘s action strike, which started on 4th November,
2018, was situated in the context of accumulated records
of indifference and lackadaisical attitude of Government to
negotiated agreements with the Union.
At our media interaction in University of Lagos on 23rd
December, 2018, we highlighted the outstanding issues in
the crisis to include the following:
– Funding for the revitalization of Public Universities
based on the FGN-ASUU MoU of 2012, 2013 and the MoA
of 2017
– Reconstitution of the current Government Team to allow
for a leader and Chairman of the FG-ASUU Renegotiating
team who has the interest of the nation and the people at
heart.
– Release of the forensic audit report on Earned Academic
allowances (EAA), offsetting the outstanding balance of
the EAA and mainstreaming of same into the 2018 budget.
– Payment of all arrears of shortfall in all universities that
have met the verification requirements of the Presidential
Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA)
– Provision of a platform by the federal government for
ASUU to engage Governors on the proliferation of
universities, underfunding of university education and
undue interference in the affairs of the universities
– Release of PFA operational license to NUPEMCO
– Payment of EAA to loyal ASUU members at the
University of Ilorin A new Memorandum of Action and Our
Resolution To date, ASUU has had a total of ten (10)
interactive meetings with representatives of FGN which
have culminated into a Memorandum of Action of
2019.
Highlights of the MoA include the following:
In addition to the N20 billion for 2018, the sum of N25
billion only would be released in April/May 2019, after
which government would resume full implementation of
the MoU of 2013.
Part-payment of the outstanding arrears of the earned
academic allowances; defraying the balance up to 2018 in
4 tranches within 36 months; and mainstreaming further
payments of EAA into the annual budgets beginning from
2019 budget.
PICA verification and the release of the arrears of salary
shortfall at the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi,
not later than 15th February 2019.
Strengthening the Consultative Committee on State-
owned Universities (CCSOU), inaugurated on Monday,
28th January, 2019 to look into the issues of proliferation,
underfunding and governance to consistently deliver on its
mandate.
Payment of the outstanding EAA arrears of all eligible staff
in the University of Ilorin, especially the loyal ASUU
members whose appointments were illegally terminated by
today, 7th February, 2019.
Acknowledgement and appreciation of Government for
facilitating the release of the final letter of approval for the
granting of operational license to NUPEMCO.
Visitation to all Federal Universities would commence
tentatively by 11th March, 2019.
Provision of documented guidelines on procedures and
roles of parties in the process of renegotiating FGN-ASUU
Agreement of 2009 which would commence not later than
18th February 2019 and end by Friday 29th March 2019.
Based on the initial proposals from Government, the Union
made extensive consultations through its various organs.
The final level of consultation was the meeting of the
National Executive Council (NEC) which took place
6th-7th February 2019.
NEC resolved that: Following a careful review of the report
of engagements with the Federal Government on
proposals for addressing all outstanding in the 2013 MoU
and 2017 MoA, NEC resolved that the current strike action
by the Union should be suspended conditionally with
effect from 12.01 a.m on Friday 8th February 2019.
However, should Government fail to fulfill its part of the
agreement as reflected in the 2019 Memorandum of
Action, ASUU shall resume its suspended strike action as
the Union deems necessary.
Conclusion
ASUU notes, with serious concern, the covert and overt
roles of some vice-chancellors in the management and
application of funds attracted by our Union to Nigeria’s
public universities.
Consequently, we condemn, in the strongest terms, Vice-
Chancellors who have made efforts to undermine and, in
some cases, attempted to break our patriotic struggles for
the revitalisation of public universities in Nigeria.
ASUU will not shy away from taking headlong those Vice-
Chancellors who are reputed for acts of impunity,
nepotism and other forms of conduct which are antithetic
to university culture and the progressive development of
our universities.
Our union will compile all their shenanigans and forward
them to relevant authorities for further action.
Finally, ASUU acknowledges the understanding and
support demonstrated by patriotic Nigerian students and
their parents all through the strike period.
We equally appreciate the comradely assistance from the
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), represented by the newly
re-elected President, Comrade Ayuba Waba, who has
stood by us throughout the struggle.
We also acknowledge the solidarity of the civil society
organisations, especially the Joint Action Front (JAF) and
the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), and members of
the progressive wing of the media who have consistently
partnered with us in our mission to rescue Nigerian public
universities from imminent collapse.
While we put a closure to this phase of the struggle, it is
our hope and desire that the Nigerian governments
(Federal and State) will play the roles expected of them in
order to make the new Memorandum work.
We shall never abandon our obligation to ensure the
survival of a sound university system.
For ASUU, the struggle certainly continues!
Thank you for listening.
Biodun Ogunyemi
President
7th February 2018”
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/02/why-we-called-
off-strike-ASUU/amp/
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has, Thursday, suspended the over three months-old strike it embarked upon since Sunday, 4th November, 2018.
