Strike Looms as ASUU Weigh Option Across Campuses

The relative peace currently being enjoyed on campuses of Nigerian universities may soon be truncated as the branches of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) nationwide have commenced consultative meetings to take a position on the consequences of the ultimatum earlier issued by the Nigerian government.

Sources within the leadership of the union confide on Thursday that ASUU chapters have commenced voting processes to decide on the next line of action after the Nigerian government failed to meet the union’s demands after two ultimatums.

As Ultimatums Expired

Last month, ASUU issued a 14-day ultimatum to the Nigerian government beginning on 23 September. This ultimatum followed a previous 21-day ultimatum issued in August.

After the first ultimatum lapsed, the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, met with the union twice on 28 August and 6 September, in an attempt to forestall any possible strike action. The minister also set up a subcommittee to investigate the union’s demands.

However, after reviewing the government’s efforts at its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on 19 September, ASUU said they were not satisfactory, prompting the latest ultimatum that expired on 6 October.

In a statement announcing the last ultimatum, ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, a professor of soil science, accused the government of lacking the required commitment to avert the strike action.

Ongoing consultations

A source within the leadership of the ASUU, who does not want to be quoted for lacking the authority to speak on the matter, told PREMIUM TIMES that the ASUU chapters are expected to decide before Tuesday after which the National Executive Council (NEC) of the union will meet to ratify the chapters’ decisions.

The source confirmed that his chapter, a federal university in the North-west, has met and favoured the strike option. “We met and we voted in favour of the strike,” the source told our reporter.

A chairperson of another chapter also confirmed to our reporter that the congresses to decide on the strike action are being held across different universities but declined further comments.

ASUU President, Mr Osodeke, did not respond to phone calls and text messages seeking comment for this story.

ASUU is a union that prides itself in a decision-making process that begins from the bottom to the top.

It was learnt that the National Executive Council (NEC) of the union would meet to consider the decisions of its members and announce a unified position. If it decides on a strike action, it would affect the resumption timelines for many universities.

Contentious issues

The union of academics is at loggerheads with the Nigerian government over the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement. The agreement contains the conditions of services, wages and allowances of Nigerian academics. The agreement is meant to be updated periodically but negotiations have stalled for close to a decade.

ASUU wants the government to conclude the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement based on the Nimi Briggs Committee’s Draft Agreement of 2022.

The union also wants the government to put an end to the use of a centralised payment platform, the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) for payments of university workers’ salaries. It said the platform is fraudulent and is shortchanging its members of their entitlements.

Last December, the Education Minister, Mr Mamman, said President Bola Tinubu directed the exclusion of universities from the IPPIS. But the union said a ‘new IPPIS’ is being used to pay its members, adding it is the same platform as the IPPIS.

The union also wants the government to release the three-and-a-half months’ salaries withheld during the 2022 strike action.

Other issues, as listed by the union, are:

• “the release of unpaid salaries for staff on sabbatical, part-time, and adjunct appointments affected by the IPPIS;
• release of outstanding third-party deductions such as check-off dues and cooperative contributions;
• funding for the revitalisation of public universities, partly captured in the 2023 Federal Government Budget;
• payment of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), partly captured in the 2023 Federal Government Budget;
• proliferation of universities by federal and state governments; implementation of the reports of visitation panels to universities;
• illegal dissolution of governing councils; and University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as a replacement for IPPIS.”