Premium Times
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said the recent release of N55.5 billion to the universities by the Nigerian government towards fulfilling parts of the contents of the Memorandum of Action signed with the union may not be enough to stop an impending industrial action by the body.
The union, in a statement issued at the end of its South-west zonal meeting which was held on Tuesday at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, described the payment as “paltry of the billions of naira of owed revitalisation funds and earned academic allowance (EAA).”
The statement, which was signed by the coordinator of the zone, Adelaja Odukoya, said part of the conditions to avert the strike is for the government “to immediately end the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) for universities and sign the renegotiated agreement document completed in May 2021.”
The union accused the federal government of a deliberate attempt “to further entrench the impoverishment of Nigerian academics and public universities in the country,” adding that “Unfortunately, our country has in place a representative of the ruling class that continues to demonstrate, without any atom of remorse, the penchant not to honour agreements reached with our Union, and indeed their overall pledge to the Nigerian people.”
The new threat is coming exactly nine days shy of one year when the union suspended its nine-month prolonged strike, which paralysed academic activities across the universities in the country.
ASUU had suspended the industrial action in December, 2020, following the signing of a Memorandum of Action (MoA) between it and the government.
The MOA, it said, was “to compel the Federal government to honour our earlier signed MoUs and MoAs with the government occasioned by its shameless failure to fully implement the 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement and the stalled renegotiation of the same agreement that had fallen due since 2012.”
However, the university lecturers said the government had “woefully” failed to honour the promises including the schedule of implementation it agreed upon at two meetings between August and October, 2021.
“Consequent upon this sad development, our union gave the Federal Government three weeks’ grace within which to comprehensively implement all the issues in our MoA failing which we shall have no other alternative than to commence the process of activating most reluctantly the strike option that has proven to be the only language this government understands,” the union said.
FG moves to avert strike
At the weekend, the Nigerian government said it has paid the universities N30 billion Revitalisation Fund and N22.5 billion Earned Academic Allowance, claiming to have made progress in the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding reached with the university workers.
“By yesterday, (Friday) the Accountant General’s Office and the Funds Office of the Federal Ministry of Finance told me that they paid the Earned Allowances to the 38 federal universities and by today (Saturday) all the affected universities would have gotten their monies for workers” Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige told THISDAY at the weekend.
But ASUU described the payment of the Earned Academic Allowances as partial. It said the government has closed its eyes to the parts of the agreement regarding staff salaries and allowances that were supposed to be implemented as far back as 2010.
