The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has warned that unless the Nigerian government takes a definitive stance on the report from the renegotiation committee of the 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement, its members may soon withdraw their services.
ASUU stated that the only way to avert an industrial strike is to comprehensively address the union’s demands in the shortest possible time.
According to ASUU, several government-appointed committees have reviewed the renegotiated agreement. The most recent committee, chaired by former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Yayale Ahmed, submitted its report eight months ago.
In a statement dated Friday, 8 August, made available to journalists on Saturday, ASUU responded to the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa’s claim that no trade unions in the education sector including ASUU would not go on strike again under President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
The statement was personally signed by ASUU President Chris Piwuna, a professor of medicine and consultant psychiatrist at the University of Jos Teaching Hospital in Plateau State.
Mr. Alausa, made his remarks recently during a Channels Television flagship program, “Politics Today,” where he reacted to ASUU’s threat to embark on industrial action if the government failed to implement the renegotiated agreement.
During the Channels Television program aired on Tuesday, 29 July, Mr. Alausa said President Tinubu had directed that ASUU or any other union in the education sector should never again be allowed to go on strike.
He added that the government is prepared to continue engaging the lecturers’ union and other trade unions in the sector to ensure mutually beneficial relationships and prevent unnecessary industrial actions.
However,Piwuna warned that ASUU members would not hesitate to withdraw from their duties if the government continues to take them for granted.
In its statement titled “Act Now to Avert the Looming Crisis,” ASUU said the minister’s optimism about peace on campuses was based solely on the government’s strategy of “dialogue, maintaining good relationships with union leaders, and meeting union demands.”
ASUU insisted there can be no peace on public university campuses nationwide unless the government acts on the outstanding issues.
He addressed several lingering problems with the government, including the unimplemented agreement, poor welfare conditions for lecturers, the exodus of union members abroad due to harsh working conditions, and the proliferation of universities.
The statement reiterated ASUU’s demands and highlighted the dissatisfaction among lecturers.
It reads in part:“Feelers from campuses across the country indicate that lecturers in Nigerian public universities are, to put it mildly, unhappy. They teach students on empty stomachs. They conduct research in libraries and laboratories lacking essential electronic and physical journals, books, chemicals, and reagents.
“They engage with communities and agencies using rickety cars, burdened by utility bills, children’s school fees, house rents, family upkeep, and a host of other unmet responsibilities. Yet elite Nigerians are quick to blame the universities for producing unemployable graduates and failing to initiate innovative research to solve the country’s problems. Our members feel forgotten, shamed, and demoralized by past and present governments
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