ASUU Strike Continues As Meeting With FG Ends In Deadlock

The end to the four-month old strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU), is not in sight as the re-conciliatory meeting between the Federal Government and the striking lecturers which held on the instance of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, in Abuja last night, ended in a stalemate.

ASUU had embarked on the strike since November last year following the failures of Federal government to implement the agreement reached on the funding of universities, the payment of outstanding earned allowances and sundry issues.

Before Friday’s meeting which lasted about three hours, a five hour meeting two weeks ago could not resolve the differences in the government’s position and the demands of ASUU, although the minister said that” substantial progress was made and that with the few areas of disagreement remaining, the strike would soon be over.”

Unlike before, both ASUU and the minister declined to disclose what the meeting agreed upon and when the strike will be called off.

After much prodding, ASUU President, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi just said progress is being recorded.

“We are making progress,” he quipped and declined to say if government has agreed to their demands for the strike to be called off.

The next meeting between the lecturers and the Federal government comes up innext Thursday February 7th.

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ASUU issues stern warning to Vice Chancellors over non-compliance

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened that it would sanction some university Vice-Chancellors who have been “uncooperative” in the ongoing strike by the lecturers.

Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU President, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.

Ogunyemi was reacting to the allegation that some vice-chancellors have been intimidating lecturers in their institution and have ordered them back to the classroom, while some have reportedly commenced examinations.

According to him, the union may be preparing for a confrontation with some of the vice-chancellors that have defaulted and failed to cooperate.

“The attitude of some of these vice-chancellors is worrisome; the union will be prepared to engage such vice-chancellor when the ongoing strike is suspended or called off, ” he said.

He expressed regret over some members of the union, who choose to betray their conscience by opting out of the strike.

He added that such members who may be aggrieved ought to take opportunity of available internal mechanism for resolving such crisis, saying that the union will address the issues at the appropriate time.

Ogunyemi, however, noted that there are reasons some members may have opted out of the action in some campuses.

According to him, some vice-chancellors are uncooperative even though they will benefit in the university system what ASUU is agitating for.

“In some places, some of them will misapply the fund. That is why there will continue to be crisis, so when we go back, we are going to engage many of the vice-chancellors.

“Like in some state universities, their governors are playing the ostrich, pretending to be funding their universities.

“Today, we call many state universities TETFUND universities because the bulk of their capital projects in the last ten years came from TETFUND support and lately, the NEEDS assessment grant.

“Governors, who own such universities, will be giving their vice-chancellors directive to go and open the universities.

“They are just not being sincere to themselves because they are actually not doing what is expected of them.

“Another reason is because some of our members are aggrieved for reasons best known to them. Some have threatened to pull out of ASUU and go their own way.

“When you take it on the balance, you find out that within their inner self, they are not opposed to what we are asking for because the Earned Academic Allowances will go to them, revitalisation fund and the salary shortfall, it will be refunded to them,” he said.

According to him, at the end of the day, it is a matter of conscience. Some of our members are, like you find in any group, those who betray their conscience. We cannot stop them because they are exercising their right.

“But for those who pretend to be with us and are not with us, we will take them through our process at the appropriate time because every organisation has its own disciplinary mechanism,” he said.

ASUU had commenced an indefinite strike on Nov. 5, 2018, demanding for increased funding of the university education by the Federal Government.

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ASUU Gives Least Acceptable Conditions To End Strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said that the ongoing industrial dispute will continue except certain acceptable conditions are met.

It said to end the strike, the Federal Government must urgently release additional N50 billion to the N20 billion released earlier for revitalisation fund, show evidence of mainstreaming the Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) into the 2019 budget and evidence of the payment of shortfall in salaries.

President of ASUU, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, in an interview with The Guardian yesterday, said the union rejected the latest proposal of the government after due consultations with members, pointing out that government’s offer was meagre.

He added that the association’s reservations would be communicated to the Federal Government today at the inauguration of the platform for addressing matters relating to state universities.

Ogunyemi said: “The last time we met with representatives of government, they gave us their proposal and we said we will present it to our members and their reactions to the items of the proposal will be sent back to them within a week. And now, we are almost through with the consultation and we will communicate areas of disagreement to them today.

“They are basically two or three major areas; one is on the revitalisation fund. We presented to them that government owed an outstanding balance of N1.1 trillion in five tranches. But what government eventually proposed is something that is far-fetched. They were talking about N20 billion that will be released in two tranches starting from next quarter, and we felt that will not address the issue at hand. Though they said that they released N20 billion earlier, the N20 billion was to be released in 2017, if they released it in November 2018, it is not the same thing.

“Out of the N20 billion that the government released earlier, we have outstanding N200 billion. So, if government can release N50 billion in addition to the N20 billion released earlier; and the remaining N150 billion can be released on quarterly basis within this year, N50 billion each for the remaining three quarters, then it will show a sign of commitment.”

Additionally, the group demanded that for EAA and shortfall in salaries, government should provide evidence of its promises and give specific information and guidelines to its proposals.

“Although government has shown us a paper authorising the release of N15.89 billion to universities, but universities have not confirmed receipt. As far as ASUU is concerned, it is an issue of ‘once bitten, twice shy," he further stated.

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NANS Begs FG Over ASUU Strike

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), has appealed to the Federal Government to fulfill agreements reached with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), to ensure resumption of academic activities in public universities.

NANS National Public Relations Officer, Mr Bestman Okereafor, made the appeal in a statement issued on Sunday in Enugu and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

“The attention of the apex students governing body, NANS, has been drawn to the recent ASUU position and condition for suspension of the ongoing strike embarked upon by the union.

“NANS is also on the know that ASUU had vowed that the ongoing strike would not be called off until the Federal Government fulfills all the agreements both parties reached in their last meeting.

“NANS salutes ASUU for negotiating and reaching an agreement during her last meeting with the Federal Government delegation.

“We believe they (ASUU) have done honourable,’’ Okereafor said.

According to him, NANS is passionately appealing to the Federal Government to fulfill its part of the agreements reached with ASUU in the best interest of Nigerian students without further delay.

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