The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) have blocked the road leading to the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos State to protest the lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The students, protesting the seven-month strike, blocked a section of the access road to the International airport on Monday morning, September 19.
This caused gridlock as vehicular movement in and out of the airport was stalled.
There was heavy police presence at the scene but this did not deter the protesting students.
The students had last week blocked the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and the Ibadan-Ife Road.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, on Tuesday said the government could only afford 23.5 percent salary increase for lecturers, while a 35% increment will be enjoyed by professors.
The minister also noted that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) warned against signing agreements which the government will not be able to meet.
Adamu disclosed this while speaking during the meeting with vice-chancellors and other stakeholders in the university system.He said,
”The Federal Government can only afford a 23.5% salary increase for all category of the workforce in Federal Universities, except for the professorial cadre which will enjoy a 35% upward review.
“Henceforth, allowances that pertain to ad-hoc duties of the academic and non-academic staff shall be paid as at when due by the Governing Councils of Universities to which such services are rendered and to the staff who performthem.
“That a sum of 150 billion Naira shall be provided for in the 2023 Budget as funds for the revitalization of Federal Universities, to be disbursed to the Institutions in the First Quarter of the year, and that a sum of 50 billion Naira shall be provided for in the 2023 Budget for the payment of outstanding areas of earned academic allowances, to be paidin the First Quarter of the year”.
Speaking at the end of the meeting, the pro-chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria, Professor Peter Okebukola, noted that the government was ready to go all out to ensure that the university lecturers return back to school.
The management of the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University (IBBU), Lapai, Niger State on Tuesday, August 30, directed its staff to pull out of the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The institution also asked staff to resume work on September 5 for the 2021/2022 second semester academic session.
The university in a statement by its Deputy Registrar, Information, Alhaji Baba Akote, said the decision to direct both academic and non-academic staff to resume was taken by the university’s Governing Council at its 55th regular meeting held on August 30.
However, the chapter’s chairman of ASUU, Dr Kudu Dangana, said that they had not suspended the strike and, therefore, would not succumb to the directive, according to DailyTrust.
He said the letter of extension of the strike had already been served on the management and wondered why a statement for resumption was issued.
“Any student that resumes is wasting his money and time or he is coming to see the campus. We have not called off the strike,” he said.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has extended its ongoing strike again.
The decision was taken after the National Executive Council meeting at the union’s headquarters at the University of Abuja on Monday morning, August 29. The ASUU strike began on February 14, 2022, and was initially to last for 4 weeks.
However, on March 14, exactly one month after, ASUU extended its ongoing industrial action by another two months to afford the government more time to address all of its demands. The strike has now entered its 196th day.
The union is on strike over the inability of the Federal Government to implement previous agreements both parties entered into.
The lecturers’ agitations include funding for the revitalization of public universities, earned academic allowances, University Transparency Accountability Solution, promotion arrears and others.
Emmanuel Osodeke, President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has reacted to Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu asking students to sue the union for compensation. Reacting to this in an interview with Channels Television on Friday August 19, Osodeke said students know that the problem is with the government and not the union.
He also said that if students must sue anyone, they’ll sue the minister of education and the federal government.
Osodeke said;
“You need to read the response by the president of NANS, Comrade Asefon. He said ASUU is not their problem that their problem is the government and if they must sue anybody, they are actually doing that, they are consulting lawyers, they are going to sue the minister of education and the federal government for forcing ASUU who is an employee of the system and fighting for their (students) interest.”
Osodeke also said the issues that pushed lecturers in the country into going on strike, can be resolved in a day if the government is committed to the education of the youths.
He said;
“What we are saying is that we can resolve this issue within one day as Jonathan did in 2013.
“When it got to this stage in 2013, Jonathan summoned everybody to hear the truth. He heard the truth and we resolved the issue within one night.
“That can be done at this level either by a committee or people that are patriotic, not these ministers that already have bias. We can resolve this issue in one day and our children will go back to school.”
Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu has said that the Academic Staff Union of Universities should be compensating students for the time wasted during the six-month strike, and not the Federal Government.
Punch reported that the Minister who said government will not concede to the union’s demand to pay lecturers their emoluments for the six months of no academic activities in his speech at the 47th Session of the State House Ministerial Briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, further asked affected students to “take ASUU to court” to claim damages incurred over the strike period.
Adamu insisted that the federal government bears no liability to compensate millions of students grounded for six months over lost time.
He also said if the students are determined to get compensated, they should take ASUU to court.
The management of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, has called off its union’s six months old strike. The institution announced this today August 16 in a circular titled:
“Release to Staff and Students: Continuation of the First Semester of the 2021/2022 Academic Session”, and signed by the Registrar of the University, Dr. Kayode Ogunleye.
The institution also announced the date for the commencement of academic activities for the 2021/2022 academic session which will be on Thursday, August 18, 2022.
The statement partly reads;
“Upon the directive of the Visitor to the university, the management, hereby, informs all staff and students that the university will continue its academic activities for the first semester of the 2021/2022 academic session on Thursday, August 18, 2022”.
While urging staff and students to abide by the directive, the statement further assured them that the amended academic calendar for the semester will soon be made available.
“On behalf of the Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. M. 0. Liasu, I welcome all students back to the campus and wish them a crisis-free semester”, the statement added.
The management of the institution had earlier announced May 26, 2022, as the official resumption of academic activities some weeks ago. However, members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU in the school which had been on strike for the past six months, refused to resume academic activities despite the school management’s order.
SERAP has asked the Buhari administration to demand a refund of the N1.4billion it gave to Niger Republic authorities and use the refund to offset ASUU funding.
The Nigerian government on Wednesday, August 3, confirmed that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the purchase and donation of vehicles, worth N1.4 billion, to neighbouring Niger Republic.
This revelation sparked outrage and the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, said that the donation was to help Niger address its security concerns. Reacting, civil society group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) tweeted:
“The Buhari administration must immediately ask Niger Republic authorities to refund the N1.4 billion approved for them to buy vehicles, and use the money to offset the funding for ASUU, so that poor children can go back to school.”
No less than seven Nigerian students on Tuesday, staged a protest in Ibadan, Oyo state against the persistent strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
The students who were holding placards, assembled in front of the University of Ibadan and demanded that schools be reopened.
It was gathered that security was beefed up at the main gate of the University to forestall the breakdown of law and order.
The inscriptions on the placards read: ‘No to Commercialization of Education,’‘We align with ASUU in its demands’,‘Our future is in jeopardy’‘No resumption of academic activity, no 2023 general election’.
A spokesman for the protesting students said; “We have given the parties involved in the crisis enough time to resolve their differences Enough is enough.
“The Federal government and its relevant agencies are toying with our careers and future.
With the prolonged ASUU strike, we have stayed beyond the duration of years that we are supposed to spend. A 4-year course duration has been extended to 7 years.
We are tired of staying at home. The Federal government should do the needful by shifting grounds, and critically looks into and grants the request of ASUU.”
The union will harmonise the positions of zones and branches at a meeting in Abuja today.
With some branches insisting that the government must meet all the demands before the strike is called off, the union may put the decision to a vote.
The Ahmadu Bello University branch agreed with the government on the N40 billion Earned Academic Allowance (EAA).The branch, however, called for payment of the allowance before the strike will be called off.
Lecturers at the Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE), Delta State, said negotiations with the Federal Government must be concluded before the strike is called off.
Ezekiel Agbalagba, chairman of ASUU at the university, said the congress on Wednesday accepted the EAA, but rejected the N25 billion for the revitalisation of the varsities.
According to him, the latest concession by the Federal Government is “an offer”, adding: “Let it land in our purse first.” He added: “We are willing to suspend the strike, but some of those contending issues should be thrashed and thrashed once.”
ASUU chapters of the University of Maiduguri, Yobe State University and Federal University Gashua resolved to get a serious commitment from the Federal Government before they call off the industrial action.
The Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi (UAM) ASUU voted to continue with the strike action until the Federal Government implements what was offered during the negotiation.
ASUU- UAM chapter said both their withheld salaries and sundry allowances must be also paid. A lecturer at UAM, who preferred not to be named, said they voted that the strike should continue until the government fulfils its part of the bargain.
ASUU national leadership will receive reports from zonal coordinators, following state congresses.
After considering the reports, the leadership is expected to take a position and present it to the Federal Government.
A source said some of the congresses voted to call off the strike; others did not.The source said the congresses agreed on the offers presented by the government to the union and with a timeframe to implement some of them. The source added: “All the reports will come in today (yesterday) and we can make a decision on it.”
Last Friday, the Federal Government agreed with ASUU’s demand for payment of lecturers’ salaries from February to June through the old platform – the Government Integrated Financial and Management Information System.
The government said the exemption of ASUU from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) was temporary pending when the university lecturers will complete the development of its payment platform – the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS). After weeks of negotiations, the government offered to raise the EAA from N30billion to N35billion and the revitalisation fund from N20billion to N25billion.
Cumulatively, the government, through the Accountant-General of the Federation, offered the lecturers N65 billion to call off the strike.
The government also shifted ground on some issues, including the insistence that all the academic staff of federal universities must be paid through the IPPIS platform.
The University of Ilorin (UNILORIN ASUU Chairman, Prof Moyosore Ajao, said the chapter was in alignment with the national body. He said: “Our president will make a pronouncement on our resolution after our meeting tomorrow (today).” A source at the ASUU UNILORIN meeting said the union resolved that “our salaries be paid and must henceforth not be stopped”. “We also resolved that ASUU is not and cannot be on IPPIS,” he added.
Chairman of University of Jos chapter of ASUU, Dr Lazarus Maigoro, said: “We are under a strict directive from the national body not to release our resolutions yet.”
Sokoto Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Dr Jamilu Shehu, told our correspondent that the zones are expected to make their positions known at the Abuja meeting.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has expressed optimism that the prolonged strike action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities will be resolved by next week when the Federal Government team meets the union leaders again. He, however, said if the matter was not resolved by then, he would explore the provisions in the labour law and other channels.
Government had previously appealed to the union to call off the strike. The union had on March 24 2020 embarked on an indefinite strike over the failure of the Federal Government to keep to the 2019 Memorandum of Action between them as well as the lingering disagreement over the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System that ASUU rejected.
Speaking on Politics Today on Channels Television on Friday, the minister said the government had met six of the union’s nine demands and that they would meet again next week with the hope of ending the prolonged strike.
He stated, even if countries go to war, at the end of the day they come to the negotiation table. I’m inviting ASUU members next week. We are doing side meetings on our part and we are collating everything. I’m collating responses from the Accountant General of the Federation’s Office and everybody who has something to do with this matter. Ngige was asked if the lecturers may not return to the classrooms in the next one or two weeks, he said, “I’m not looking at that (long) period. I’m an optimist on this matter. By next week, we will conclude this matter. There are so many options left. We have the labour laws and I have options left to me in the labour laws. I have other channels.
The minister, who said his children had also been at home as a result of the strike, explained that government had agreed to give the University Transparency Academic Solution, the payment platform proposed by ASUU, a trial. He however said the feedback he got from the National Information Technology Development Agency, the agency mandated to follow-up the trial with ASUU, showed they had just concluded the first phase and that the second phase to assess the functional requirement of UTAS had not been done.
He added, UTAS is yet to be ready but government will not discourage them and we have told them there is no need using the same old method of strike to make demands since such had been deployed since 2017. On the revitalisation fund, he said government had agreed to release N30bn out of the N40bn demanded by the union as the payment for November 2019 and September 2020, adding that the remaining N10bn would be staggered.
A committee that looked into the needs assessment of universities held a workshop on how funds could be generated, came up with the recommendation that other things could be done to raise funds, because revitalisation cannot be done through the budget, especially when the country is running a deficit budget,” Ngige added.
Prof Abiodun Ogunyemi, the National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has asked the federal government to stop playing a game of manipulation and deception in his latest revelation on why the union is yet to call off the strike.
The ASUU President who was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Monday November 9, accused the FG of failing to show commitment in resolving the impasse.
He said;
“What we need is a commitment; there is nothing like transition and what we are saying, in essence, is that government should just go ahead and pay what government has withheld – the salaries of our members; people have not been paid for eight or nine months on account of not registering on IPPIS.
“Government should stop this arm-twisting and manipulation, going back to universities to ask them to go and enroll in IPPIS so that they will go and migrate to UTAS; people see it as a game of deception and we cannot trust them.”
Ogunyemi who further stated that it is not the place of the union to tell the government where to get the fund to address its challenges, also highlighted some of the vital roles the union has played in ensuring public universities do not become a history in the country.
The ASUU President stressed that if not for their effort, the fate of public universities in Nigeria would have been just like that of the primary and secondary schools.
Ogunyemi added;
“Each time people talk about this problem has been there for long, they don’t also appreciate the solution we have brought to the system to keep the system going.
“But for ASUU’s intervention, we would no longer have public universities today. Do we still have public primary schools? Do we still have public secondary schools? That is what will happen to public universities.”
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