Students in public varsities are to remain at home for four more weeks, no thanks to the one month extension to ongoing strike announced yesterday by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
It was the third time that the union would extend the industrial action started by its members on February 14, following the breakdown of talks between the Federal Government and its leaders on the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement.
The extension of the six-month-old strike announced in a statement by ASUU President Emmanuel Osodeke drew flaks from the parents’ and students’ umbrella bodies.
Deputy National President of the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN) Adeolu Ogunbanjo chided the Federal Government for lack of commitment to the resolution of the crisis.
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) reminded the Federal Government and the striking teachers of the consequences of their actions.
Citing the failure of the government in fulfilling its promises, Osodeke said the decision to extend the strike was taken during an emergency meeting of the union’s National Executive Council on Sunday at its headquarters located on the campus of the University of Abuja.
The union, however, thanked the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), affiliate unions and civil society organisations for trooping out to stage a nationwide protest between July 26 and 27.
ASUU said the emergency meeting of its NEC became necessary since it publicly announced a 12-week extension of the strike in May.
It said the government has not shown commitment towards resolving the lingering crisis, adding that the additional four weeks will be observed to monitor the government’s seriousness and commitment to address its concerns.
The statement reads: “Following extensive deliberations and taking cognisance of Government’s past failures to abide by its own timelines in addressing issues raised in the 2020 FGN/ASUU Memorandum of Action (MOA), NEC resolved that the strike be rolled over for four weeks to give Government more time to satisfactorily resolve all the outstanding issues. The role-over strike action is with effect from 12.01am on Monday, 1st August, 2022.”
ASUU said the NEC meeting took place against the backdrop of government’s obligations “as spelt out in the Memorandum of Action (MoA) it signed with ASUU on 23rd December 2020.”
It said: “Specifically, NEC recalled that government’s failure to conclude the process of renegotiating the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement, deploy the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), pay outstanding arrears of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), release agreed sum of money for the revitalisation of public universities (Federal and States), address proliferation and governance issues in State Universities, settle promotion arrears, release withheld salaries of academics, and pay outstanding third-party deductions led to the initial declaration of the roll-over strike on 14th February, 2022.
“NEC viewed with seriousness the recent directive given by the President and Visitor to all Federal Universities that the Minister of Education (Mallam Adamu Adamu), in consultation with other government officials, should resolve the lingering crisis and report to him within two weeks.
“The union wonders why it had taken five full months and needless muscle-flexing for the government to come to the realisation of the need for honest engagement.”
ASUU said it acknowledged “the growing understanding of the issues and the groundswell of support for the union’s principled demand for a globally competitive university education in Nigeria.”
It, however, said the “non-signing of the draft renegotiated 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement more than one month after it was concluded by Professor Nimi Briggs-led Committee is further tasking the patience of ASUU members nationwide.”
The union added that the government needed no additional evidence to bow to its superior argument on the corruption surrounding the deployment of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information (IPPIS) and the need to adopt its innovation of the Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
He said the IPPIS has been compromised by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF).
Osodeke said: “The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is enjoined to release reports of the latest tests on the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) vis-à-vis IPPIS without further delay.
“ASUU shall resist any attempt to truncate the deployment of UTAS with all legitimate means available to the union.”
Ogunbanjo traced the non-committal of the Federal Government to addressing the situation because majority of the public office holders have their children in private varsities.
He also blamed ASUU for refusing to review the 2009 agreement for the sake of students.
Ogunbanjo said: “The Federal Government and ASUU are not deeply concerned. The union should review the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement since the government says it is broke.”
He, however, said that unless public office holders enroll their children in public institutions in the country, education will never improve.
“Nigerians should demand that anybody contesting elective positions in the country should put their children in public schools, from primary to tertiary level, then, education would improve. That is the only option left,” he said.
NANS Coordinator in the Southwest (Zone D), Stephen Tegbe, bemoaned the extension of the industrial action by ASUU after high hopes of a likely suspension.
In a telephone chat with The Nation, he noted that the Federal Government and ASUU had failed the students, warning then of the consequences of their actions.
”We are disappointed. Our two parents – Federal Government and ASUU – have failed us. We have staged different protests, yet no resolution. We thought both parties would come to a fruitful conclusion after their meeting and call off the strike,” Tegbe said.
Source: The Nation