ANALYSIS: Why ASUU Is Yet To Call Off Strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been on strike for the past seven months, after embarking on the strike action on February 14th, 2022.

The union had listed a number of demands as the reasons behind the strike, stating that in general the need for a revitalisation of the tertiary education sector in Nigeria. Following the declaration of the strike, the Federal Government has held meetings with the Union on different occasions and has made offers with regard to some of the unions’ demands.

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However, the strike has persisted because the union said offers by the FG have come up short. The failure to find amicable resolution has led to accusations and counteraccusations between the two parties.

THE WHISTLER takes a closer look at the demands of ASUU and the responses made by the FG.

ASUU’s Demands:

  1. Deployment of UTAS

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The body asked the FG to begin paying its members’ salaries through a payment platform that they developed themselves called the University Transparency Accountability System (UTAS) as opposed to the government-owned platform- the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

The UTAS platform underwent different tests at the (NITDA) before it was certified as effective.

  1. Renegotiation Of FG-ASUU 2009 Agreement

ASUU requested that the 2009 agreement between it and the FG required renegotiation. The agreement was entered on efforts to review the university’s conditions of service, funding, university autonomy, and academic freedom as well as other matters.

The conditions of service included a separate salary structure for university lecturers to be known as ‘Consolidated University Academic Salary Structure’; as well as non-salary conditions of service like stipulations on sabbaticals, sick and maternity leave, vehicle loan, insurance, pension, etc.

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  1. Funding For Revitalization Of Tertiary Institutions

The body is insisting that the government provide adequate funds to revitalize the existing tertiary institutions in the country and bring them up to par with global standards.

The call by ASUU dates back to the 2009 and 2013 agreements with the FG. The FG agreed to inject a total of N1.3 trillion into public universities, both state and federal, in six tranches, starting from 2013.

In 2013, the government was to release N200 billion, and for the five subsequent years, government was to release N220 billion each year. After releasing the first tranche however, the government stopped releasing the funds.

In 2017, the government released N20 billion.

In 2020, it promised to release N25 billion but ASUU kicked against the offer, insisting on N110 billion, which amounts to 50 percent of a tranche of N220 billion that it had demanded, but the government declined, citing paucity of funds.

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  1. Payment Of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA)- (50 billion)

ASUU has demanded the payment of its members’ earned academic allowances to the tune of about N50 billion. The allowances fall under different categories and are also stipulated in the 2009 FGN ASUU agreement.

Some of the categories are Postgraduate Supervision Allowance, Teaching Practice/Industrial Supervision/Field Trip Allowances, Excess Workload Allowance, and Responsibility Allowance, among others.

  1. Payment Of Salary Arrears

ASUU also demanded that the FG pay its members all their salary arrears as they have not been receiving regular salary payments over the years.

  1. Stop Proliferation Of State Universities

The union demanded that the federal government put a stop to the rapid increase in the number of state universities in Nigeria. It is advocating for quality over quantity as the universities that are currently in existence are already operating below world-class standards.

FG’s Responses:

  1. Perhaps the most controversial response by the government to the ASUU strike is the No work, No Pay rule. The Minister of Education announced that the university staff would not be paid for the period of time they were on strike, which is now seven months.
  2. FG offered a salary increase of N60,000 for professors, and an increase within the range of N30,000 to N60,000 for other lecturers which ASUU rejected, stating that the government is meant to meet and discuss with them to arrive at a mutually acceptable amount.

Following the rejection of the above offer, it was amended to a 23.5% salary increase for all categories of staff in Federal Universities and 35% for professors. The same applies to the workforce in Polytechnics and Colleges of education.

  1. An offer of N150 billion for the rehabilitation of tertiary institutions and for the payment of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA).
  2. On the issue of the payment platform, the FG accepted that UTAS is a credible payment platform and is better than FG’s IPPIS. However, it cannot be declared as the new payment platform for university staff until the President approves. This is also because the non-teaching staff proposed their own platform, University Peculiar Payroll Payment System (U3PS) which also performed well when subjected to integrity tests. As such, the government has to consider whether it will pick one of the platforms to pay all staff, or both to pay the respective unions which developed it.
  3. The FG constituted a committee to renegotiate the 2009 FG-ASUU agreement led by Prof. Nimi Briggs. The committee submitted a draft agreement to the government that was a product of Collective Bargaining.

However, the FG announced that the committee and its agreement has been discarded. A brand-new committee was set up earlier this month, chaired by the Minister of Education.

  1. With regards to the payment of salary arrears, the FG said the arrears were currently being paid through the IPPIS.

Unresolved Issues:

While the government has made offers to the union on almost all their demands, the sore point remains the contentious issue of renegotiating the ASUU/ FG 2009 agreement.

A renegotiation committee was set up to handle this but several weeks after, it was discarded and a new one was set up with the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, as chairman.

It remains to be seen if the agreement can be renegotiated in view of the revelation of Adamu that President Muhammadu Buhari had asked the FG team not to sign any agreement the FG cannot implement.

Also, ASUU has not officially accepted the new salary increase offered by the FG.

The government also claimed it had released the money for payment of salary arrears for the lecturers, but ASUU said it was yet to receive any payment.

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