The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, is setting up for clash with the Federal Government over members’ welfare, working conditions, among others.
ASUU have expressed disappointment over President Bola Tinubu’s failure to fulfill promises to release their withheld eight months’ salaries from 2022 industrial action, the six-month N35,000 wage award and upward salary review.
The union laments non implementation of all its agreements with FG, despite partial waiver of the ‘No Work, No Pay’ order instituted against striking ASUU members in 2022 under former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Recall that ASUU members had embarked on an eight-month industrial action, which began on February 14, 2022, and lasted until October 17, 2022, but the federal government insisted on implementing the ‘No Work, No Pay’ policy for the period the university workers were away from their duty posts.
However, nearly sixteen months after the academic staff members returned to work, they have continued to lament the unyielding response of the government to their withheld salaries.
In November, 2023, FG directed the grant of an exceptional waiver of the ‘No Work, No Pay’ order on ASUU, which would pave the way for members of ASUU to receive four months of salary accruals out of the eight months withheld during the strike.
According to the President, the move, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, was in line with his administration’s determination to mitigate the difficulties in the face of the implementation of key economic reforms in the country.
Tinubu also added that he recognized the faithful implementation of terms agreed upon during the fruitful deliberations between ASUU and the federal government.
ASUU said it was regrettable that despite the gentlemen’s agreement between the union and the federal government, no dime had been paid to its members, creating unnecessary hardship for their families.
Apart from the withheld eight months’ salaries, the university workers said they were yet to be removed from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, IPPIS, as directed by the President.
The Minister of Education, Mamman Tahir, who disclosed the development while briefing State House correspondents after the weekly FEC meeting presided over by Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said the President also directed the Vice Chancellors to be removed from taking permissions from the office of the Head of Service of the Federation, HOSF, before they could engage staff for their institutions.
According to the President, “they (Vice Chancellors) do not have to go to the Head of Service for approvals to engage the service of new workers anymore. They will now be paying their own staff directly.”
Similarly, in October 2023, the administration ordered the immediate implementation of a new wage award of N35,000 to each federal civil servant as a palliative to cushion the harsh effects of the removal of fuel subsidy, but managed to pay two months out of the six months it promised.
Also, in September 2023, the government announced an upward review of the salaries of tertiary institution workers by 35 per cent, which was backdated to January 2023 but was yet to be paid.
Speaking recently in an interactive session with journalists during the week at the Gidan Kwano Main Campus of the Federal University of Technology (FUT) Minna, the Niger State capital, the National President of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, declared that the government has not implemented all the agreements it reached with the organized labour, particularly between ASUU, since the administration of President Bola Tinubu began.
Osodeke stated that members of the National Executive Council, NEC, were currently in a nationwide consultation with the branches of the union to decide on the next line of action after the NEC meeting later this month.
“Well, none has been implemented. On the issue of wage awards and the issue of seven-and-a-half salary arrears, I can tell you that nothing has been implemented. In fact, as I am talking to you now, none of our members has been paid,”
The ASUU leader stated that the association would present all the suggestions gathered during its nationwide consultations at the NEC meeting before taking the necessary action to press home their demands.
“That is why we have come to see our members, and we are seeking their views about the next line of action which we are taking to our NEC meeting in February (this month). And at the NEC meeting, we are going to make a decision”.
