ASUU CONDITIONS TO END STRIKE UNSETTLE FG

Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)

 

The first Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided by President Muhammadu Buhari upon his return from medical vacation in London could not arrive at any meaningful decision to placate members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which recently embarked on an indefinite strike.

Instead, the president mandated Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to take over the negotiations. He specifically instructed the Vice President to sit down with Government Officials and take a holistic look into demands raised by the union with a view to ending the strike. ASUU had on Tuesday shunned a meeting with Government Officials at the Ministry of Labour and Employment on the conditions that its demands which had been agreed upon in 2009 and 2013 be met. Among conditions raised by ASUU which government was expected to meet before the strike would be called off include registration of Nigerian Universities Pension Management Company (NUPEMCO), discontinuation of the fractionalization of salaries in Federal Universities, improved funding for State Universities, payment of arrears and implementation of Earned Academic Allowance.

ASUU also expects the Federal Government to order the release of fund for revitalization of Public Universities as spelt out in the 2013 Memorandum of Understanding, prioritize guidelines for Retirement Benefits of Professors in line with 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement, exclude Universities from the Treasury Single Account (TSA) Policy and rescind its decision on funding support for Universities Staff Primary Schools. At a previous FEC meeting
where ASUU strike was tabled for deliberations, the presidency had maintained a position that it would not compromise the Policy on TSA. Government had also insisted that the striking lecturers must undergo forensic audit to ascertain how the N30 billion previously released to them was spent before it would release the balance N23 billion.

All these positions were presented to ASUU executives on Thursday, August 17 during their enlarged meeting with the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, but it appeared the resolutions did not go down well with Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU’s President and his team.

Ngige had notified few participants on Tuesday’s botched meeting that FEC approval would be required in some of the demands raised by the union. ASUU in boycotting the meeting insisted that it had collated views of her members on the offers from government in dispute in the letter of August 16, 2017 and has therefore submitted their views to the Federal Government provide a letter dated August 28, 2017. “As we await the Federal Government’s action on our letter, we hope that it would not be long before we receive a positive response which will bring an end to the dispute”, Ogunyemi had stated.

Osinbajo Leads Negotiations

Fielding questions from State House correspondents after the FEC meeting, Ngige confirmed the appointment of Osinbajo as Chief Negotiator. “This is the first National strike that this government is facing and we want to discuss. “At council today, the Vice President has taken over some of the aspects of the negotiations and discussions. “So, we are continuing the meeting in his office and when we finish meeting, we will get back to ASUU for another round of meeting and we are hopeful that we will be able to go to an appreciable extent to solve some of the outstanding issues that is preventing them from going back to work,” he said. On the National Minimum Wage Committee, the Minister stated that the Federal Government Team was ready for the commencement of negotiation with the labour unions and other stakeholders.

He said already four ministers, Head of Service of the Federation and the Acting Secretary to the Government of the Federation had been appointed to be part of the Government Team. “The Chairman will be unveiled when we have full component of the
committee. The aspect that is delaying from inaugurating the committee is the organized private sector. “The organized private sector has eight representatives of which Nigeria Employers’ Committee Assembly has four nominations and they have not sent their nominations. “Manufacturers Association of Nigeria two nominations, their nominations just came in yesterday. Nigeria Association of Small Medium Enterprise one, they have not sent in their nomination. “NACCIMA has not sent in their nominations.
So we are waiting for these nominations, when they come in the government will nominate the chairman and inaugurate the committee,’’ he explained.