August 16, (THEWILL) – Barring any last-minute change in plans, representatives of the Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), would meet Tuesday, August 16, to continue negotiations with the hope of achieving a consensus on lingering issues that could herald the reopening of universities nationwide.
ASUU leadership had listed seven major issues that led to the withdrawal of their services on February 14, 2022.
Speaking during a live programme monitored by THEWILL on Monday, ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, said the strike was prolonged because of insincerity on the part of the Federal Government.
Osodeke noted that the government’s plans to placate its members into calling off the strike with salary increments instead of holistically addressing the issues affecting university education in the country are “unfortunate.”
He noted that the Union has not had any serious communication with the FG and added that ASUU is seeking the re-negotiation of the 2009 agreement, which has to do with funding, structure, autonomy and other issues relating to how funds can be raised to fund Universities in Nigeria.
Osodeke said: “The government is not sincere in its dealings with us. This has been the issue all along. What we are doing is the sacrifice we have to save this country and its youths. A collapsed university system is a collapsed country and we are almost there. We will not be tired, we will ensure that our university system works.
“We have not heard any serious communication from the government, though they have invited us for renegotiation of the 2009 agreement tomorrow (Aug 16).
“The issues have to do with funding, structure, autonomy, and how to raise funds for the university system in Nigeria. But the government has reduced the issue to just salary alone.
“The FG has relegated this to salary alone, but if they had looked at the whole content of the agreement and implemented it, they would not be talking about funding, that is why the issue of TETFUND arose in 1992.
“If the government has looked at the issues comprehensively, we will not be talking about funding. This government wants to blackmail us with salaries.
“Every university in the world is an autonomous body. You don’t subject the university to public service. This is why we are where we are today.
“The renegotiation started in 2017, when Mr Wale Babalakin was appointed to chair the talks. We spent more than two years on that.
“That committee eventually collapsed when Babalakin was removed as the Chancellor of the University of Lagos, and another person was appointed.
“Each time a new committee is set up, the first question we ask them is whether they have the mandate to renegotiate the whole agreement with us and they usually answer in the affirmative.
“Imagine since May 2021, we concluded a renegotiation and they said they would get back to us. Since then, they haven’t gotten back to us since we started this strike.”
“This set (administration) does not bother, but blackmail us with funding salaries. If they look at the agreement, it encompasses funding and the issue of autonomy because every university in the world is an autonomous body. If we go to a meeting today and the government meets our demand, then we will call off the strike. The economy is down today because we do not want to do the needful because the educational system is broken.
Osodeke also said that Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo’s claim that the government does not have money to meet ASUU’s demands, is a “sad development.”
He said, “It is sad for the Federal Government to say it does not have money to meet our demand. If anybody has a will, he or she can get what he wants.
“If the government has the will and believes that education is important, it will raise any amount to fix it.
“This is a government who has given huge sums into TraderMoni, but what we are asking for is nothing compared to the sum they have put into Trader Moni. This is a government that released N200 billion to feed school children and that is more than what we are asking for as regards revitalisation fund.
“So I do not think the government is sincere when it says it has no money. We have constantly asked that they give appropriate budget allocation to the education sector. In Ghana, they give not less than 16 percent and in South Africa, it is 60 percent, but in the continent, Nigeria is the lowest with 5.3 percent and we are saying priority must be given to education, they will say they do not have money, but it is not about the quantum of demand we are seeking for, they are just not sincere.”
On ways to resolve the crisis, the ASUU President said, “We have always been asking the government to give enough budgetary allocation to education.
“All over Africa, Nigeria has the lowest of about 5.3 percent when countries like Ghana and South Africa give about 16 percent of its budget. If the government signs the agreements of the previous discussions, the strike would be called off.”
Osodeke also revealed that the issues concerning the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS), and the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, UTAS, have been resolved.
He said, “The issue of IPPIS and UTAS has been put to rest. If the government agrees with us tomorrow, everything will be resolved.
“The issues of IPPIS and UTAS have been put to rest as agreed with the Chief of Staff, the Utas will be implemented.
“You see, if this government is serious, this strike will not last more than two weeks. The President directed the Minister of Education to finish within two weeks, now two weeks have passed and they didn’t come back.”
He accused the government of being deliberate in their actions to prolong the strike and added that lecturers now have to cover the backlog of work that ought to have been done.
When quizzed on the ripple effects the union’s demands might have on other sectors of the economy, he said, “Check all over the world, the only job competitive worldwide is lecturing, academics. How much is being given to staff in establishments in NNPC, CBN or NEPZA? When they were increasing their salaries, did they ever think that other MDAs would come and look at increments? Nigerian academics are leaving the country, doctors are leaving and these are special areas. Do they want to crash these major systems?”
The ASUU President further took a swipe at the operations of private universities and accused them of contributing to the decadence of the education sector.
“Before these private universities came on board, JAMB never gave a cut-off point of less than 200. Today they are taking 120 because the private institutions have bastardised the system and are admitting people who fail JAMB.
“These same people who fail JAMB are the ones coming out with first-class honours from these private institutions, it is now a matter of “cash and carry”. What we are having now is a situation of “the children of the rich will only go to school and the children of the poor won’t go.”
