UPDATED: Strike looms as ASUU issues 14-day ultimatum to Nigerian government

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has issued a 14-day ultimatum to the Nigerian government.

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In a statement on Monday, ASUU President, Chris Piwuna, a professor, said the decision was reached at the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held at the University of Abuja on Sunday, 28 September.

ASUU said it has adopted several methods of negotiating with the government, including letters, reminders and protests, but none have worked.

“Accordingly, ASUU has given the Federal Government of Nigeria an Ultimatum of fourteen (14) days within which to address these issues,” the statement said.

“For the past three months, ASUU has mentioned these issues at both the National, Zonal and Branch levels. For the past three months, these issues have been debated and combated in the media and other platforms.”

Should the government fail to address the issues at the end of the 14-day ultimatum, the union said it would first embark on a two-week warning strike and thereafter, a total and indefinite strike.

A source within ASUU’s National Executive Council (NEC) told PREMIUM TIMES on Monday that the federal government had requested a three-week grace period as President Bola Tinubu was travelling for his annual leave in France.

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However, the grace period has expired, and ASUU is yet to hear from the government.

The source said ASUU chapters had held a referendum and most had voted in favour of a strike action, but the NEC decided to extend the grace period by an additional two weeks before a strike action.

Stalled renegotiation process

Last month, the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, set up a committee headed by the permanent secretary of the ministry, Abel Enitan, to look into the draft agreement between ASUU and the Yayale Ahmed renegotiation committee submitted in February.

ASUU had accused the federal government of dragging its feet on implementing the draft renegotiated 2009 agreement submitted by the Yayale Ahmed committee in February.

The union said the report was untouched for months until the government called ASUU for a meeting on 11 August.

On 28 August, Mr Alausa announced the Mr Enitan-led committee. However, ASUU is saying it has yet to hear from the government since then.

ASUU’s demands

In Monday’s statement, ASUU listed its demands to include the renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement, revitalisation of universities, payment of three and a half months’ withheld salaries from 2022, and payment of promotional arrears of lecturers.

Others are: release of the one-year arrears of the 25 and 35 per cent federal government wage-award to workers, sustainable funding of the universities, and victimisation of colleagues in Lagos State University and Kogi State University (now Prince Abubakar Audu University).

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The 2009 agreement is the crux of ASUU’s dispute with the Nigerian government, which has lasted over a decade.

The agreement, first signed in 2009, covers Nigerian academics’ conditions of service and salary structure, which ASUU complained had remained the same to date.

The agreement also included a clause that the Nigerian government would spend N1.2 trillion in five tranches of N200 billion annually on the universities from 2009 to 2015. Only N200 billion has so far been released.

It also included autonomy for the universities, which ASUU argues is being eroded with the introduction of a centralised payment platform of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

The agreement also includes a provision for renegotiation every four years. That renegotiation has not been completed since the first agreement was signed.