The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has suspended its ongoing two-week warning strike 10 days after it began.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, ASUU President Chris Piwuna directed members of the union to return to work starting tomorrow, Thursday.
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Mr Piwuna said the decision was taken at an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the union held in Abuja between 21 and 22 October.
He said the suspension of the strike followed fruitful engagements with the government’s representatives in the past week.
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He, however, noted that the union would resume the suspended strike should the government fail to resolve lingering issues in a month.
“NEC resolved that a one-month window should be given to the government to conclude the ongoing renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU and fully address other outstanding issues,” he said.
“NEC hopes that the government would take advantage of this opportunity to timeously resolve all the issues, in order to guarantee industrial harmony and ensure stability of our academic calendar as it has always promised.”
“While noting that a lot more work is still required, NEC came to the conclusion that the objective of the warning strike had been partly achieved.”
Warning strike
ASUU embarked on a two-week warning strike on Monday, 13 October, over the government’s failure to address its lingering demands.
The government immediately responded with a threat of a ‘No Work, No Pay’ policy, directing the Vice-Chancellors of universities to take note of staff who stayed away from work.
The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, accused the union of not negotiating with the government in good faith.
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) knocked the government for the ‘No Work, No Pay’ threat, noting that ASUU’s industrial action was a direct consequence of the government’s neglect of the tertiary institutions and failure to uphold previous agreements it had with the union.
‘Fruitful meetings’
However, ASUU said the two-week warning strike has achieved its objective.
“When we gathered here about 10 days ago, to painfully declare a warning strike, it was a decision that left us with no other choice,” the ASUU president said.
Mr Piwuna noted that the government had now returned to the negotiation table, a feat he said had been impossible for almost a year.
Mr Piwuna said the ASUU team met with the Yayale Ahmed-led government’s team on Thursday, 16, and Saturday, 18 October to consider the government’s response to the Draft Renegotiated 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement.
He said another date has also been fixed for the next round of deliberations.
“We certainly have not achieved the twin objectives of concluding the renegotiation which started way back in 2017, and fully addressing other lingering issues,” he said.
“However, we are definitely not where we were prior to, and at the commencement of, the strike. This poignantly shows that, had the government positively responded to the union’s earlier notices and appeals, there would have been no need for the strike in the first place.”
The union also noted the ‘swift intervention’ of the Senate Committees on Tertiary Education, TETFund, and Labour.
The ASUU president said the meetings with the two committees on Friday, 17 October and a follow-up meeting with the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, on the same day, appeared promising in amicably resolving all the outstanding issues.
“Our members place a lot of hope on the strong promises made by these distinguished senators. We look forward to working with them to fully deliver on their promises,” he added.
Lingering issues
The issues of contention between ASUU and the federal government include the conclusion of the renegotiated 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement, release of the withheld three-and-a-half months’ salaries, sustainable funding of public universities, and the revitalisation of universities.
READ ALSO: Strike: Senate wades into FG-ASUU crisis
Others are payment of the outstanding 25-35 per cent salary arrears, payment of promotion arrears for over four years, and the release of withheld cooperative contributions deductions.
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 been released so far.
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 successfully completed since the first agreement was signed.
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