On Tuesday, lecturers under the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) held protests across campuses nationwide, pressing the federal government to address lingering demands.
The lecturers had fixed Tuesday, 26 August to conduct the nationwide protest across campuses, following a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, between 16 and 17 August.
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ASUU President, Christopher Piwuna, a professor, said the union would also await the 28 August meeting with the government, after which it would decide on the next line of action, which could be an industrial action.
Mr Piwuna said the union had tried several strategies to resolve the dispute with the Nigerian government, including writing multiple letters, but the government has failed to address the issues.
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“As always, it is the FGN that has consistently pushed our union to embark on a strike action, and it is clear that ASUU may have no other option than to embark on an action to press the FGN to listen to our demands and do the needful,” the union had said.
He, therefore, called on members to protest en masse.
‘Our members are dying’
At the University of Abuja on Tuesday, the lecturers protested in the mid-day rain, chanting solidarity songs.
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They also carried placards that read: “Release third-party deductions to our unions and cooperatives”, “What is good for the politician is good for the people”, “We demand a salary increase not loans” among others.
Addressing journalists, the chairperson for the ASUU-UniAbuja, Sylvanus Ugo, said the union had exercised patience with the Bola Tinubu administration which now touts its patience as an achievement of the government even though it has failed to meet the lecturers’ demands.
Mr Ugo noted there has been no nationwide ASUU strike because the union exercised restraint and not because the government met the demands it promised to address.
“We have been patient for more than two years since this government came to power, we have been patient with them, we have been following them, they have promised to release all low-hanging fruits. But up till date, those low-hanging fruits are still there,” he said.
“We have come to that point where we need to let the Nigerian public know what we are going through and we say enough is enough. It is not when all the academics are dead that they’ll come to our assistance.”
Mr Ugo said the union loses close to 50 members quarterly, adding that the deaths are mostly stress-related.
Demands
The ASUU-UniAbuja listed the union’s demands as; the payment of three and half months’ salaries withheld by the former administration of Muhammadu Buhari in 2022, implementation of the Yayale-Ahmed renegotiation committee’s draft submitted in February, release of promotional arrears of lecturers, release of the one year arrears of the 25 and 35 per cent federal government wage-award to workers, and the release of third-party deductions to unions and cooperatives.
Govt stalling renegotiation efforts –ASUU
ASUU had accused the federal government of dragging its feet on the implementation of the draft renegotiated 2009 agreement submitted by the Yayale Ahmed-led committee in February.
The union said the report was left untouched for months until the government called ASUU for a meeting on 11 August.
It also accused the government of attempting to subvert the principle of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) in addressing issues in the draft agreement.
ASUU had also lamented that Mr Tinubu’s government is also toeing its predecessor’s ugly path by stalling renegotiation efforts.
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It said the government has also failed to address other concerns of the union, including the payment of the remaining three and a half months salaries withheld in 2022, following the government’s declaration of a ‘No work, No Pay’ policy during the union’s eight months strike.
Mr Tinubu paid four of the eight months’ salaries in 2024, but the union maintained it needed to be paid in full.
Also, renegotiation efforts for the 2009 agreement have stalled since 2017, with multiple draft agreements between ASUU and the government-appointed committee ignored by the previous administration of the late Muhammadu Buhari.
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