…urges action on renegotiated 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement
The leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has issued a fresh warning to the Federal Government about a looming crisis in Nigerian universities if urgent steps are not taken to address the union’s unfulfilled demands.
President of ASUU, Prof. Christopher Piwuna, who gave the warning in a statement on Saturday in Abuja, expressed the frustration of lecturers, who he noted are angry and unhappy with the government over their appalling conditions of service.
He decried the frustrated attempts by Federal Government officials to conclude the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement, despite the submission of a draft agreement by the Alhaji Yayale Ahmed committee to the government in December 2024, eight clear months ago.
“Feelers across campuses indicate that lecturers in Nigerian public universities are, to put it mildly, not happy. They teach students on empty stomachs. They conduct research in libraries and laboratories bereft of essential electronic and physical journals, books, chemicals and reagents.
“They engage with communities and agencies in rickety cars while encumbered by utility bills, children’s fees, house rents, family upkeep and a legion of other unmet responsibilities.
“Yet elite Nigerians are quick to blame the universities for “producing unemployable graduates” and failure to initiate innovative research for addressing the country’s problems our members feel forgotten, shamed and demoralised by past and present governments.
“Nothing illustrates this antipathy better than the frustrated attempts to conclude the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement, despite submission of a draft agreement by the Alhaji Yayale Ahmed committee to government since December 2024, eight clear months ago,” Piwuna stated.
He noted that the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, was recently quoted to have declared that “not again ever in this country will ASUU or tertiary institutions, trade unions, teachers, lecturers go on strike”.
According to the ASUU President, Alausa had predicated his declaration (optimism) on the government’s strategy of “dialogue, maintaining a good relationship with union heads (leaders) and meeting the demands of the unions”.
He said that while ASUU shares the Minister’s optimism about dialogue and maintaining relationships, the government needs to go beyond words and act on the outstanding issues.
Some of the outstanding issues include payment of the outstanding Earned Academic Allowance (EAA), conclusion of the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement, and release of the university revitalisation fund, among others.
“For the umpteenth time, ASUU invites all genuine patriots to prevail on Nigeria’s Federal and State Governments to address all lingering labour issues in the Nigerian University System to avert another looming industrial crisis,” he said.
Piwuna lamented that ASUU has ceaselessly warned owners, governments, and visitors of public universities — the Federal and State Governments — of the consequences of breeding a disempowered, dissatisfied, and disoriented intellectual workforce.
He said: “Nigerian academics are tired of governments’ excuses which have only left them with a long list of Memoranda of Understanding/Memoranda of Action (MoUs/MoAs) — 2013, 2017, 2019, 2020 — and kept them talking over the renegotiation of the 2009 Agreement for upward of eight years!
“No memorandum or discussion can take the place of a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) which fully addresses staff welfare issues and the requisite environment for productive academic work. The time to act is now!
Piwuna added, “At the centre of the union’s advocacy is respect for collective bargaining principles as enshrined in the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Convention No. 98 of 1949 and Convention No. 154 of 1981.
“The flip-flop disposition of successive governments towards collective bargaining has created an atmosphere of distrust which will take extra efforts and energy on the part of the current Federal Government to dispel.
“Every major dispute ASUU has had with governments since 2012, when the 2009 Agreement was due for renegotiation, emanated from failure to respect the provisions of the signed document on (i) conditions of service; (ii) funding; (iii) university autonomy and academic freedom; and (iv) other matters including the review of the laws governing the National Universities Commission (NUC) and Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
“Agents of government at the State and Federal levels have characteristically thrown the underlying principles of the Agreement overboard and resorted to platitudes and tokenism.
“They pick and choose what aspect(s) of the package to ‘renegotiate’ and implement. They discountenance the morale of intellectual workers and basic requirements for delivering on their mandate of teaching, research and (community) service.
“And, now, we hear of attracting academics who were forced into seeking better work environment elsewhere as ‘volunteers’ with the ‘Diaspora Bridge’! On what foundation will the bridge stand? Does this not amount to hypocrisy?,” he queried.
ASUU further stated that successive Nigerian governments have distracted and deceived university lecturers for too long, pushing academics to the point of a strike, and then turning around to withhold their salaries.
He lamented that the government introduced a “corruption-laden” Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS), yet goes ahead to punish lecturers for opting out of the pipeline of corruption, adding that lecturers are promoted in the universities but those responsible for giving cash backing withhold it with impunity, with several years of promotion arrears outstanding.
“When a government punishes its citizens for demanding what is due to them, can it have any moral claim to democratic culture? Where public officials and bureaucrats have the license to undervalue their country’s intellectual assets will the hope of a knowledge-driven economy not elude the nation?
“Our union is also gravely concerned by decisions of some governing councils at the federal and state universities.
“Universities that are built on merit and scholarship are been turned into commodities for politicians and contractors in the appointment of Vice Chancellors.
“ASUU condemns the attempt to bring back the Ag. Vice Chancellor of Alvan Ikoku University of Education, despite clear evidences to the fact that her promotion to the rank of a Reader and Professor were fraught with a lot of contradictions, similar things are unfolding in federal universities,” ASUU stated.
