ASUU Adamant, Declares One-month Warning Strike, FG Says Action Illegal

Onyebuchi Ezigbo, Kuni Tyessi in Abuja and Funmi Ogundare in Lagos

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has announced its commencement of a roll-over four-week strike beginning from yesterday.

But the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige has described the four weeks warning strike as illegal vacation. In an Interview with some journalists, Ngige said ASUU’s threat to embark on one month warning strike was unwarranted.

Similarly, the Ministry of Education yesterday said it was not aware of the purported strike by the academic staff.

The industrial action, according to ASUU, followed the failure of the federal government to fully implement the Memorandum of Understanding ( MoU) and the Memorandum of Action (MoA).

Some of the union’s grievances with the federal government included: Non-deployment of University Transparency Accountability Solution ( UTAS), non- release of the white paper by the visitation panel, Earned Academic Allowances ( EAA) and non- payment of EAA to members of ASUU OAU, illegal appointment of Dr. Isah Ali Pantami as a Professor of Cyber security by the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), proliferation of state universities, victimisation of academics in state universities, JAMB encroachment into university autonomy, among others

The president of the union, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke who briefed journalists at the end of its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held at the University of Lagos, Akoka, expressed concern over the non – implementation of MoA and MoU by the federal government, saying the government was yet to indicate its readiness to sign the draft agreement of the renegotiation of May 2021, to address the deteriorating conditions of Nigeria’s public universities.

According to him, IPPIS was, “a cesspool of corruption which glaringly undermines the autonomy of the Nigerian university system,” saying the payment platform was unilaterally imposed by the government to further compound the multi-faceted problems in the universities.

He added: “The imposition of IPPIS undermines the universal traditional of sabbatical leave system, visiting and adjunct appointments, and other essential aspects of university autonomy by attempting to integrate the financial and bureaucratic administration of the universities into the Nigerian civil service structure.”

Osodeke described IPPIS as incompatible with the peculiar attributes and operations of public university system, adding that many years of non-payment of earned academic allowances were triggering industrial crisis in our universities.

Speaking on the appointment of Pantami as a professor of Cyber Security, by FUTO, the president argued that he was not qualified and that his appointment violated established procedure for the appointment of professors in the university.

“He is a serving minister and a lecturer, this is very wrong. NEC has directed all members and branches of our union throughout the federation not to recognise, accord or treat Dr. Isah Ali Pantami as a professor of Cybersecurity under any guide.

“NEC also resolve to sanction all ASUU members who participated in the process that led to the illegal appointment in accordance with the establishment procedures of our union,” the president stressed.

He said the union was not insensitive to the genuine concerns about stable academic calendars in public universities, saying the blame should be put squarely at the doorsteps of those who ignored its patriotic yearnings for a development-oriented education in Nigeria.

However, Ngige accused ASUU’s leadership of abandoning the mediatory talks brokered by the Nigerian Inter Religious Council (NIREC) co-chaired by the Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar and President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN) Rev. Samson Ayokunle.

Ngige said: “Proactively, we have been working with NIREC Nigeria Interreligious Council NIREC co-chaired by the Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar and Ayekunle, President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN.

“They have held two meetings with ASUU and in labour administration and labour parlance, it is allowed, it is called tripartite plus, so as the conciliator, the President has directed me with the Minister of Education and Chief of Staff to liaise with NIREC and so we are in communication with the NIREC secretariat and the Sultan himself who was attending to other issues over the week, but they have held two meetings with ASUU and which they told them to give them a chance to look into the matter fully and I have equally briefed them on the situation of things where the government group is.

“So, I don’t know how ASUU has now declared a strike and call it a warning strike, there is nothing like a warning strike”.

The minister who said his office was yet to be officially communicated to by ASUU on their warning strike, insisted that federal government had done its own part with regard to the agreement with the university lecturers.

“I was in touch with the Minister of Education last night (Sunday), they are putting up government group meeting today in their place to look at the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement which is actually as you will call it a renegotiation of condition of service their salaries and packages and welfare renegotiation that’s what they mean but 2009 agreements that is main thing, every other thing there is ancillary,” he said.

Ngige also exonerated government from blame on the issue of the non-approval of UTAS, saying it was the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) that has authority and expertise to do so.

“I wrote to ASUU conveying NITDA’s report and forwarded to the Ministry of Education, forwarded to the National Universities Commission, forwarded to the Ministry of Finance, the Accountant General Office because these are the people they work with on UTAS and they have been working with them and all the tests and everything is being conducted with them.

“The hard wares will be deposited and housed at the National University Commission. So they have been meeting, they have been working on it. But they said no, that they want their own to be put into place immediately and that if there is any lapses, correction will be done but NIDA says it doesn’t work that way.

“You can’t accuse the government to have not done its own bit, government said it is going to use it, it is home grown, we like home grown things.

“I in particular like home grown things in the Ministry of Labour, I like the Order 3 and Order 5 of the Presidential Order to be obeyed and save foreign exchange for the country. So that one is there, they are now jettisoning it,” he said.

Ngige also explained that the amendment to bill on private universities had been sent it to the National Assembly.

“Education is on Concurrent List, so you cannot go and gag state governments from establishing universities but you can go to the NUC Act and make the establishment of universities very stringent. So that is what is happening,” he explained.

When asked the way out of the logjam, Ngige said: ” They (ASUU) have to call off this their leave. They gave themselves leave by force, that is what they did, illegal leave.”

Also, the Director of Information and Publicity in the Ministry of Education, Mr. Ben Bem Goong, said the ministry was not aware of the purported strike by ASUU.

In a phone chat with THISDAY, the director said there are procedures that must be followed before employees go on strike. These, he said were not adhered to by the academic union.

He said the ministry had received several calls and visitors asking for clarification on the industrial action.

“I have been in the office with the minister since morning and we are still in the office and I can assure you that till this moment, no one has informed us of any strike action. My answer to you is that the ministry is not informed and we do not know that ASUU has embarked on any strike.

“There are processes and procedures that must be followed before ASUU can go on strike. They are supposed to write to the ministry and notify the minister that they are embarking on strike. But as I speak to you, there has been nothing like that and we are yet to receive any letter from them,” he added.