FG’s Perceived Insensitivity to ASUU’s Demands

Last Tuesday, lecturers under the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) held protests across campuses nationwide, to press home their demands from the federal government.

The lecturers had fixed Tuesday, August 26 to conduct the nationwide protest across campuses, following a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, between August 16 and 17.

ASUU’s President, Professor Christopher Piwuna, said the outcome of the August 28 meeting with the government would decide the next line of action of the union, which could be an industrial action.

Piwuna said the union had tried several strategies to resolve the dispute with the Nigerian government, including writing multiple letters, but the government failed to address the issues. He, therefore, called on members to protest en masse.

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

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 President Bola Tinubu’s government 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.

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 stalled since 2017 with multiple draft agreements between ASUU and the government-appointed committee ignored by the previous administration of the late Muhammadu Buhari.

 The country’s economy is so bad that it would not be fair for students to be allowed to spend extra years in school.

Interestingly, President Tinubu, when he was campaigning for office, had promised that under his presidency, there would be no strike in Nigerian schools.

It is therefore surprising that the federal government has remained insensitive to the demands of the union.