UPDATE ON ASUU: No
salary arrears, no resumption –ASUU
The
Academic Staff Union of Universities has said it will not
suspend its ongoing strike until
the four months salaries owed its members are paid.
The
union also wants the immediate implementation of the N1.2tn offer by the
Federal Government to public universities, starting with the release of N100bn
this year. The balance of N1.1tn is to be spread over five years from 2014.
These
were some of the resolutions reached by members of the National Executive
Council of the union who converged on Kano on Friday to deliberate on whether
to call off the over four- month-old industrial action or not.
A
source, who was privy to the resolutions
reached during the President Goodluck Jonathan – ASUU leadership meeting
three weeks ago, told The PUNCH on Sunday,
that the fresh demands were some
of the issues to be tabled before Jonathan by
the leadership during their next
meeting. A date for the meeting is yet to be fixed.
According to the source, a strong commitment
to two demands, among other pending
issues, must be obtained from the President before the industrial action will be called off by the
union.
He
said, “The issue now is on trust and we
do not want a situation where promises will not be kept. The authorities have
failed us in the past and we do not want a repeat of that.
”That
was why we decided at the NEC meeting that the government should pay us the
arrears of salaries being owed us since we started the strike on July1 before
the strike can be called off. The salaries should not be paid piecemeal.
“We
also insist that the Federal Government should start the implementation of the
offer made to us when we met the President some weeks ago.
“For
instance, the N100bn he (Jonathan) agreed to inject into the university system
in 2013 should be released to the universities immediately. So, we decided that before the strike could be
called off, these two conditions and others must be met not by promises but by
real action.”
The
NEC members, who met behind closed
doors at the Bayero University, Kano,
were said to have reviewed the reports of the various university congresses on
the strike.
Our source, who did not want his name in
print, added that the death of a former
National President of ASUU, Prof. Festus Iyayi, was discussed at the NEC
meeting.
Iyayi,
a University of Benin lecturer, died in an auto accident involving the convoy
of the Kogi State Governor, Idris Wada and an ASUU vehicle, on his way to
Kano for
the meeting.The union’s National Welfare Officer, Dr. Ngozi
Ilo, was injured.
Our
source said the accident “almost
led to the discontinuation of the
ongoing negotiation with the Federal Government.
He
added, “Some members expressed the belief that he (Iyayi) was killed by the
government and therefore argued that the ongoing negotiation should be called
off. Tempers rose but some members argued that the President should be
respected because he had created the record of being the first Nigerian
leader to meet with
the leadership of ASUU on the issue of making the nation’s university
system better. They also argued that
students and parents should be considered.”
It
was also learnt that after arguments for and against, about 60 per cent of the
members of the NEC voted in favour of
the discontinuation of the strike
while the remaining 40 per cent voted
no.
But
it was gathered that the NEC
members unanimously agreed that before
the strike could be called off, the leadership should ask the government to pay the four-month salary arrears being owed
university teachers while the offer made by the government should be
implemented immediately.
A
key component of the agreement reached by both ASUU and the Federal Government
when the President led the government team was that government would inject
N1.2tn into public universities.
The
government also agreed that the N1.2tn
would be domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria to show its commitment to the
agreement.
The
money is expected to be released on quarterly basis to the universities so that
there won’t be any problem about implementing the deal.
The
National Universities Commission and the Trade Union Congress will be the joint
guarantors of the agreement while the Minister of Education will be the
implementing officer. The government also agreed to revamp public universities
by ensuring that all the issues that always lead to strike were dealt with once and for all.
A
majority of the chapters of the union had agreed to the
suspension of the strike following the fresh commitment the leadership of ASUU
obtained from the government.
ASUU National President, Dr. Nassir Fagge, did
not pick the several calls made to his telephone line by one of our correspondents on Sunday to confirm the
fresh demands.
The
University of Lagos chapter ASUU Chairman, Dr. Karo Ogbinaka, and his
counterpart in the Lagos State
University, Dr. Adekunle Idris, also
refused to divulge information on the outcome of the NEC meeting.
ASUU
had embarked on the strike to protest
against the failure of the government to
implement the agreement they signed in
2009.
The
pact largely centered on better funding
of the universities, a declaration of a state of emergency in tertiary
education, better wages and payment of earned allowances to lecturers.
It had
suspended the NEC meeting penultimate
week following Iyayi’s death.
Source:
PUNCH
