Once again, the Federal Government’s
refusal to honour an agreement it
reached with lecturers of public
universities has forced the Academic
Staff Union of Universities to embark
on industrial action on Monday, SEGUN
OLUGBILE reports When the Academic
Staff Union of Universities suspended
its two- month strike in February 2012,
many had thought that the last had
been heard of national strikes in public
institutions. This optimism was hinged
on the Memorandum of Understanding
signed by the Federal Government and
the lecturers on how to resolve
funding challenges, infrastructural
decay and welfare problem in the
nation’s public universities. But this is
not to be, as the union on Monday
stated that it has returned to the
trenches to fight government for its
alleged refusal to honour an agreement
it reached with lecturers. Specifically,
ASUU said it has resumed the
suspended strike from Monday
(yesterday). This action, the union’s
National
President, Dr. Nasir Fagge, said was
taken after the Federal Government
allegedly failed to implement the
agreement. Fagge said the action,
though painful, would be total,
comprehensive and last for as long as
the government implements the details
of the Memorandum of Understanding
that both parties signed in 2011.
Consequently, the ,,semester
examinations going on in some
universities would be disrupted, while
admission processes would be put on
hold. Final year students writing their
projects would be hit hard, as their
supervisors would not attend to them.
By this, academic activities in public
tertiary institutions, particularly in
universities and polytechnics, which
had been on strike in the last three
months, would be paralysed. The
decision to embark on the action was
taken during the National Executive
Council meeting of ASUU at the Olabisi
Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun
State between Sunday and Monday. All
the 53 chapters of ASUU were
represented at the meeting, during
which 51 chapters of the union
overwhelmingly voted in support of
the action. Briefing the press about the
outcome of the NEC meeting at the
University of Lagos on Monday, Fagge
said the union decided to suspend the
action in January 2012 after the Federal
Government and ASUU signed the
MoU, which contained how all the
issues of funding, pension scheme,
retirement age and payment of earned
allowance for qualified lecturers would
be handled. The Federal Government,
the union stated, had only
implemented the extension of the
retirement age of professors to 70, but
had failed to pay the earned allowance
for lecturers who are assigned other
duties apart from teaching, research
and community service. The earned
allowance is the money paid to
lecturers who are assigned to
administrative duties such as heads of
department, hall wardens, student
project’s supervision and examination
duties and pay for extra workload on
lecturers. Under the student projects’
supervision allowance, a professor is
expected to be paid N15, 000 per theses.
Also, under the extra workload
category, the lecturer/student ratio in
Arts, Social Sciences and Education
faculties is one lecturer to 50 students,
one to 35 in Faculty of Sciences and
one lecturer to 25 students in Colleges
of Medicine. Lecturers are supposed to
be paid if they have more than the
national lecturer/student ratio. “When
we signed the MoU, it was stated that
N100bn had been set aside to pay the
earned allowance. But I can tell you
that no lecturer has been paid since
2009. Yes, the government has
extended the retirement age of
professors to 70 as agreed, earned
allowances have not been paid while
little has been done to raise the level of
infrastructure in universities,” he said.
Although he explained that the union
had met with government over the
matter many times, government has
refused to respect the agreement.
Rather, he said, ASUU was told that the
government forgot to include the
earned allowance in the budget. The
Chairman, ASUU, UNILAG chapter, Dr.
Karo Ogbinanka, who had earlier
briefed the press about the readiness
of his chapter to start the strike after a
congress on Monday, explained that the
strike was called because government
had never shown enough commitment
to the development of the sector. He
explained that after the MoU was
signed, a NEEDS Assessment Committee
on the State of Public Universities was
set up to look at the state of
infrastructure of the institutions. “The
report has been submitted a"nd all of
us know that our universities fall
short in physical development, but our
concern is government has not done
enough to revamp these institutions
and the modalities for the injection of
funds into these universities have not
been followed. That is why there has
been increase in the rate of agitation
for improved municipal facilities in
our universities which has
unfortunately been leading to the
deaths of innocent students,” Ogbinaka
said. But why is the union embarking
on strike when it has not given the
government the required ultimatum,
Ogbinaka explained that the union had
done a warning strike before now.
“Anyway, we don’t even need to give
them ultimatum because it is clearly
stated in the MoU that we signed with
them that we (ASUU) will go on strike
without warning should they fail to
honour the agreement. They have
reneged on the agreement and so there
is nothing that can stop us from
embarking on this comprehensive and
total strike,” he said. On when UNILAG
would join the strike, Ogbinaka said
that immediately after the press
briefing, a congress would be called
and the university management would
be informed. “It’s a national strike and
UNILAG has joined the action,” he said.
Also the National Treasurer of ASUU,
Dr. Ademola Aremu who is also the
former Chairman, University of Ibadan
chapter of ASUU said the action, being
a national one, would be fully
supported by lecturers at the premier
university. “We are not fighting
management of the university, it is the
Federal Government that should be
blamed for pushing us to the wall to
make this painful decision,” Aremu
said. Most of the students our
correspondent spoke to on this new
development expressed sadness at the
action. They called on the Federal
Government to honour the agreement
by giving their teachers their due. “I’m
in the final year, if this crisis is not
urgently resolved, it will dislocate my
career and that of the other students,”
Wale, a student of Political Science at
UNILAG said. But before ASUU finally
resorted to go on strike, the House of
Representatives had few weeks ago
summoned the Minister of Education,
Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufa’i and officials of
the union with a view to ensuring that
the crisis did not degenerate. The duo
were invited to meet with members of
the House Committee on Education as
part of the moves by the legislature to
avert the looming strike. It followed a
motion of urgent public importance
sponsored by Mr. Bashir Babale (PDP/
Kano) and unanimously endorsed by
his colleagues. Babale said it had
become worrisome that university
lecturers frequently embark on strikes
to compel the government to meet its
obligations. This, he noted, was not
good enough as the issues at the root
of the crisis were matters that had been
agreed upon by both parties. The
lawmaker urged the House to intervene
in the crisis and avert the impending
strike. Other lawmakers who
contributed to the debate, argued that
democracy cannot survive without
good education. They warned that it
would be wrong for the government to
continue to treat its 2009 agreement
with ASUU with levity. But this
intervention was fruitless, as
government said it had no money to
pay the earned allowance. “We even
agreed to sacrifice 20 per cent of the
earned allowance but government said
it could only pay 50 per cent. We were
even shocked when they said they had
forgotten to include the money into the
budget. So, since 2009 no lecturer has
been paid the earned allowance and all
of us can testify to the fact that our
universities whether old or new are
still being underfunded,” Ogbinaka
said. The ASUU officials, however,
pleaded with students and parents to
bear with the union as they could no
longer stand government’s lack of
commitment to education. The last time
ASUU embarked on a national strike
over the same issue was December 5,
2011. The union was prevailed upon to
suspend the strike in February 2012
after the Federal Government signed
the now contentious MoU with ASUU
with a promise to accede to the
lecturers’ requests. President Goodluck
Jonathan hurriedly signed into law a
bill that sought to extend the
retirement age of professors to 70. But
after that not much had been done to
make the system better than it was in
2009. Efforts to speak with the minister
failed, as a top official in the ministry,
who pleaded anonymity, said she was
not available for comments.
source: http://leoweblink..com/2013/07/fg-forced-ASUU-to-go-on-strike_4.html?m=1