Contrary to what the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu has made the public to believe concerning the lingering ASUU strike, FG has not met the demands of ASUU. What they did was to offer promissory notes to ASUU, same promises that they keep giving each time ASUU embarks on strike.

These are the promises:

1. Promise to release revitalisation fund of 170b and to be included in 2023 budget

2. Promise of Earned allowance of 50b For all the university based unions and to be included in 2023 budget

3. Promise of 30k salary increment for lecturers and 60k for professors and to be included in 2023 budget still. ASUU sees this particular offer as miserable and insulting. What happens to the draft of renegotiated agreement submitted to FG two months ago.

4. UTAS performed well in the test and MAY be deployed.

Nothing was said about the draft of the just concluded renegotiation between the Brigg's committee and ASUU.

To those who may want to know, these are same promises FG has been making year after year without fulfilling any and there are no indications that they have changed. So ASUU rejected this offer. However, FG came to the public to paint a picture that looks as if ASUU has accepted all their offers but insisted on payment of arrears of salary before calling off the strike. This is a lie. FG promissory offer was not accepted by ASUU, it's not just about arrears of salaries that has flooded the social media.

If I may comment on the withheld salaries, there is nothing to worry about. If the govt is not willing to pay the backlog of salaries, then the backlog of work will be skipped and the school calendar continues at the normal pace. That means lecturers will not resume from where they stopped before the strike. All pending lectures, exams and marking of scripts, practicals, projects, etc that were supposed to take place during the strike period will be forgotten. Lecturers will skip whatever was left and resume a fresh session. The issue of ending a semester this week and resuming a fresh semester next week in order to recover lost grounds will never arise. The issue of sacrificing holidays in order to meet up and graduate students will not arise because no backlog of work will be undertaken, since the period when that work was supposed to be done is a period of no work no pay. Another implication is that the set of JAMBites with Jamb admissions waiting to resume will forfeit the admission and write another Jamb, because that particular admission has become stale, since govt will not pay for the period lost to strike.

In essence what everyone should know is that all the works lecturers were supposed to do during the strike would still be done to the later whenever the strike is suspended, but if withheld salaries will not be paid, then such backlog of works will be skipped. Therefore it is not withheld salaries that is holding the strike, rather, it is the failure of govt to address the issues that led to the strike.

Dr Kufre Udo.

Yet My Take Home Pay Monthly Is Below ₦170,000
***
I started lecturing in 2010/2011 session. Since then, I've done both M. Sc and PhD.

I've published in local and international journals.

I've published book chapters. I've attended both international and local conferences and workshops, all out of my salary.

I've taught hundreds of Nigerians at both undergraduate and postgraduate studies.

I've supervised hundreds of undergraduate projects, average of 8 each year.

Currently, I'm supervising 9 M. Sc students and 1 PhD candidate.

I was a departmental examination officer, I was a a level coordinator for 5 years. I was assistant IT coordinator for two years.

Currently, I am the quality assurance officer of my department, alumni relations officer of the department, member of faculty ERIC.

I am currently the examination officer of my faculty as well as the ICT officer of the faculty.

By next year, I'll be a Senior Lecturer. Yet, my take-home a month is below ₦170,000 out of which I still help some students with the little I can.

As part of my community service, I give students and community based organisations pro bono lectures whenever invited.

I maintain a Telegram Channel where I help Nigerian students with free literature to help their studies.

I have to take care of my family, my health and the health of my family, my old mother, friends and relatives from that meagre pay.

Also, you should know that teaching and those administrative activities are not considered when it is time for my promotion.

The things that'll be considered for my promotion are my research output in the form of publication which I have to use part of my meagre salary to conduct.

Least I forget, I personally sponsored my M. Sc and PhD.

Let me stop here not to break my principle of DNA.

Those are our sacrifices that by the law of our services, government should compensate us with at least a living wage.

Those are what we do. Those are things that make some people insult us and those are same things that'll make us to never succumb to any blackmail or insult.

Above is not my story alone. It is the life of Nigerian academics.

Please, check if there is any Lecturer in Nigerian university with a PhD that still has his complete eyesight!

-Muhammad Hashim Suleiman

Thanks for asking for my take on Festus Keyamo’s submission on the current ASUU-FG impasse. I wouldn’t have bothered offering any comment if you had not tagged me. I say this because there is nothing new in Keyamo’s submission. This is in addition to the fact that very many people are already aware of what the ASUU-FG impasse is all about, and who is not telling what.

Now, let’s tease out the issues and I will only address a part of his submission for want of time. First, it should interest you to note that issues around the present impasse between ASUU and the FG is not new. It should also interest you to note that, in the quest to addressing the first part of the issue, there was the Babalakin’s Committee which was working on it before he (Babalakin) resigned as the Pro-Chancellor of Unilag over some internal squabbles in that university. You are aware that in 2020 ASUU embarked on strike around the current set of issues. Part of the reasons for suspending that strike was the appeal by the FG and the setting up of the Munzali’s Committee. That Committee submitted its report in May 2021. Your APC led-government refused to look into the report of the committee nor even invite ASUU to a discussion on it, thereby forcing ASUU to start shouting on top of her voice. The union was indeed forced to issue threats of industrial action, yet no response was forthcoming from the government. The union had planned to down tool as at December, 2021 but refused to do so until February 14, 2022 when all calls to the FG met with a deaf ear. The aftermath of the current strike action of the union led to the setting up of the Briggs’ Committee. The government explained that she could no longer work with the Munzali’s recommendations because the former has served out his tenure as a Pro-Chancellor. What does this suggest? Does it suggest any level of being sensitive and responsible by a government on a critical sector such as Education? Despite the frustration, ASUU as a Union kept faith believing government will do the needful when it is ready. But here we are, the Briggs' Committee that worked round the clock its been condemned on the dumb argument that ASUU objected to the presence of some critical stakeholders while the committee held its meetings. Yet, there are minutes of meetings showing the attendance of representatives of these stakeholders. In fact, Professor Briggs reported that he and others actually went round to seek the inputs of these stakeholders before inviting them and ASUU. If everybody was dumb, would Prof. Briggs be that daft? Didn’t these representatives report ASUU’s objection? How was it handled before rubbishing the work of an Emeritus Professor led-Committee?

Keyamo stated that ASUU unilaterally and arbitrarily fixed her own salaries. Where in the world is that done? Perhaps he and the rest of us should go and read the Principles of Collective Bargaining and how it operates. Is there anyone who will listen to those figures reeled out by Keyamo who will not consider ASUU as being unreasonable? But wait a minute, Amoka told us that as at the last count there were 39,784 academic staff in federal universities. There were 7,125 Professors, 3,377 Readers (Associate Professors), 7,368 Senior Lecturers, and 21,914 Lecturer 1 and below. Now look at the average gross and net salary of each category of lecturers and do a bit of arithmetic. The average monthly gross and take-home salary of professors is about N497,000 and N385,000 respectively. The average monthly gross and take-home salary of Readers is about N374,000 and N286,000 respectively. The average monthly gross and take-home salary of Senior Lecturers is about N307,000 and N237,000 respectively. The average monthly gross and take-home salary of Lecturer I and below is about N172,000 and N138,000 respectively. Multiply the monthly gross of the different categories by the number and multiply the obtained figures by 12 months, then add them up, and tell me what you arrive at. Meanwhile, if that amount is increased by Prof. Briggs' committee by 180% as claimed by Ngige (whom Keyamo is serving as a surrogate for), you know what the figure will be. That is simple arithmetic. It is definitely not N1.2tn. It is just too far from that. I really don’t know why government officials lie so brazenly?

Interestingly, when Keyamo was asked what message he has for parents and students who were watching at home, all he could muttered was that they should beg ASUU. Does that not portray him as being bereft of ideas? Even as it is, ASUU has made suggestions to this government on new ways to raise funding for the education sector (I know you may want to ask me what these are). But I wouldn’t bother. Here is a government that has continued to establish new universities at the expense of properly funding the existing ones. Every legislator has turned the act of establishing university into a constituent project. Today, we learnt there are about 63 bills in the national assembly seeking to establish new universities not minding the present quagmire. I listened to a former key Minister in this same administration saying he must have a University of Transportation in his village. Yet, in another stance, he described the country’s situation as hopeless and helpless. If this is the mindset of those we have appointed to lead us, it remains curious and beats one hollow, what goes on in the mind of anyone who will not hesitate to throw caution into the wind defending them at all cost. I personally don’t throw out abuses on government, but it doesn’t mean our defense and argument for them isn’t misplaced at times. I have no doubt that the APC led-government can end the ASUU strike today if they wish to end it. The ball is in their court.

Thank you and best regards.

AMUSA Tajudeen Okekunle
University of Ilorin

… “The moment they went on strike, we intervened…””The moment they declared the strike, even before the strike… and, as the talk started, they still went on strike” …”One sector of the economy to hold your jugular...” “we are putting our cards face up…” …”50% of the total wage…” “Go and beg ASUU…” …Go and beg them…” “Do you want me to kneel down on air?” …”They are not the only one feeding from the Federal purse…” …“Let’s go to the more critical issue why I am here…!”
Festus Keyamo

Any critical mind listening to Festus Keyamo gibberish on FG-ASUU faceoff yesterday, part of which I have captured above, can easily again see the emptiness of those who are unfortunately running the affairs of the Nigeria State at this critical moment. For instance, we know that communication or conversation runs on logical presentation of thoughts or ideas on the matter under discourse. Unfortunately, everything spewed out by Festus Keyamo yesterday runs afoul of anything known to logic in meaningful communication or conversation.

Now, let us start from his claim that “The moment they went on strike, we intervened.” For a start, a critical reading of Keyamo’s presentation shows a lack of logical coordination which is known as coherence of thought/idea. “The moment they went on strike, we intervened” means the Ministry of Labour only intervened after ASUU had declared strike. This claim cannot be mutually true with the claim that “…even before the strike”… To intervene the moment they went on strike is not the same thing as intervening before the strike. This is also not in agreement with the claim that “as the talk started they still went on strike…” The questions are: which talk? Was it a talk before the declaration of the strike or a talk after the declaration of the strike?

There are evident manifestations of the fallacies of undistributed and excluded middles in Keyamo’s claims above. And, in logical analysis, we can infer that those fallacies were deliberately committed on the part of Keyamo to sell his lies as truths to the listening audience for the purpose of wiping up sentiments against ASUU. The point is that the claim that “..as the talk started, they still went on strike” does have a logical link with the claim that ““The moment they went on strike, we intervened”. The only logical truth here can only be: “We intervened immediately they declared strike!” In essence, the claim that “they still went on strike” is clearly logically redundant in the conversation. The claim that they still went on strike can only make a logical sense if the claim was: “The moment they were planning to declare strike, we intervened. But, they still went on strike”. That is a logical statement with a clearly distributed logical middle!

Keyamo deliberately omitted logical sequence of events in his claims on ASUU’s actions because the government evidently failed in their responsibilities to the State and to the people.

The claim that “…One sector of the economy to hold your jugular...” shows that Keyamo is clearly ignorant of the place, purpose and the importance of Education. Sure, Keyamo is bereaved of the true ideas of Education. A sound mind knows that Education is not just a mere sector of any country’s economy. Education as a sector is the mother, the spring board, on which the economy of any nation breathes, feeds and survives. If Education fails, there cannot be anything called functional economy. Any economy that is not run and propelled by functional Education will only remain at the level of the early men’s economy of subsistent farming, of such a time when rustic men only fed and survived on fruits. Such time that men lived in houses of leaves and grasses, before building mud houses.

Keyamo, playing the Lord of Lords in that conversation claimed, “we are putting our cards face up…” Now, you wonder who are “the we” against the rest, the us, in this matter? Of course, this is a “we” that is clearly against the people, the rest of us, who cannot send our children abroad like the “we”, the them in government who have been flying abroad to attend the matriculations and the convocations of their children. We must admit: fate has been good to these powerful “we” against the rest of us. It is a “we” that has the power to negotiate with the rest of us; the “we” that have the cards to place on the table against the people without a table, the masses, those who have no cards at all to turn.

When Keyamo said, “Go and beg ASUU …Go and beg them…Do you want me to kneel down on air? …They are not the only one feeding from the Federal purse…”, one can only pity whoever or whatever ASUU is! This ASUU that is a baby sucking on the breasts of FG, thinking it is the only one feeding from the Federal purse must be told that it is not the only baby of the almighty FG… There are more important FG’s hungry and feeding babies: The government of Afghanistan that needs a billion US dollar, the government of Niger Republic that needs 1.4 billion naira SUVs and billions of rail-line projects, the National Assembly with the bogus individuals’ pays of over 30m per month, the yearly budget to renovate the Assembly complex, the political office holders’ reckless pays, billions for ludicrous trade money, and billions for the so-called school feeding programme… I think Keyamo also needs to tell us what he earns as a junior minister compared to the 400 thousand plus of a University Professor…

Sincerely, Keyamo is just a ridiculously reckless fellow in his blackmailing propaganda against ASUU that you begin to wonder who ASUU is, and, if the matter is ASUU against them or ASUU against us! Of course, that was what earned him his place in the present government, propaganda. Somebody to whom useless politics is critical than education! Or how do we interpret Keyamo’s outburst when he told Seun Okinbaloye in clear terms “Let’s go to the more critical issue why I am here…!” It is clear that Keyamo and his gangs in power do not see education as anything critical to the survival of the nation… After all, their own wards can always go abroad to get good education and when they return to the country, they will definitely be in the position to lead the Professors and mass of Nigerians with no functional education… It is the hegemonic neo-liberal agenda of the political class in Nigeria to perpetuate themselves and their generations in power over the illiterate mass of the people… Keyamo has indeed demonstrated his emptiness as far as Nation building is concerned…

Finally, for the avoidance of doubt, ASUU is us, we the masses. ASUU is the parents who cannot send their children to Universities abroad like the politicians. ASUU is the entity that is against the reckless insensitivities of the Nigerian politicians. I am ASUU. I have two children in Nigeria Universities. I support ASUU… We are ASUU. We are the people. ASUU is the people demanding that government must fund education as a matter of its priority…

‘Bode Ojoniyi writes from Osogbo
6 August, 2022

Class War: ASUU vs FG
Kehinde A. Ayoola (OAU, Ile-Ife)

Dr Ngige's recent condescending and disparaging remarks on national television achieved the effect of convincing discerning Nigerians that some members of Nigeria's ruling elite class have completely appropriated the country and its resources as belonging to them. Ngige's words and body language, which complement President Buhari's asinine "enough is enough" speech prove beyond doubt that the FG is waging a class war against ASUU.

A good student of European history knows that class wars can be brutal and bloody. Indeed there has been serious casualties on ASUU's side of the divide, but class war fatalities don't have to be one-sided. If ASUU members realise that they have been pushed into war trenches where warriors survive on unripe fruits and herbs, they will revise their approach to the ongoing ASUU struggle against the destruction of university education by the Nigerian central government.

The ruling elite have been preoccupied with looting for too long; everything has been put in place by the Nigerian Executive, Legislature and Judiciary to guarantee unfettered looting by this class. Ngige bare facedly rehashed how the FG paid so much in 2020 to lecturers for academic earned allowance (EAA), revitalisation of universities, etc as if the money came from his purse. But Nigerians are not deceived because the total figure was far less than N150 billion, a mere fraction of the amount recently looted by the suspended Accountant General of the Federation (AGF). If ASUU members knew the humongous sums several other self-serving characters at the CBN, NNPC, FIRS, Presidency, National Assembly, etc loot with impunity on daily basis, they will know that ASUU leaders have not asked for too much.

A few days ago, the National Arbitration Court ruled that Nigerian judges should be handsomely remunerated. While the most junior judge will now go home monthly with N7 million in line with what their counterparts earn globally, senior professors at bar are expected to be content with N416,000, which at the official exchange rate of less than $1,000, falls short of what their counterparts earn globally. Is anyone still in doubt that Nigerian academics are systematically being emasculated and relegated to glorified lower level civil servants?

The ongoing ASUU strike is beginning to strike me as the mother of all ASUU strikes. To borrow a cliché from Sir Winston Churchill, ASUU should never surrender, because to back out after coming this far is to give in to humiliation, irrelevance, and the acceptance of second class citizenship as the lot of university lecturers in this country.

*UNIVERSITY OF PORT HARCOURT*
*CHOBA*

The attention of the authorities of the University of Port Harcourt has been drawn to certain misrepresentation in the news report in the Vanguard Newspaper by one Ashiri Babs with the caption *"ASUU STRIKE:* *FG REJECTS REPORT OF BRIGGS COMMITTEE*"

In the report, the newspaper made a serious editorial error by referring to Professor Nimi Briggs as a Serving Professor at the University of Port Harcourt.

The Management wishes to state in clear terms as follows:
1. That the chairman of the renegotiation panel Professor Nimi D.Briggs is not a Serving Professor at the University of Port Harcourt
2. Professor Nimi D. Briggs is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Port Harcourt, he retired meritoriously several years ago.
3. Professor Nimi D Briggs does not earn a salary at the University of Port Harcourt.

For the avoidance of doubt, Professor Nimi D Briggs is a man of impeccable character who faithfully served the University of Port Harcourt as its 5th vice Chancellor and retired meritoriously without blemish.

This rejoinder is necessary to correct the misleading information put out by the newspaper without taking into cognizance the journalistic ethics of investigative reporting.

The management wishes to reiterate that it welcomes inquiries as the institution runs an open-door policy and called on the media to always verify their stories before publication.


Dr. SAM KPENU
PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER

ASUU Strike: Ngige and his many lies.

According to Statistica, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1263219/academic-staff-at-universities-in-nigeria-by-category/, there are 39,784 academic staff in federal universities as of 2019. There were 7,125 Professors, 3,377 Readers (Associate Professors), 7,368 Senior Lecturers, and 21,914 Lecturer 1 and below. The current number can't be too different since there was not much employment in public universities since IPPIS was forced on the universities in January 2020.

Now let's look at the average gross and net salary of each category of lecturers and do a bit of arithmetic. The average monthly gross and take-home salary of professors is about N497,000 and N385,000 respectively. The average monthly gross and take-home salary of Readers is about N374,000 and N286,000 respectively. The average monthly gross and take-home salary of Senior Lecturers is about N307,000 and N237,000 respectively. The average monthly gross and take-home salary of Lecturer I and below is about N172,000 and N138,000.

If you multiply the monthly gross of the different categories by the number and multiply the obtained figures by 12 months, then add them up, that will give you about N130bn. That implies that out of the N320.7bn budgeted for university personnel in 2022, the academic staff consumed less than half of it. If that amount is increased by Prof. Briggs' committee by 180% as claimed by Ngige, you know what the figure will be. That is simple arithmetic. It is definitely not N1.2tn.

Don't allow Buhari's government to use Ngige to deceive you with figures. They can end the ASUU strike today if they wish to end it. The ball is in their court.

©Amoka