The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on an indefinite strike accusing the Federal Government of failure to redeem the terms of agreement signed in 2009. The strike commenced on Sunday, August 13th 2017 following an emergency National Executive Council meeting of the union in Abuja. The Federal Government quickly responded by convening a meeting at the instance of the Honourable Minister of Education, Mal. Adamu Adamu and the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige.
Briefing newsmen, the Honourable Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, said the strike would end within the next one week, since all mechanisms were in place to reach an appreciable consensus. He however pointed out at the end of a crucial parley with the National Executive Committee of ASUU led by its President, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, at the Conference Room of the Ministry of Labour, that ASUU did not follow due process before embarking on the strike. He recalled that late last year, there was a meeting held by the government and ASUU on the same issues and the Union served a one week notice of strike, while government responded positively and a meeting was able to reach some agreement.
Malam Adamu Adamu said that in order to keep faith with national development and future prospect of our children, government would work hard to negotiate with ASUU to suspend the strike. According to another statement credited to the minister, he said: “I must confess government has not fulfilled its part of the bargain, even though we are unhappy that ASUU went on this strike without following due process and giving us good notice. We realised that we promised something and we didn’t fulfill it.”
At last Thursday’s meeting the federal government and ASUU were able to reach some agreements based on specific
offers by the government. There are indications that both parties appear willing to arrive at consensus on certain issues. For instance, there was the issue of renegotiation. The the university based unions agreed that government has done what it promised because it had set up the re-negotiation team and negotiation is already on-going.
Mal. Adamu also said: “there is the issue of Earned Allowances and due to some miscommunication what was promised could not be done, assuring that it would be done soon and Government would conduct a forensic audit of the 30 billion Naira released in 2010. Others include the registration for Nigerian Universities Pension Commission (NUPENCO) Staff School, the request that universities be allowed to stay off the Treasury Single Account (TSA), among others.”
At the end of the parley, both parties announced that some offers had been made and agreed on, while they are to re-convene this week.
