The leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to resume the suspended industrial action following what it described as unfaithfulness of the Federal Government in the implementation of the terms of the agreement in the Memorandum of Action (MoA) signed by both parties upon which the last strike was suspended.
The Union has therefore issued a 21-day ultimatum for the Federal Government to implement the MoA, failure which the lecturers would return to trenches.
ASUU President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, gave the ultimatum on Monday in Abuja while briefing journalists on the outcome of the National Executive Council meeting of ASUU held between Saturday, November 13 and 14, 2021.
He warned that the National Executive Council of ASUU would meet on the expiration of the 21-day ultimatum to give necessary directive to its members to resume the strike he said was “patriotically suspended on December 23, 2021.”
He also clarified that the Federal government is yet to release to the universities the N22.127 billion claimed to have been approved for the Earned Academic Allowance (EEA), while the N30 billion released as revitalisation fund for public universities purported to be kept in a dedicated account at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is also yet to be disbursed.
He decried the inconsistencies in the payment of salaries of ASUU members through the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), urging the Federal Government to fast-track the process of Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), developed by ASUU as a replacement to IPPIS.
Osodeke also flayed the proliferation of universities in the country, especially by State governments whereas the existing ones are not properly funded.
He lamented that despite its meeting with the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, on October 14, 2021, on the major outstanding issues including funding for revitalisation of public universities, earned academic allowances, University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) promotion arrears, renegotiation of 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement, and the inconsistencies in IPPIS payment, the issues are still lingering.
ASUU President said: “In another few weeks, it would be one year since our union patriotically suspended the nine-month strike action occasioned by the failure of the Federal Government to implement the 2009 Agreement and several Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) and MOA that it entered into with ASUU at the meeting of our union with the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, on Thursday, October 14, 2021, major outstanding issues between ASUU and the Federal Government were raised, discussed and decisions were reached as follows:
“The N30bn revitalisation fund for public universities purported to be kept in a dedicated account at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was yet to be disbursed even when the majority of Vice-Chancellors had successfully defended their proposals as a condition precedent to accessing the fund.
“The proposal defence exercise which took place from October 2021, was followed by the transmission of the report to the Minister of Finance for the release of allocated funds to the successful universities. On the strength of this, representatives of the Federal Government gave assurance that the qualified universities would get the funds on or before the end of October 4 to 8, 2021. Surprisingly, as of today, November 15, 2021, government is yet to fulfil its promise, with no cogent reason made available to our union.
“Earned Academic Allowances: At the meeting, the Executive Secretary (ES) of the National Universities Commission (NUC) informed ASUU that N22.127billion had been appropriated in the 2021 budget as Earned Academic Allowance (EEA) based on a weighted average of annual salary appropriated for each university. It was then agreed that the Ministry of Education would take one week while the Ministry of Finance would take up to the end of October 2021 within which payment would be effected. As of today, nothing has been done to implement this agreement,” he said.
– Media Report