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,

toldThe PUNCHon 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.



punch