Averting another ASUU mega strike!

A week ago, the Academic Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) served notice of its intention to embark on a one-week warning strike with effect from Wednesday, 16th November, 2016. Its President, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, claimed that ASUU took the action after nationwide consultations with the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Union, though the Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige, insisted the Federal Government (ASUU members’ main employer) was not notified. ASUU said its leadership came under great pressure from its members over pending issues such as the 2009 Collective Bargaining Agreement and 2014 Memorandum of Understanding, which were not properly implemented. These cover the areas of proper funding of universities (which went down to eight per cent in 2016 from 11 per cent in 2015, despite the fact that this year’s budget was significantly higher at N6.06 Trillion compared to N4.4 Trillion of 2015); unpaid pension to retiring members, complications from the Treasury Single Account (TSA), the perennial issue of university autonomy and the need to renegotiate the 2009 pact. Coming barely one month into the new academic session when the universities are just settling down to business, we are apprehensive that if this matter is not amicably resolved we might be in for another long haul of a full-blown strike soon. ASUU and doctors’ strikes are infamous for their obdurate, prolonged stalemates. There is no other part of the sane world where university workers stop work almost on a yearly basis like Nigeria, mainly because of the unwillingness or inability of successive regimes to sit down and solve the problems of our universities once and for all. This unfeeling attitude of decision makers to the needs of our universities has often been attributed to the fact that most of them educate their children in  abroad and in expensive local private tertiary institutions where the academic environments are stable and sure. The ASUU challenge presents an opportunity for the President Muhammadu Buhari regime to prove itself as truly a regime determined to change the ways that past governments mishandled matters (such as agreements and MOU’s with the Labour Unions) by laying these contentious issues to rest conclusively. We also urge the university teachers and other Labour unions to take cognisance of the fragile economic situation facing the nation. We are struggling with a numbing recession which requires the understanding of all patriotic Nigerians to ensure we get out of it as soon as possible. The Federal Government and the unions must eschew undue brick-batting and address these issues without disrupting academic activities. Prolonged standoffs are futile, since at the end of the day, both sides will still come to some agreement after great damage has already been done

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