The Educational Workers Union of Universities (ASUU) has issued a recent 14-day ultimatum for the federal authorities to resolve lingering points affecting lecturers. This comes after the expiration of a earlier 21-day ultimatum issued by the union.
ASUU is demanding the conclusion of the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Settlement primarily based on the Nimi Briggs Committee’s Draft Settlement of 2021, in addition to the cost of salaries withheld as a result of union’s eight-month industrial motion in 2022.
ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, in an announcement on Wednesday, expressed frustration with the federal government’s lack of dedication and delay ways, noting that these actions have been fueling a disaster within the public college system.
“In view of the foregoing, ASUU resolves to offer the Nigerian Authorities one other 14 days, along with the sooner 21 days, starting from Monday, September 23, 2024, throughout which all of the lingering points will need to have been concretely addressed to the satisfaction of the membership of the union,” the assertion learn. “The union shouldn’t be held liable for any industrial disharmony that arises from the federal government’s failure to grab the brand new alternative provided by ASUU to nip the looming disaster within the bud.”
ASUU can also be demanding the discharge of unpaid salaries for employees on sabbatical, part-time, and adjunct appointments affected by the Built-in Payroll and Personnel Info System (IPPIS), and the cost of excellent third-party deductions equivalent to check-off dues and cooperative contributions.
The union is searching for funding for the revitalization of public universities and the cost of Earned Educational Allowances, partly captured within the 2023 finances. Different points embody the proliferation of universities by federal and state governments, the implementation of the stories of visitation panels to universities, the reversal of the unlawful dissolution of governing councils, and the adoption of the College Transparency and Accountability Answer as a substitute for IPPIS.
READ ALSO: Imo varsity lecturers begin indefinite strike
The renegotiation of the 2009 settlement has been a significant supply of perennial disputes between the federal government and the educational union. This settlement contains the negotiation of wage scales and different earnings of Nigerian lecturers.
The renegotiation has stalled since 2017 and has seen three heads of the negotiation course of. Wale Babalakin, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and pro-chancellor of the College of Lagos, led the renegotiation workforce constituted by the federal government from 2017 till his resignation as pro-chancellor in 2020. In 2020, Munzali Jibril, an emeritus professor of English after which pro-chancellor of the Federal College, Lafia, took over. Negotiations beneath him proceeded comparatively easily, and he turned in a draft settlement in Might 2021, however the authorities by no means signed or applied the settlement.
When the union launched into one other nationwide strike in 2022, the federal government constituted one more committee headed by the late Nimi Briggs, additionally an emeritus professor. Briggs’ committee additionally renegotiated the 2009 settlement and submitted a draft to the federal government in June 2022, which was by no means signed or applied, forcing the 2022 strike motion to final till October when an Industrial Courtroom ordered the union to droop the strike after a swimsuit was instituted towards them by the federal authorities.
ASUU can also be protesting the continual cost of its salaries and entitlements utilizing the IPPIS platform, claiming that the platform is fraudulent and shortchanging its members. In December, the training minister acknowledged that President Bola Tinubu directed the exclusion of universities from the IPPIS. Nevertheless, the union claims {that a} ‘new IPPIS’ is getting used to pay its members, which it asserts is actually the identical platform.
ASUU is advocating for the substitute of the IPPIS platform with the College Transparency and Accountability Answer (UTAS), developed as an alternative choice to the IPPIS. Moreover, the union is looking for the federal government to implement the suggestions of visitation panels and amend the Nationwide Universities Fee (NUC) Act to stop the proliferation of public universities.
