AGREEMENTS: Nigerian lecturers have run out of patience – ASUU President

 

Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, a familiar figure in national discourse, has been a prominent voice since his assumption of office as the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). In this exclusive interview with Tunbosun Ogundare, he sheds light on why ASUU will not set a new agenda for the government in the coming year and discusses other pressing matters. Excerpts:

What will be your reflection as a union for the just ended year?

2024 was a year of suffering for almost all Nigerians. For us as lecturers, we gave federal government every opportunity to resolve all our contentious issues as a union, yet government didn’t utilise the advantage to resolve them. So, it was a year of missed opportunity for the government.

In what way?

It is simple. As a union, we can only say that government didn’t do anything tangible to change the narrative concerning our old agreement. It is a pity we used the whole year to talk on the same issues that we had been talking about for many years with no positive result. This should tell Nigerians that this government like the one before it doesn’t take our issues with seriousness.

But what agenda will ASUU set for government for 2025?

We don’t need to ask government to do a new thing. Let it simply address the same agenda that has been before it since assumption of office 18 months ago. That is to make things work well in the education sector. The sector has suffered enough. Government should do something tangible to address the challenges in the sector..

We can’t continue to be talking on the same issues now and then without any result. 18 months should be reasonable enough for a responsive government to address our concerns. But this is not the case with this government.

Is that why ASUU threatened to embark on strike or has it changed its mind?

We have not changed our mind, and it was not a threat as we really wanted to go on strike. It is only that we want Nigerians to know and understand that ASUU does not just declare nationwide strike but only when it has been pushed to the wall.

Now, we have given government a notice of strike and extended it many times just to give it more time and opportunity to address the issues so that we all can enjoy uninterrupted academic activities in our universities. But government has not made good use of the opportunity. So, what do Nigerians want ASUU to do then?

But what is the position of the renegotiation committee constituted by the Federal Government to look into your concerns?

For us as a union, we have concluded our own meeting with the committee. We expect the government representatives to go back to government with the issues we raised and the understanding we reached and then come back to us to sign a fresh agreement. But we have not heard anything from them since more than two weeks that we had done that.

Are all your issues captured by the renegotiation committee?

I won’t say yes or no. But what is certain is that government has to resolve some past issues before signing a new agreement. There are so many of them such as the 35 per cent salary increment for civil servants. Now we are being owed one year arrear on that. That was from January 2023 to December 2023. We have also been owed three and half months’ salaries withheld during our last general strike in 2022. Government only paid the first four months and promised to pay the balance but has not fulfilled the promise as we speak.

Similarly, we were told that our Earned Academic Allowance, which was around N50 billion, was provided for in the 2024 budget, yet nothing has been released till date.

We were equally told that N300 billion has been approved, as Revitalisation Fund in the last budget, yet, nothing was released so far. Is it not also surprising that we are still being paid on IPPIS platform despite government claiming otherwise?

Are you saying all those issues mentioned are still unresolved?

That is exactly what I’m saying. Government has not done anything on them. That government claimed to have done this or that are all lies.

Then what is the way forward for ASUU?

Nigerians will hear from us about the way forward this early January. Now, our members have already run out of patience. It is only that the leadership has been pleading with them for more time with the government. I even used myself as collateral, yet, government seems not to bother.

When our congress met in November, the leadership had to plead to allow government to use the months of November and December to address our concerns and, up till, now no concrete step taken. So, we will reconvene our meeting this January to take a decision.

The general members have already endorsed industrial action long before as a way out of this situation. We are the ones that are technically deferring the action. So, if government has not done anything by early January, we will go ahead with our plan.

What is that plan?

It is to declare a nationwide strike since we have exhausted all avenues under the law to avert the strike without result.

 

Is strike the only option left?

We don’t know of any other option. As I had said, we have done all that are expected of us to do as a union. We have exhausted all the known methods we should go through as a union and also exercise patience enough while the government is not bothered. So, what else can we do than what the government is always waiting for, which is strike. It is a pity that government always wants workers to go on strike in Nigeria before attending to their demands. That has been the nature of our successive governments. But it is now left for Nigerians to tell the government to do the needful this early January. Otherwise, we will go ahead with our strike.

But government claimed to have injected up to N826.90 billion for infrastructural development in educational institutions, including universities in the last one year. How do you react to that?

For us, we have not seen the effect of such quoted huge amount of money in our universities. You know I had also mentioned earlier that government claimed to have provided N300 billion as revitalization fund in the 2024 budget, but the money was not released up till now. So, most of the government’s claims are political statements and not real in practical terms.

Even, when we met with the Accountant-General of the Federation, he confirmed to us that the money had been approved. But here we are, a year after with no kobo released to that effect. So, there is nothing we can hold on to with this government.