The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Owerri Zone, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to urgently intervene for the welfare of members amidst the current economic situation in Nigeria, noting that members have been earning the same salary since 2009.
The Union made the call in a communiqué signed by the Owerri Zonal Coordinator, Prof. Dennis Aribodor, and made available to journalists during a press conference held at the Unizik-ASUU complex in Awka on Monday.
They urged the President not to allow politicians to commercialise the university system in the country.
According to the Union, “The focus of this press conference is the state of our union’s engagements with the federal and various state governments on how to reposition our public universities for national development as a sequel to the FGN-ASUU Agreement of 2009.
“The Union is worried that both the Buhari and the Tinubu-led administrations have jettisoned the main elements of the 2009 agreement and other lingering issues that led to the nationwide strike action of February–October 2022.
“This conference is intended to update Nigerians on developments since the suspension of our last national strike action on Friday, October 14, 2022, and our engagements with the current administration since its inception.
“ASUU is a patriotic organisation committed to national development and should be taken very seriously when she talks.
II. Renegotiation of FGN/ASUU 2009 Agreement
“The renegotiation of the FGN/ASUU Agreement of 2009 has dragged on for seven years since 2017.
“The reluctance of the Federal Government to conclude the renegotiation is the reason why the government committee has had three chairmen, from Wale Babalakin through Munzali Jibril to Nimi Briggs. This means that academic staff in our universities have been on the same salary structure for 15 years.
We urge the Bola Tinubu administration to speedily put a final closure to the renegotiation by directing the upward review in view of current economic realities and signing the draft agreement reached with the Nimi Briggs committee.
“The most obvious implication of the truncation of the renegotiation of the agreement is that university teachers in Nigeria have been on the same salary regime since 2009 when the value of the naira to the dollar was N120 as against N1800 today. The signing of the Nimi Briggs draft agreement will be a concrete step towards restoring the dignity of academia and ensuring industrial harmony and peace on our campuses.
Withholding member salaries, the union argued, “The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions guarantee the right of trade unions to use strike action as a means of pressing for their demands as a last resort. The immediate past Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, in pursuance of his personal animus towards ASUU, engaged in the weaponization of hunger and poverty by withholding the “seven and a half months” salaries of academic staff in federal universities. Some visitors to state universities were disappointed, leading to the withholding of varying months of salaries for academic staff at state universities.
“The most ignoble act of the then Minister of Labour was the pro rata salaries paid to academic staff in October 2022, subsequent to the suspension of the strike. The step taken by the Tinubu administration to pay four months of the withheld salaries is a step in the right direction. Consequently, we urge the Tinubu administration to put an end to the agitations surrounding the withheld salaries by clearing the remaining three and a half months. That struggle by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, instigated by the failure of the government to honour agreements, was, after all, in the national interest.
“Meeting ASUU’s demand in this regard is a panacea for industrial peace in our universities.
“Compatriots of the press, the Union also draws your attention to the fact that the Federal Government has lately been evasive on its commitment to the payment of the backlog of the Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), part of which was captured in the 2023 National Budget for Federal Universities.
“The Memorandum of Action (MoA) of December 2020 between FGN and ASUU captured the mainstreaming of the earned academic allowances into the salaries of lecturers with effect from 2022, while the arrears were to be cleared prior to the mainstreaming.
“The scheduled payment of the arrears was aborted, while the mainstreaming of the earned academic allowances, which was supposed to commence in 2022, has remained a mirage in both federal and most state universities. A stitch in time, they say, saves nine.
On the illegal dissolution of governing councils, the union said the governing council is the highest decision-making body of the university, charged with the general control of the institution, its affairs, and its functions, including finances and property. The illegal dissolution of the governing councils of federal universities and some state universities since June 2023 (over 8 months) constitutes an unbridled attack on and the erosion of the autonomy of the universities in violation of the existing laws of the universities. It has caused a major setback in the administration of universities, with serious adverse consequences. Without governing councils, universities are hamstrung and at the mercy of unscrupulous vice-chancellors and their cohorts in the Federal and State Ministries of Education, who illegally assume the function of the administration of the universities by awarding contracts, approving promotions, and recruiting. These anomalies and aberrations are abominable and totally unacceptable to our union.
“The Union, therefore, calls on federal and state governments to immediately reverse the dissolution of governing councils where they were dissolved without serving out their tenures and to without further delay reconstitute governing councils whose tenures have expired.
V. Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System
Gentlemen of the press, you are aware that the President Tinubu administration has announced the exit of tertiary institutions from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), a corrupt salary payment system imposed on federal universities by the Buhari administration. Our union consistently rejected the payment platform because it grossly eroded the autonomy of our universities. However, our union is worried that some elements inside and outside the ambiguity that currently surrounds the transition out of IPPIS to the so-called “new IPPIS,” with which January salaries were paid a few days ago. Our position is that the government should revert to quarterly releases of university funds to the various universities to enable them to design and implement their salary payment plans. In addition, the government should release the promotion arrears of academic staff in various universities dating as far back as 2013 and defray the outstanding salaries of all academics who were unjustly denied their salaries arising from the obnoxious imposition of IPPIS.
“We also note with serious concern the efforts by the National Universities Commission, which is currently taking over the responsibilities of the senates of our universities with the imposition of the Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standard (CCMAS) with effect from the 2022–2023 academic session. Consequently, we urge all our university senates to resist the surreptitious moves by NUC to erode the powers of our senates over academic programmes in our respective universities. The NUC cannot and should not regulate itself.
“Proliferation of Universities, Gentlemen of the press, you are aware that the proliferation of universities was one of the issues that led to the strike actions of 2020 and 2022, and part of the MoA signed by ASUU and FGN stressed the need to review the NUC Act to make it more potent in arresting the reckless and excessive establishment of universities. The review has not been done.
“The massive and reckless manner in which federal and state governments are establishing universities without making adequate preparations for their funding should be brought to a halt. The federal and state governments should focus on adequately funding existing universities to enhance their capacity to admit more students.
“Victimisation and Threats at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Compatriots of the Press may wish to note that the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), and her collaborators have continued with the persecution of our members. The attacks on committed ASUU members at FUTO came on the heels of the Union’s principled stance against the illegal appointment of Dr Isa Ibrahim Ali Pantami as a professor at that university while not qualified for the position and while serving as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Union has received reports of attempts by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. (Ms.) Nnenna N. Oti, to deny our members the right to unionise on campus. The Vice-Chancellor whimsically stopped union leaders from attending statutory meetings of Senate and university committees. We note that statutory senate meetings and other university committee meetings are outside the union roles of our union leaders. This is clearly an act of victimisation.
We reaffirm our support for the NEC’s condemnation of the action of the FUTO administration and urge the Vice Chancellor of FUTO to take the path of honour and reverse the illegal appointment of Dr Isa Ibrahim Ali Pantami.
“We call on the Minister of Education and other well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on Prof.Nnenna Oti, the Vice Chancellor of FUTO, to respect the laws of FUTO and stop persecuting our members for insisting that the right thing should be done in that university.
“However, our union is worried that some elements inside and outside the government may be planning to undermine the government directive in view of the ambiguity that currently surrounds that transition out of IPPIS to the so-called idea that the government should revert to quarterly releases of university funds to the plans. In addition, the government should release the promotion arrears of academic salaries of all academics who were unjustly denied their salaries arising from the obvious imposition of IPPIS.
“Proliferation of universities, gentlemen of the press, you are aware that proliferation of universities was one of the issues that led to the strike actions of 2020 and 2022, and part of the Mo.A letter signed by ASUU and FGN stressed the need to review the NUC Act to make it more potent in arresting the reckless and excessive establishment of universities. The review has not been done. The massive and reckless manner in which federal and state governments are establishing universities without making adequate preparations for their funding should be brought to a halt. The federal and state governments should focus on adequately funding existing universities to enhance their capacity to admit more students.
On the intimidation and threats at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, the Union noted that the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) and her collaborators have continued with the persecution of our members. The attacks on committed ASUU members at FUTO came on the heels of the Union’s principled stance against the illegal appointment of Dr Isa Ibrahim Ali Pantami as a professor at that university while not qualified for the position and while serving as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Union has received reports of attempts by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. (Mrs.) Nnenna N. Oti, to deny our members the right to unionise on campus. The Vice-Chancellor whimsically stopped union leaders from attending statutory meetings of Senate and university committees. We note that statutory senate meetings and other university committee meetings are outside the union roles of our union leaders. This is clearly an act of victimisation. We reaffirm our support for the NEC’s condemnation of the action of the FUTO administration and urge the Vice Chancellor of FUTO to take the path of honour and reverse the illegal appointment of Dr Isa Ibrahim Ali Pantami. We call on the Minister of Education and other well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on Prof.Nnenna Oti, the Vice Chancellor of FUTO, to respect the laws of FUTO and stop persecuting our members for insisting that the right thing should be done in that university.
On TETFund Intervention, ASUU will stop at nothing to resist the increasingly unethical moves to fritter away the TETFund intervention funds within or outside our universities.
“Under-funding of Public Universities by Federal and State Governments Funding for the revitalization of public universities has been central to the struggle of our union, and it remains a cardinal demand in all our agreements, Memoranda of Understanding, and actions with governments. Both the federal and state governments are still guilty of poor budgetary allocation to education. These grossly poor allocations also affect the welfare issues of our members.
“For instance, at Imo State University, staff are bedevilled with a plethora of lingering welfare issues that include, but are not limited to, selective payment and non-payment of arrears of salaries, non-payment of pensions of retired staff arising from non-remittance of deducted pension contributions from May 2016 to date, delayed promotion and non-payment of promotion arrears, and the non-payment of earned academic allowances from 2009 to date. The inclusion of the university in the state’s Treasury Single Account that has led to the payment of the salaries of staff of the university from the government house is a clear violation of university autonomy with adverse consequences for our members.
In conclusion, members of the press have raised issues that demand immediate attention from both the Federal and State Governments so as to guarantee industrial
harmony on our university campuses.
“It is our hope that the Tinubu-led administration and Visitors to State Universities should urgently do the needful so as to reposition our
universities to fulfil their mandates in nation-building, the communique ends.
The Nigerian Tribune gathered that the Owerri Zone comprises Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Chukwumemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, the Federal University of Technology Owerri, Imo State University, and Michael Okpara University of Agriculture.
and then