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Tag: ASUU strike

  • ASUU Strike: Ministers Not Telling Buhari Truth – IPAC Chairman 

    ASUU Strike: Ministers Not Telling Buhari Truth – IPAC Chairman 

    The Chairman of the Inter-party Advisory Committee (IPAC), Alhaji Yabagi Sani, has said that he is not sure if ministers are telling President Muhammadu Buhari the truth on the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    ASUU has been on strike for seven months.

    During an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today, Sani, urged the federal government to find a way to resolve the issue.

    He said, “People are saying that because children of the elites are not in public schools, that is why they are toying with the future of the country as a whole. If you don’t educate these children, the issue of banditry and the issue of this country catching up with its peers, this dream will never come true.

    “Mr President was the one elected. These ministers, I am not sure if they are telling the president the truth. Some few weeks ago, Mr President gave a matching order to the minister of education to solve this matter and come back to him within the shortest time. Few days later, the minister of education said the President did not give him that order.

    “I am sure the President is passionate and committed to moving the education of our children forward. So it’s like we don’t understand the role of education or we understand it but because it doesn’t directly affect us, we are toying with it.”

  • ASUU Strike: FG Announces 23.5% Salary Increment for Lecturers

    ASUU Strike: FG Announces 23.5% Salary Increment for Lecturers

    The federal government has announced a 23.5 percent salary increase for lecturers, and a 35% increment for professors.

    Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu made the announcement on Tuesday September 6, at a meeting with vice-chancellors and other stakeholders in the university system.

    He further revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari warned against signing agreements that the federal government won’t be able to meet.

    Adamu said;

    ”The Federal Government can only afford a 23.5% salary increase for all category of the workforce in Federal Universities, except for the professorial cadre which will enjoy a 35% upward review.

    “Henceforth, allowances that pertain to ad-hoc duties of the academic and non-academic staff shall be paid as at when due by the Governing Councils of Universities to which such services are rendered and to the staff who perform them.

    “That a sum of 150 billion Naira shall be provided for in the 2023 Budget as funds for the revitalization of Federal Universities, to be disbursed to the Institutions in the First Quarter of the year, and that a sum of 50 billion Naira shall be provided for in the 2023 Budget for the payment of outstanding areas of earned academic allowances, to be paid
    in the First Quarter of the year”.

  • How I Resolved Four-Month ASUU Strike In One Night – Jonathan

    How I Resolved Four-Month ASUU Strike In One Night – Jonathan

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan has narrated how his government resolved a lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in one night. 

    The varsity teachers have been on strike since February and Jonathan, who spoke on Wednesday in Abuja during a conference to mark the 70th birthday of the Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Hassan Kukah, recalled how his administration tried to tackle one such industrial action.

    “The society we are managing is quite complex. Yes, I was the president and I tried my best. Now, we are talking about ASUU strike. During my time too, ASUU had four months of strike. Different committees were meeting but nothing was working. I said ‘How can our children stay out of school for four good months?” Jonathan said at the event.

    “So, I had to call a meeting of all the leadership of ASUU. I presided over the meeting with my vice president. The Attorney General was there. I said that that night we must solve the problem. The Attorney General was there; the Secretary to the Government of the Federation was there; the ministers of education were there; the labour ministers were there; the finance ministers and everybody that had to do with it [strike].

    “And I thought that my being there would help us to do things quickly. But we spent the whole night. We finished like 5:30 am and the strike was called off. So, there were issues,” Jonathan said.

    The former Bayelsa governor, who extolled Bishop Kukah, said clergymen must speak against bad leadership in society.

    Jonathan also spoke about the country’s democracy, asking Nigerians to protect it from derailing into fascism. According to him, democracy remains the best bet to manage the nation’s diversity.

    The event had in attendance top dignitaries including the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu; governors; former ministers among others.

  • Again ASUU Extends Strike Indefinitely

    Again ASUU Extends Strike Indefinitely

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has extended the ongoing strike.

    According to reliable and credible source, ASUU extended the ongoing strike during its National Executive Council, NEC, meeting in Abuja.

    A lecturer with the University of Calabar, UNICAL, who disclosed this to our correspondent, said: “ASUU has extended the strike again. This government has refused to pay us, so we can’t go back to classes.

    “I currently have over one thousand scripts in my house, both marked and unmarked, I can’t attend to them because this government is owing me six months.”

    ASUU has been on strike since February 2022 over a disagreement in past agreements reached with the government.

  • PDP Responsible For Current ASUU Strike – Keyamo

    PDP Responsible For Current ASUU Strike – Keyamo

    The spokesperson for the Presidential Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Festus Keyamo, has said ASUU is on strike because of the 2009 agreement signed by the Peoples Democratic Party-led government.

    Keyamo disclosed this during an interview on Trust TV’s Daily Politics on Monday.

    He added that between 1999 and 2015 when the PDP handed over to the ruling APC, ASUU was on strike 12 times, amounting to 900 days.

    “The ASUU thing you are talking about. What is the problem of ASUU now? It’s the 2009 agreement signed by PDP government. They signed agreements with ASUU they couldn’t fulfill. We had to inherit those agreements and now struggling to renegotiate those agreements.

    “Imagine how irresponsible a government can be when they went into agreements with ASUU and signed conditions that they couldn’t fulfill and that is why ASUU is on strike so let us tell Nigerians that ASUU is not on strike because APC signed an agreement with them. It was the PDP that signed the agreement.

    “We are not shifting blame; we are going to tackle the problem. Between 1999 and 2015 when they handed over to the APC, ASUU was on strike 12 times. I have the statistics amounting to 900 days.”

    But responding, the spokesperson for the (PDP) presidential campaign, Daniel Bwala, who appeared on Trust TV alongside Keyamo, said during the PDP government when ASUU or any of the labour unions was on strike, there were constructive engagements between the parties.

    He said, “Ask Adams Oshimole who was the Lord Lugard of labour unionism of that time. He was very blunt, strong and constant on that. In all of those periods when they were on strike either by ASUU or any of the labour unions around the time of PDP, there were constructive engagement, which means all parties were honest, realistic. The argument ASUU is making on all occasions when they were on strike this present government shift the goal post.”

  • ASUU Strike: No Lecturer Has Been Paid Since February – Prof Osodeke

    ASUU Strike: No Lecturer Has Been Paid Since February – Prof Osodeke

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Tuesday said none of its university lecturers has been paid since the union embarked on industrial action in February.

    Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, ASUU President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, accused the Federal Government of using hunger as a tool to force the striking lecturers into returning to their classrooms.

    Noting that their salaries have been held for the past six months, Osodeke said the current administration cannot use the force of hunger to pull the striking union members.

    According to him, the Federal Government thinks that depriving the lecturers of their salaries will force the university teachers to collapse and end the strike.

    “Our salaries have been held, this is the sixth month or salaries have been held. They thought that if they hold our salaries for two or three months we will come begging and say ‘pls allow us to go back to work,” the ASUU President said.

    “But we as a union of intellectuals, we have grown beyond that. You can’t use the force of hunger to pull our members back which is exactly what the government is doing.”

    ASUU on February 14 embarked on strike to press home its demands for a better welfare package, revamping of the nation’s education sector among others, a situation that has forced many Nigerian students to be at home.

    Worried by the lingering industrial dispute, President Muhammadu Buhari had on July 19 directed the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, to proffer a solution to the challenge and report back to him in two weeks.

    The presidential ultimatum will elapse today and ASUU remains adamant until its demands are met. Not perturbed by the development, the union extended the strike by another four weeks, thus dashing the hopes of students to return to school.

    Reacting to Buhari’s order to end the strike, Professor Osodeke insisted that the union is still open to negotiations with government representatives to end the industrial dispute.

    He said there is no room for a master-slave relationship in the academic world, saying workers have every right to criticise a wrong policy.

    The ASUU leader condemned the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), a platform the government wasn’t to use to pay lecturers their salaries.

  • Reactions as Femi Gbajabiamila attends Havard Amid ASUU Strike

    Reactions as Femi Gbajabiamila attends Havard Amid ASUU Strike

    Some Nigerians on social media, Tuesday, expressed displeasure over the resumption of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila in a university in the United States of America amidst the lingering strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

    ASUU had on February 14, 2022, announced the commencement of industrial action following the failure of the government to meet some lingering demands of the union.

    Gbajabiamila had on Tuesday tweeted via his verified Twitter handle, @femigbaja that he had gone back to the Harvard Kennedy School.

    “Back to class. In a leadership course @havard @Kennedy_school. Forget the number of grey hairs, one is never too old to learn.”

    Commenting on the development, a Twitter user @Santos tweeted, “Sir? What is your take on the five months ASUU strike in Nigeria as the leader of law-making arm of Nigeria govt? The university students have being at home for five months.

    “Do you honestly think that showing us pictures your Harvard lecture class is the best at this moment?”.

    Another Twitter user, Halidu Adamu, tweeted, “The irony. These guys are completely desensitised. Tweeting about attending classes in a foreign university while ours at home have been locked for months. ASUU needs to wake up and smell the coffee, this action is not leading anywhere constructive.”

    Another Twitter user, Akintunde Babatunde, also tweeted, “ If universities in the USA were to be on strike, how will you be able to experience a working system? Walk around and see how basic things works in a normal university? Let’s hope you’ll return and use your influence to make our educational institutions work.”

    Reports have it that under the tenure of Gbajabiamila as the speaker of the house of reps, ASUU embarked on strike for close to 12 months, nine months in 2020 and close to six months in 2022.

  • ASUU Strike: NLC Threatens 3-Days Nationwide Strike if Demands are not Met

    ASUU Strike: NLC Threatens 3-Days Nationwide Strike if Demands are not Met

    The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba, has said that the workers’ union will embark on a three-day nationwide strike if the Federal Government fails to accede to the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities after the ongoing two-day warning protest organised by the NLC.

    Wabba, who spoke in an interview with Channels TV ‘Sunrise Daily’, also stated that the workers’ union embarked on a two-day protest against the ongoing ASUU strike not just as a show of solidarity, but because the strike directly affected the NLC.

    He said, “The two-day warning strike is to call for attention for the issues to be resolved promptly. The next level is a three-day national warning strike if nothing has happened after the protest, to show our grievances.

    “We are not on a solidarity action, we are affected directly.”

    The NLC had organised the two-day protest after a series of failed negotiations between the FG and ASUU to resolve the strike action.

    Wabba, who stated that the ongoing protest was a democratic norm which was constitutional and supported by the international charters, added that it was not illegal to carry out such demonstration on the streets.

    He said, “These are democratic norms everywhere in the world. Even as an individual, you have the right to air your grievances.

    “It is within the provision of our law. It is backed by the United Nations charter for human and peoples rights, African charter for human and peoples rights, and it is there in our constitution — sections 39 and 40.”

    Since plans for the ongoing protest was announced by the NLC, the Minister for Information, Lai Mohammed, had alleged that the protest was illegal and would create anarchy in the country.

    The Minister for Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had also taunted the workers’ union, claiming erroneously that the protest was against international labour practices.

    The Nigeria Police Force had also in its bid to defend the regime, demanded that the NLC should get a permit from the Force before embarking on the two-day warning-protest.

    Responding to the claims by the authorities, Wabba said the court of law had pronounced that citizens did not need permission from the police or any authority to carry out protests.

    He said, “Even the court has pronounced that you don’t require any permission. It is legal and within your fundamental human rights to protest issues.

    “When people say it’s illegal, I think people should remember that no condition is permanent. We have had some of our current politicians join the NLC to press for similar actions in the past.”

  • ASUU Strike: Protests Rock Different States in Nigeria, as NLC Fulfils promise

    ASUU Strike: Protests Rock Different States in Nigeria, as NLC Fulfils promise

    The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, on Sunday promised to embark on a two-day nationwide protest in solidarity with the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, and other affiliate unions over the lingering industrial action in public universities in Nigeria.

    The national president, Comrade Ayuba Wabba in a statement told fellow workers that the national days of protest was in support of unions in Nigeria’s public universities who are fighting for quality education.

    “In line with the decisions of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the Nigeria Labour Congress held on the 30th of June 2022, we have scheduled as follows the national days of protest to get our children back to school and support our unions in Nigeria’s public universities fighting for quality education.

    “You are requested to immediately convene the meetings of your SAC to disseminate this information and to fully mobilize workers in the states for this very important protest for good governance,” Comrade Wabba said in the circular jointly signed by the NLC general secretary, Comrade Emmanuel Ugboaja.

    In line with the agreement, Members of the Congress, Tuesday stormed the streets of Lagos, with placards emblazoned with different inscription.

    Some of the inscriptions are: “Nigeria at 60 years Independence, More hunger in the land”. “Reduce the costs of governance now. Save the masseuses from poverty and hunger”. “Stop importation of petrol, revive the refineries”.

    In Ondo their placards read: “ASUU FUTA says, End ASUU Strike Now”. NASU says, Get our children back to school. Grant our demands Federal Government of Nigeria.” ETC.

  • Buhari Directs Education Minister To Proffer Solution To ASUU Strike In Two Weeks

    Buhari Directs Education Minister To Proffer Solution To ASUU Strike In Two Weeks

    Following the prolonged industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, to proffer a solution to the challenge and report back to him in two weeks.

    Sources in the Presidential Villa said the President gave the directive on Tuesday during a meeting with relevant government Ministries, Agencies, and Departments (MDAs) where he received briefings on the current face-off with the university unions since February 14, among other issues.

    Although it is not unusual for the President to hold briefings with the ministers, it was gathered that President Buhari placed a high premium on the issue of resolving the lingering ASUU strike.

    Besides the directive to the education minister, the President instructed that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, as well as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, must be in attendance in all the meetings to speedily resolve the crisis.

    Those present at the meeting include Adamu, Ngige, and Mustapha, as well as the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed; the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami; the Head of Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan; the Chairman of National Salaries Income and Wages Commission, Ekpo Nta; and the Director-General Budget Office, Ben Akabueze.

    President Buhari’s directive comes a week after he told the striking university lecturers that ‘enough is enough’ and should as a matter of responsibility reconsider their position on the prolonged strike with a view to calling it off.

    ASUU commenced a nationwide strike on February 14 over the adoption of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) of the government as the payment system in the university sector.

    Members had also decried the poor funding of universities, non-payment of salaries and allowances of some of their colleagues, as well as the inability of the government to pay earned academic allowance to lecturers, among other issues.

    Since the industrial action began, several negotiations between the union and the government have ended in deadlock.