ASUU To Call Off Strike Soon, Agrees to Report Govt’s Proposal to Members

 

There are indications that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may call off its ongoing strike action soon.

 

This comes after ASUU's meeting with the federal government delegation on Tuesday.

 

The president of ASUU, Emmanuel Osodeke, declined elaborate comment on their conclusions but said his team would report to the members on the government’s proposals and later revert to the government, a report by Premium Times stated.

 

But the minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige, said both parties agreed on a lot of things, and that ASUU was expected to “talk to its members, show them the proposal that has been offered by the government so that they can call off the strike”.

 

Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) and revitalisation fund for universities were the two items on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting.

 

Mr Ngige said although most of ASUU’s demands are being dealt with, the remaining areas are also being addressed.

 

“Like I told you the last time, a lot of the items have been dealt with extensively and some of them are work in progress,” he said.

 

The minister said one of the areas remaining is the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement, noting that the ministry of education has set up a committee to look into the submitted report of Munzali Jibril-led renegotiation committee.

 

Mr Munzali, a professor, took over the negotiation following the resignation of the former chairman of the governing council of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, Wale Babalakin, as the head of the government team.

 

He said it is important that allowances requested by ASUU are in tandem with the structure available at the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission.

 

In six weeks, he said, the committee at the ministry of education “will round off everything and send all”.

He said: “So, today, the ministry of education has set up internal committee in their ministry to look at the product of Prof Munzali’s committee’s work. Again, prof Munzali’s committee has been defunct because a lot of people including Munzali are no longer pro chancellors.

The minister said within six weeks, the committee set up at the education ministry will wrap up everything and send all. “So, that is the only new area.”

 

The minister also said a joint committee of ASUU members, officials of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and independent IT experts have been given up till March 8 to come up with the report of a joint review of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).

 

He said: “They will also go there with the technical team and do a joint test on integrity and vulnerability test of UTAS. And we were hopeful that when they commence the test, they will do it and give us a joint report.

Mr Ngige said there was no problem with the EAA, saying if there are those that are unpaid the minister of finance “will look for the money to pay”.

 

He added that his ministry has reached out to the National Universities Commission (NUC) to set up a committee to come up with the computation of allowances for universities and forward it to the finance minister in the next three weeks.

 

Meanwhile, Mr Ngige has said the Nigerian government has so far paid over N92 billion as earned allowances and revitalisation fund to federal government-owned universities across the country.

 

The minister said this at the State House on Tuesday, saying the development was part of the government’s commitment to the implementation of the 2020 December agreement that was reached with the union.

 

He said: “Why I said that the 2020 December agreement we had with ASUU is on course in terms of implementation is that in the agreement, there is a line that says the federal government should pay ASUU and other unions N40 billion for EAA and that has been paid.