*A week ago, the Academic Union of Nigerian Universities
(ASUU) served notice of its intention to embark on a one-
week warning strike with effect from Wednesday, 16th
November, 2016. Its President, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi,
claimed that ASUU took the action after nationwide
consultations with the National Executive Committee (NEC) of
the Union, though the Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige,
insisted the Federal Government (ASUU members' main
employer) was not notified.*
*ASUU said its leadership came under great pressure from its
members over pending issues such as the 2009 Collective
Bargaining Agreement and 2014 Memorandum of
Understanding, which were not properly implemented. These
cover the areas of proper funding of universities (which went
down to eight per cent in 2016 from 11 per cent in 2015,
despite the fact that this year's budget was significantly
higher at N6.06 Trillion compared to N4.4 Trillion of 2015);
unpaid pension to retiring members, complications from the
Treasury Single Account (TSA), the perennial issue of
university autonomy and the need to renegotiate the 2009
pact.*
*Coming barely one month into the new academic session
when the universities are just settling down to business, we
are apprehensive that if this matter is not amicably resolved
we might be in for another long haul of a full-blown strike
soon. ASUU and doctors' strikes are infamous for their
obdurate, prolonged stalemates.
There is no other part of the sane world where university
workers stop work almost on a yearly basis like Nigeria,
mainly because of the unwillingness or inability of successive
regimes to sit down and solve the problems of our universities
once and for all. This unfeeling attitude of decision makers to
the needs of our universities has often been attributed to the
fact that most of them educate their children in abroad and in
expensive local private tertiary institutions where the
academic environments are stable and sure.*
*The ASUU challenge presents an opportunity for the President
Muhammadu Buhari regime to prove itself as truly a regime
determined to change the ways that past governments
mishandled matters (such as agreements and MOU's with the
Labour Unions) by laying these contentious issues to rest
conclusively.*
*We also urge the university teachers and other Labour unions
to take cognisance of the fragile economic situation facing the
nation. We are struggling with a numbing recession which
requires the understanding of all patriotic Nigerians to ensure
we get out of it as soon as possible.
The Federal Government and the unions must eschew undue
brick-batting and address these issues without disrupting
academic activities. Prolonged standoffs are futile, since at
the end of the day, both sides will still come to some
agreement after great damage has already been done.*
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