JUST IN: FUD ASUU Issues Strike Notice
By: Ahmed Aminu, Dutse
The Federal University Dutse (FUD) branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has issued a three weeks ultimatum to the federal government to address the deplorable condition of public universities and academics.
The ASUU branch chairman Comrade Salim Ahmed said at an emergency press conference in Dutse, Jigawa State that the federal government has so far ignored all entreaties of the union.
“The Union has observed that the government has deliberately and completely ignored the leadership of the union since the current government inception on 29th May 2023,” he noted.
According to him, the government has rebuffed all efforts and pressure put by the leadership of the Union to get the government to convene a meeting and listen to ASUU in order to iron out the contending issues.
Comrade Ahmad said that the union had reviewed reviewed the working and living conditions of its members, and found it to be deteriorating, deplorable, pathetic, appalling and a terrible and sad situation.
He said that these had translated “into an alarming and dangerous decline in the quality of university education in the country.”
The chairman said that the union members were unhappy about the government’s refusal to implement agreement it reached with ASUU.
“This government has deliberately refused to meet with our Union to flesh out the core issues as contained in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU 2019), Memorandum of Action (MoA2022) and the upward review, signing and the implementation of the late Professor Nimi Briggs Committee’s draft agreement on the Renegotiated FG/ASUU 2009 agreement.”
Salim noted that the 2009 agreement was for the release of revitalization funds to public universities, university autonomy, and stemming the proliferations of public universities amidst adequate funding of existing ones.
“The renegotiation of the FGN/ASUU 2009 agreement contains all the core issues of ASUU Members welfare, University Autonomy, Funding for Revitalization of Nigerian Universities, Proliferations of Public Universities.
“This is a continuous and persistent core issue and a bone of contention between the government and ASUU.
“At every stage of this renegotiation ASUU is forced to take the last option of embarking on an action to get it done.
“In 2017, the FG constituted a committee to renegotiate the agreement in line with its provisions under Wale Babalakin, deliberately wasted three years with no result and was removed and replaced with Prof. Munzali Jibril, under whom appreciable progress was made within a short period of time, but Prof. Jibril was later replaced with the Late Professor Emeritus Nimi Briggs”.
“The Late Prof. Emeritus Nimi Briggs led committee produced a draft agreement and unfortunately, the renegotiation process was unjustifiably and dishonestly truncated at the point of signing the draft agreement.
“This unpatriotic act of some agents of the government not only rendered all the efforts, resources and time put in getting a produced document useless and futile, it also crushed a golden opportunity of salvaging the public universities from rot,” he explained.
Other issues, he said, included new condition of service, stopping the illegal dissolution of universities Governing Councils, the release of three and a half months of the outstanding seven months withheld salaries for work already done.
The rest are the payment of withheld salaries of members on sabbatical, release of third party deductions by IPPIS, Payment of Earned Academic Allowance (EAA), implementation of the report of the visitation Panels and adoption of UTAS in place of IPPIS.
“Based on all these, the members of our great union in this branch, like those of the other branches, are believing that the Federal Government is unwilling to decisively address the outstanding issues with the union.
“Therefore, in line with the directives from the National secretariat, we resolved to hold a press conference and let the parents, the stakeholders in university education know of the situation and to be sensitized and well informed of the failure of the government to address these lingering issues.
Comrade Salim disclosed that if nothing is done within the next three weeks, the ASUU members will take further action.
The union called on well-meaning discerning minds to prevail on the Nigerian Government to attend to the outstanding issues and meet with the union leaders “to avert an unnecessary and avoidable industrial crisis in our already frail and weak university system.”
