In order to prevent industrial action, the Federal Government has been given three weeks to react to the requests made by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, or ASUU.
At an emergency news conference conducted at the FUD, ASUU Secretariat in Dutse, Comrade Salim Ahmed, Chairperson of the ASUU Federal University Dutse, FUD, Branch in Jigawa State, issued the warning.
According to him, “the Members of the Expanded Executive Officers of the ASUU Federal University Dutse met today, Wednesday, 19th June 2024, to consider and take a look at the patriotic engagements of the Union with the Federal and State governments on how best to address all the lingering problems bedeviling Nigerian Public Universities”.
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He said that since the Union’s founding on May 29, 2023, ASUU has noted that the current administration has willfully disregarded the Union’s leadership.
“All efforts were put in place 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, as contained in the International Labour Organization, ILO’s principle of collective bargaining, have failed,” he said.
According to Ahmed, all of the major concerns raised by ASUU members—university autonomy, funding for the revitalization of Nigerian universities, and the expansion of public universities—are covered in the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement that was renegotiated.
He went on to say that the main concerns regarding condition of service are all of the contentious issues mentioned in the FGN/ASUU MoU 2012/2013 and the MoA of 2017, which also addresses the unlawful dissolution of governing councils at federal and state universities and the release of the remaining three and a half (7) months’ worth of salaries that were withheld for work that had already been completed.
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“Others are release of the unpaid salaries of our members on sabbatical, adjunct, etc due to IPPIS inadequacy and inefficiency, 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.
“The general public should be aware of the true state of affairs.”
Ahmed revealed that the union would put mechanisms in place to further mobilise its members and sensitise them for additional action over the next three weeks.
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“The union calls on all well-meaning discerning minds to prevail on Nigerian Government to attend to these outstanding issues and meet with our union leadership so as to avert an unnecessary and avoidable industrial crisis in our already frail and weak university system,” Ahmed added.
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