ASUU Adds New Condition To End Strike

Following the series of meetings between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), and the federal government, the union has added six new conditions to the ones given to the federal government to call off the ongoing indefinite strike.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, while urging the lecturers to embrace peace said, “They have brought some proposals different from the demands we are already addressing. I want ASUU to toe the path of peace for the sake of the innocent students in our universities.”

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) will discuss their demands today and figure out the way forward. Which may include any of the following:

• Bringing ASUU back to the negotiation table.
• Allowing the Wale Babalakin Panel to conclude its assignment;
• Suing ASUU to either the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) or the National Industrial Court (NIC); and
• Referring all issues to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, in line with the Trade Dispute law.

The six conditions were not part of the previous demands referred to the Babalakin Committee for arbitration.

The new conditions are that:

• The Federal Government should immediately  accept payment of shortfall in salaries of universities;
• Universities to manage their IGR the way they like and exemption from TSA;
• Exemption of Endowment Funds, JV cash from TSA;
• Payment of University Salary Scale to teachers in primary schools in universities;
• Release/implementation of guidelines for the retirement of Professors in line with 2009 FG-ASUU Agreement; and
• Waiver/ government fiat to set up Nigerian Universities Pension Management Company

According to a source, “ASUU has brought proposals different from the agreement they reached in the Senate with the Federal Ministry of Education.”

“They are asking the government to take over the shortfall in the salaries of universities when there were glaring cases of abuse of recruitment process and non-compliance with Integrated Personnel Payment Information System (IPPIS).”

“They want the government to accept liability for the shortfall in spite of the fact that universities acted arbitrarily in increasing their wage bill.”

“The lecturers have also asked the government to manage their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) henceforth instead of remitting such to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) in line with their demand for autonomy for universities.”

“In their new demands, the lecturers asked for the issuance of a fiat to the Pension Commission to register the Nigerian Universities Pension Management Company.”

“PENCOM has expressed its readiness to register Nigerian Universities Pension Management Company, if ASUU and other stakeholders can quickly address the lapses already highlighted in the registration process. PENCOM is insisting that the guidelines in the 2005 Pension Reforms Act must be fully complied with,” the source said.

“Another demand from ASUU is the release of the guidelines for the retirement of professors in line with 2009 Agreement.”

“Going by Section 3 of the Labour Dispute law, any further discussion on ASUU demands should be done with the Federal Ministry of Labour.”