The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Wednesday commenced a week’s warning strike to protest the Federal Government’s failure to implement the 2009 agreement it reached with the union. ASUU’s National President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, observed that despite efforts to get the government respect the agreement, it has failed to do so.
The leadership of ASUU also explained that the strike will be for one week in the first instance but will continue indefinitely if the government fails to honour the 2009 agreement regarding their welfare and another 2013 Memorandum of Understanding on university reforms and yearly release of N200 billion in 2013 and N220 billion subsequently for 2014-2018. The union also faulted the payment of a fraction of workers’ entitlement, denial of their earned academic allowance and the refusal to register the Nigerian Universities Pension Management Company by the National Pension Commission (NPC).
The union also wants the Federal Government to exclude university funding from the Treasury Single Account (TSA) that delays disbursement due to bureaucracy. It also pointed out that the TSA has made it extremely difficult for the Federal Universities to discharge their core responsibilities of teaching, research and community service as well as engaging in international academic networking due to inadequate access to budgeted funds. The TSA, it said, is incompatible with the autonomy of universities.
Reports so far said that the warning strike has paralysed academic activities in most universities across the country as there were no lectures in University of Ibadan, University of Abuja, University of Uyo, Bauchi State University, University of Lagos, Lagos State University and Niger Delta University, Bayelsa.
It will be recalled that ASUU had gone on so many strikes since this agreement was reached to protest government’s inability to fulfill them. So far, the government has only managed to implement some aspects of the agreement.
We, therefore, call on the government to use the opportunity of the warning strike to dialogue with ASUU leadership on the contentious issues. We believe that the concerns of ASUU, especially on staff welfare, autonomy and university funding, are genuine. The government must do everything within its powers to ensure that the warning strike does not degenerate to protracted one. Government should not wait until ASUU goes into indefinite strike before it acts. Therefore, government must expeditiously explore all avenues to ensure that the grey areas in its agreements with ASUU are finally resolved. We urge ASUU to show understanding in its negotiation with government so that this matter would be laid to rest once and for all.
It is sad that the 2009 agreement and the 2013 MoU that the government entered into with ASUU have not been substantially implemented despite the fact that government is a continuum. We urge government to honour its agreements with the varsity teachers forthwith.  We say this because the frequent disruption of academic calendar has not helped in shoring up the standard of our university education. Another strike by ASUU will mean further reduction in the standard of our university education as well as our human development index.  Let the government dialogue with ASUU to see areas of the agreements that can now be realistically implemented in view of our declining revenue earnings.
We cannot be a developed society if we don’t pay full attention to our university education. For Nigeria to achieve the anticipated social and economic development, government should stop paying lip-service to university education. Let the Federal and State governments fund their universities adequately. We also welcome the intervention of the Senate on this matter and urge it to liaise with other stakeholders in the education sector to ensure that the looming strike is averted.

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