ASUU mulls strike, says FG yet to implement agreements

ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says none of the agreements reached with the Federal Government has been implemented.

ASUU President Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke made this known on Monday, July 8, 2024.

It would be recalled that ASUU recently threatened to embark on strike over the non-implementation of agreements reached with the federal government.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, on June 26, invited the union for a meeting to deliberate on the lingering issues affecting universities and to avert the planned strike.

Osodeke, however, said the union would deliberate on the next move if the government failed to implement the agreements reached in the next two weeks.

He said: “At the meeting called by the Minister of Education, we agreed that after two weeks, we will meet to see the progress the government has made.

“We will also see what we will do next if government fail to implement the agreements reached.

“The meeting in the next two weeks is to see what they have done which will inform our decision.”

ASUU shelves strike after meeting with FG

The ASUU president said some of the demands included the non-implementation of the 2009 re-negotiated agreements, adding that the agreements had lingered for over six years and the government was yet to implement them.

Osodeke said the academic allowances due to their members had also accumulated for over six years, noting that nothing had been done about it

On the issue of the revitalisation fund, he said they agreed on the NEEDs Assessment Report to raise N200 billion yearly, for five years.

“Since 2013, only one has been paid. We need revitalisation funds to upgrade our universities to standard so that we can be having students and lecturers from outside the country,” the ASUU President told NAN.

Osodeke added that the government was yet to stop the proliferation of universities, saying many new universities were approved without funds to run them.

He said the government was also yet to exit the university salary payment from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) as approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in January 2024.

The ASUU President further disclosed that lecturers were still being paid by IPPIS against the directive by the FEC.

The Star