The Academic Staff Union of Universities has written a letter to the President, Mr Bola Tinubu, over ten unresolved demands in the 2020 Memorandum of Action.
The letter, dated June 20, 2024, said the Nigerian academics were compelled to embark on nationwide strike action on 14th February 2022, when all entreaties to the government to resolve the issues in contention fell on deaf ears.
This action lasted till October of the same year.“Specifically, the government’s refusal to implement the Memorandum of Action of December 2020 provoked the 2022 strike action across the Nigerian public universities. Sadly, to date, several issues in the 2020 MOA remain unresolved.”
The letter signed by National President, ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said the ten issues, and emerging ones, which were the conclusion of the renegotiation of the FGN/ASUU Agreement based on Nimi Briggs Committee’s draft Agreement of 2021; release of withheld three-and-half months salaries on account of the 2022 strike action; release of unpaid salaries of staff on sabbatical, part-time, and adjunct appointments owing to the application of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS); release of outstanding third-party deductions such as check-off dues and cooperative contributions; Funding for revitalisation of public universities (partly captured in 2023 Federal Government’s Budget).
Others are Earned Academic Allowances (partly captured in the 2023 Federal Government’s Budget); proliferation of universities by Federal and State Governments; implementation of the reports of visitation panels to universities; Illegal dissolution of Governing Councils; and University Transparency and Accountability Solutions (in place of IPPIS).
Osodeke said, “Your Excellency is requested to set necessary machinery in motion for bringing ASUU and major stakeholders (Ministries, Departments, and Agencies) together to address the outstanding issues in FGN/ASUU engagements since 2009. This will save our university system the agonies of another round of industrial action and its disruptive potential. The President’s promise of smooth academic calendars in universities at the inception of this administration, we believe, is achievable if the government sincerely sits down to address the issues as listed here.”
