President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday ordered Malam Adamu Adamu, the minister of education, to end the strike that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other university-based unions are currently on.
Remember how on Monday, the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, and unions in the banking and aviation industries threatened to join forces in a protest planned for next Tuesday and Wednesday over the government’s unwillingness to end the strike by varsity unions.
The four unions in the university system which includes ,
- The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU
- Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Educational Institutions, NASU
- Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU
- National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, had been on strike for over five months as a result of government’s failure to meet their demands.
Due to what they claim is the federal government’s inability to accept their demands, ASUU went on strike on February 14 and was soon supported by other unions.
The demands include, among other things, the discontinuation the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system, IPPIS, and adoption of University, Transparency and Accountability Solution, UTAS, for ASUU; and the University Peculiar Payroll and Payment System, U3PS or UPPPS for the non-academic unions, among others.
President Buhari, who called a meeting yesterday to hear from the government team about why the strike had lingered for too long, issued the directive after receiving briefings from the pertinent government Ministries, Agencies and Departments, or MDAs, involved in resolving the standoff with the university unions.
The President ordered the Minister of Education to ensure that the impasse was resolved within two weeks and report back to him.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Mr. Boss Mustapha, was asked to be part of the team to interface with the striking unions according to reports.
Those at the meeting were,
- The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu,
- The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr. Zainab Ahmed
- Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige
- Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami,
- The Head of Service of the Federation, Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan,
- The Chairman of National Salaries Income and Wages Commission, Ekpo Nta and
- The Director-General, Budget Office, Ben Akabueze.
ASUU has however expressed doubts about the government’s seriousness regarding the strike, despite parents, under the aegis of National President, National Parents Teachers Association of Nigeria, NAPTAN, seeing the president’s instruction as a major relief.
Lagos Zonal Chairman of the union
Reacting to the directive yesterday, Lagos Zonal Chairman of the union, Dr. Adelaja Odukoya, said it should not be taken as an indication of government’s seriousness on the issue.
Odukoya, who is also a member of the National Executive Committee, NEC, of ASUU, said:
“It is not a measure of seriousness. It is not the first time the Presidency would give such directive and nothing would be done.
‘’There was a time a committee was set up that comprised the Chief of Staff to the President, the Ministers of Education, Labour and Finance that interacted with us, but what came out of it? Nothing.
“As for us making concessions, we have been doing that. We are all in this country and we all know what is happening.
“We signed a memorandum with the government in May 2021, we agreed on a number of issues, but they did nothing.
“Let the government come out with its mindset. As a union, we negotiate, we don’t take awards.’’
President of Nigeria Labour Congress
Also reacting yesterday, President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Ayuba Wabba, said though the NLC was not yet aware of the ultimatum given to Minister of Education over the issue, Congress welcomed whatever was needed to resolve the varsity workers’ crises.
He said: “The closure of the nation’s universities has been of serious concern to us in the last five months because it concerns the destiny of our children and the destiny of the nation.
‘’We believe every right thinking Nigerian should be concerned. We need to get the children back to school. A whole academic session has been lost.
“We needed to intervene to create awareness and draw attention to the issue. This is not the first time we are intervening.
“We have intervened before, which led to the setting up of the Nimi-Briggs committee which reports say the government has rejected.
‘’Though we have not been officially informed about the rejection of the committee’s report, we have described its rejection by government as unacceptable.
“We are not aware of the ultimatum (two weeks ultimatum given to the Minister of Education to resolve the ASUU crisis), this issue can be resolved, even now. So, we welcome the directive.’’
See the video below for more!
