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Tag: Emmanuel Osodeke

  • Strike: Finally, FG accepts to accommodate ASUU’s peculiarities in IPPIS

    Strike: Finally, FG accepts to accommodate ASUU’s peculiarities in IPPIS

    Finally, the federal government (FG) has accepted to accommodate the peculiar allowances of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information Payment System (IPPIS).

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that the acting Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Okolieaboh Sylva disclosed this at a meeting of ASUU with the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr Chris Ngige and the leadership of the House of Representatives on Thursday in Abuja.

    Mr Sylva said that if there were peculiar allowances in ASUU’s pay, what needed to be done was to incorporate them into the platform, adding that the office of the Accountant General was willing to incorporate ASUU’s peculiarities.

    “Let us sit down and know what these issues are and address them inside IPPIS. We can correct whatever mistake we make now,” he said while expressing reservation over ASUU’s insistence on the incorporation of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) payment platform for its members.

    “If we accept what ASUU is saying, it will create room for everyone to be asking for their own payment platform, the military is on IPPIS and health workers, ASUU should sit down with us and see the progress we have made,” he said.

    Sylva said that the incorporation of ASUU’s demand on IPPIS platform could be done without President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval, adding that there was nothing complicated about the issue once ASUU agreed to the offer.

    “In the spirit of reconciliation, if ASUU knows what can be done, we are willing to adopt it to resolve this issue. It doesn’t make sense not to accept, let ASUU come to us, we are willing to accept. If we are going to adopt UTAS, that shows we are going to build the salaries of other civil servants to UTAS,” he said.

    Speaking, Dr Ngige said the federal government would not offer ASUU what it does not have, adding that the leadership of the union met with the President on January 9 with the hope of convincing the government to adopt the UTAS platform for lecturers’ salaries.

    “I told Mr President to let us give it a trial and I took it upon myself, I went to NITDA and other agencies and we looked at the system,” he said, adding that the platforms brought by ASUU failed the integrity test and that he couldn’t recommend the adoption of any of them, no matter the pressure.

    Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, President, ASUU, however, said it was unfortunate that Nigerians failed to understand how the university system operates.

    Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila appealed to ASUU to call off its ongoing strike. He added that the executive had spoken, just as the judiciary, and the legislature.

    “Everybody cannot be wrong. We are working according to everything we said in our last meeting, please in the interest of our children, we have called you in spite of the court ruling,” he said.

    On the issue of UTAS, Gbajabiamila said the report was with the lawmakers.

    “We are more or less working for you. There comes a time all conflicts come to an end. We will make our recommendation to the President. You have a very good case, the minister dropped a bombshell before he left but I didn’t pay attention.

    “I understand your feeling and emotion. You are not doing it for yourself but the enabling environment and the future of our children. Please let’s take it and get to the final destination,” he said.

  • NANS leadership meets with ASUU President over protracted strike

    NANS leadership meets with ASUU President over protracted strike

    The leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) led by its President, Comrade Usman Umar Barambu met with the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Emmanuel Osodeke on Sunday.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that the meeting, which was held to chart a way forward on how best to end the protracted ASUU strike, lasted for over six hours, with Comrade Barambu appealing to Prof Osodeke for the union to shift grounds and call off the strike.

    At the meeting, Osodeke took the new leadership of NANS through the various agreements signed with the federal government and the terms of conditions laid before them so as to enable them to return back to class.

    The ASUU President reiterated the sheer negligence of the FG in assuaging or making serious efforts to end the over 7 months strike and how the union has remained unbending to the tactics of the federal government to use hunger to cajole them into returning back to class.

    In responding to the plethora of agreements and yearnings from the ASUU leadership, the NANS President frowned at the docile attitude of the government in preventing the strike and allowing it to fetter for this long.

    He however appealed to ASUU to kindly consider the sorry state of the Nigerian students and shift ground even though some of their demands remain germane and pivotal to the development of public institutions in Nigeria.

    Barambu stressed that for students’ interests and dreams, ASUU should consider suspending the strike while permanent solutions are being devised. He further appreciated the ASUU President for granting them an audience and promised to keep working in pari passu with them to see that jointly they will achieve the desired state-of-the-art facilities needed for standard learning and proper education as obtained in other climes.

  • Strike: We can’t be forced back to classrooms – ASUU President blows hot

    Strike: We can’t be forced back to classrooms – ASUU President blows hot

    President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Emmanuel Osodeke has insisted that deploying the instrument of the state to compel the striking lecturers to go back to school will be counterproductive.

    Prof. Osodeke, who disclosed this while speaking with pressmen, expressed worries that Nigeria stands to lose if lecturers are forced back to the classroom, stressing that no lecturer was going to teach with their whole heart.

    “How many of those lecturers are going to use their minds and wills to teach courses the way they should teach them? Just ask yourself that question. How many? They will go back to school. Who will lose? This country will lose. And you believe that that is the best way to go,” he stated.

    He spoke in reaction to the Federal Government’s decision to compel the union to return to the classroom by dragging it to the National Industry Court through the Federal Ministry of Labour. The Federal Government is seeking court’s injunction to order the striking lecturers to call off the strike.

    The Federal Government of Nigeria activated the no work, no pay policy on the striking lecturers since March, 2022, a month after the strike commenced in February. ASUU has equated this as a FGN’s mechanism to weaponize hunger as a strategy to suppress the union and force them back to the classroom.

    Prof. Osodeke described the FGN’s strategy as a case of “give them hunger treatment, while they are on hunger treatment, force them back to school.”

    ASUU President maintained that the union was ready to call off the strike without delays but that the Federal needed to show leadership and commitment.

    “We are requesting that we elected these people, we should put pressure on these politicians to come back to the table and resolve these issues.  “Jonathan did. Jonathan decided to resolve it in one night. And when we now met with Jonathan, he saw the truth.

    “People feed him with lies, but when we met with him, in those 14 hours, for the first time, he saw the truth, that all that they have been telling him were all lies with documentation. And that strike ended. Now they are also doing the same thing”, Prof. Osodeke said.

    “I am appealing that we are willing to call off the strike any day, even tomorrow, but we have to have something concrete that we can come back with. Something concrete that will change where we are today, where students are in a lecture hall and sitting on a bare floor. It is still happening up till today.

    “Where people are having lectures in an open space. Where students are taking lectures peeping from windows. Where one thousand students are using two microscopes in a laboratory. Where you are using stove as Bunsen burners.  Where you see four professors sitting in one room as an office. That is the crisis and if we don’t resolve it, this country will be in a perpetual problem” the statement read.

    ASUU pointed out that it was uncharitable of the Federal Government to be using some uniformed students to fight their teachers. ASUU president recounted that he had been informed that the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has joined the Ministry of Labour to sue ASUU to court.

    “I have been told and I just got the court summon yesterday that the NANS has also joined the Ministry of Labour to sue us. But you know why? It is the illegal NANS. You know they had elections and two factions emerged.

    “One is in Lagos campaigning for them to resolve the issue, one is with the Ministry of Labour going to court. Ileegal group! And you know they won’t raise the money, somebody paid them, somebody paid for those things, paid the lawyers, certainly not those students. Instead of resolving the issues, you are going to court. So those are basically the issues.

    “And I have continued to talk to the students, we also have our children in the schools. We have our colleagues in school, we are the biggest people who are punished most. I have not been paid my salaries for the past seven months. My colleagues have not been paid for seven months and their children are at home.

    “But what we are doing is for the future. If these things succeed and you have good universities, you will sit in the same class with the children of the president. You will share the same double bunk bed with the child of a senator. You will use the same lab with the child of a senator. Until we get there and you will be taught by lecturer from all over the world, so that you are not stereotyped.

    “Somebody who is coming from England will give you his perspective from that country about what he is teaching you. A person coming from the Netherlands will give you that perspective. Just like we Nigerian are giving it to other countries.”

    Professor Osodeke decried the great damage politicians and bureaucrats have done to the Nigerian University system. According to him, the usual tradition of merit has been sacrificed on the alter of tribalism and political connections.

    “Go to South Africa, Nigerians are Heads of Departments. In one of the universities, a Nigerian is the Vice Chancellor, even in England. But in Nigeria where we have gotten to today is that no Yoruba man can be a VC in the North. No Hausa man can be a VC in the West and no Igbo man can be a VC in UNIABUJA. That is where we have reduced ourselves to.

    “If you are not from Cross River, you cannot be a Vice Chancellor in University of Calabar. If you are not from River State, you cannot be a VC in University of Port Harcourt. But in the past, the first VC in University of Ibadan, was an Igbo man. The first VC in UNN was an Hausa man. But we have eroded all those ones. Because the politicians are interfering, the bureaucrats are interfering with the system in the university.

    “They have refused to allow the universities to run well, to run competitively with other countries of the world. If we continue this way, we will be chasing the shadows as no Nigerian university is ranked among the first 1000 universities in the world. So that is the crisis and that is why we are on strike. So, we are appealing that those in power should intercede and ensure that this issue is resolved as quickly as possible”, he said.

  • FACT CHECK: Did ASUU President’s daughter just graduate from a US varsity?

    FACT CHECK: Did ASUU President’s daughter just graduate from a US varsity?

    Thousands of Nigerian students remain stranded due to an ongoing feud between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which forced shut public universities in the country since February 14.

    However, speculations emerged on Thursday that the daughter of the current President of the union, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke recently graduated from the University of Chicago in the United States of  America (USA).

    The speculation emanated from a Facebook post published by one Ekiti Princess, who alleged that Julianah Chedera Victor Osodeke, supposedly a 21-year-old daughter of the ASUU President recently bagged a degree from the foreign university.

    Her post read: “FELICITATIONS: On behalf of my two daughters, who are part of the 5Million Nigeria University Students, let me congratulate Miss (21) Julianah Chidera Osodeke, the beautiful daughter of Comrade Dr Emmanuel Osodeke, who recently graduated from The University of Chicago, Illinois US. We want to thank God and appreciate your daddy for his efforts at sending you to the United State for speedy completion of your course of study.

    “We equally use this opportunity to thank your Dad for his efforts and ruggedness on the ongoing ASUU National strike especially for keeping us at home with our parents for the last seven months for obvious reasons (salary increase). We appreciate you, sir. May the Lord reward you accordingly”.

    The post which was published at 8:16 pm Nigerian time has already been shared over 230 times at the time of filing this report and attracted several comments and impressions. Many netizens criticised Prof Osodeke for shutting down public universities and plunging many students into a state of uncertainty about their future, while his daughter enjoyed uninterrupted education abroad.

    HOW TRUE IS THIS CLAIM?

    Investigations by TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) showed that the photos used for the picture collage that accompanied the post were sourced from different sites.

    The first single photo of the graduating student, purported to be Juilanah, is that of another Nigerian, Anita Osariemen Omonuwa, from Edo-state, who became the first black woman to graduate from the University of Reading in the UK with a first-class degree.

    The photo matched another photo on myschoolgist.com where the story about Anita was published in 2014. She also bagged two other first-class degrees from the University of Birmingham, UK (LLM), and the Nigerian Law School (BL).

    Anita Osariemen Omonuwa

    Another photo in the collage, to the bottom left, was also spotted on the Obama Foundation Scholars website and further checks revealed that the 536th Convocation of the University of Chicago during which degrees were officially conferred to all graduates, was held about three months ago on June 4.

    Obama Foundation Scholars

    In addition, at least two sources close to the Osodeke family have confirmed to TheNewsGuru.com that the ASUU President has only male children.

    VERDICT: Findings from investigations carried out by TheNewsGuru.com show that the claim that Prof Emmanuel Osodeke’s daughter recently graduated from a US university is FALSE and should, therefore, be disregarded by the public.

  • ANALYSIS: 200 days of ASUU strike deepen uncertainty about Nigeria’s grounded public universities

    ANALYSIS: 200 days of ASUU strike deepen uncertainty about Nigeria’s grounded public universities

    A warning strike commenced by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on February 14, which was supposed to last about four weeks snowballed into an indefinite strike action that commenced on August 29, and has now exceeded 200 days.

    ASUU, the umbrella body for public universities in Nigeria, declared the strike over what it termed the Federal Government’s refusal to honour its agreement to implement the Memorandum of Action signed with them in December 2020.

    The union maintains that issues such as harmonising the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) with the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), the non-payment of academic earned allowances, and university revitalization, form a critical part of the reasons for the strike.

    There are 91 public universities in Nigeria and about 70 of them make up the body called ASUU. A strike of this magnitude has left thousands of students stranded and frustrated as more than 2.1 million students are studying across all public universities, according to the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Abubakar Rasheed.

    In Nigeria, it is believed that the only language the Nigerian government understands is strike and unions use this tool as a last resort to get the attention of authorities to their agitations. According to the comprehensive report, the number of times ASUU has gone on strike in the last 23 years is enough to earn a student a four-year bachelor’s degree in an uninterrupted academic setting.

    Annually, the country loses billions of naira through foreign education as a result of these interruptions. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) reported that Nigerians spent $378.77 million on foreign education between January and May 2022 this year and over $29 billion in the last 12 years.

    FG, ASUU engage in fruitless meetings

    Since the ASUU strike commenced 201 days ago, meetings between the union and the Federal Government have not positively impacted the situation. While the Federal Government claimed it has attended to almost 80 per cent of ASUU’s demands, the latter insists promises are not sufficient grounds to call off the strike and demands implementation of the Memorandum of Action signed in 2020.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, however, none of the issues that forced our Union to resume the suspended strike as listed in the December 2020 FGN-ASUU Memorandum of Action (MoA) has been satisfactorily addressed by the Government to date,” ASUU’s president Emmanuel Osodeke stated.

    According to him, the draft renegotiated FGN-ASUU Agreement (second draft) remains unsigned, and the UTAS has not been adopted and deployed to replace the discredited IPPIS and the White Papers on Visitation Panels to Federal Universities, which the government said was ready more than six months ago, are nowhere to be found.

    Additionally, the union said the government has not released the N30 billion balance of the first tranche of the Revitalization Fund and the outstanding two tranches of the Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) amounting to N25 billion. It said the government has also not reviewed the Law of the National Universities Commission (NUC) to stem the tide of the proliferation of universities.

    The union maintains that the strike is aimed at saving public education from the misfortunes that have befallen Nigeria’s public primary and secondary schools, by ensuring that Governments (Federal and State) commit strongly to supporting quality public university education.

    Some universities withdraw from the ASUU strike

    Several universities that had joined the ongoing strike embarked upon by ASUU are gradually pulling out. Some of them include Kaduna State University (KASU), Ambrose Alli University in Edo State, the Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado Ekiti, the Lagos State University (LASU), and the Delta State University (DELSU).

    Three other public universities not observing the strike action are Kwara State University (KWASU), Kogi State University (KSU), and Osun State University (UniOsun). KWASU is dealing with an internal crisis and UniOsun was suspended by ASUU, but both institutions have expressed support for the strike; while the Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello proscribed the ASUU-KSU chapter since July 2017.

    The Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (formerly the University of Sokoto) is also considering opting out of the prolonged strike embarked upon by ASUU, in the interest of their students.

    A source at the university said given the lack of commitment expressed by the federal government, it was considering the option of localizing the struggle, by approaching the state government with its demands.

    Meanwhile, the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State-owned Universities (COPSUN) has condemned ASUU’s unpopular approach to the issue of funding tertiary education in a modern globalised world, describing its strike action as ‘archaic, antiquated, and impracticable.’

    The secretary of the committee Marcus Awobifa, said in a statement, that “this is an auspicious time for ASUU to creatively work with all stakeholders to tinker out a compromise that will bring back to the campuses the young men and women who have been insensitively thrown out of the universities for the last six months”.

    FG to meet with Pro-Chancellors, VCs, and Chairmen of University Governing Councils

    The National Universities Commission (NUC) has invited pro-chancellors, vice-chancellors, and chairmen of governing councils of federal universities to a meeting with the Minister of Education in Abuja on Tuesday, September 6, as part of efforts to resolve the ongoing strike.

    In the invitation letter signed by its Deputy Executive Secretary (Administration), Chris J. Maiyaki, the NUC said it had become necessary for the governing councils and the management of the universities to be briefed on the decisions and actions taken by the Federal Government so far to allow for a well-coordinated review of the situation including building consensus around succeeding actions.

    It is hoped that the meeting will chart a new course for funding public universities in the country, but whether it will compel ASUU to call off its almost seven months strike without the government implementing the Memorandum of Action it signed in 2020, remains to be seen.

  • BREAKING: ASUU officially declares comprehensive, total, indefinite strike

    BREAKING: ASUU officially declares comprehensive, total, indefinite strike

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has transmuted the roll-over strike to a comprehensive, total and indefinite strike action beginning from 12.01 a.m. on Monday, 29th August, 2022.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that the comprehensive, total and indefinite strike action by ASUU followed a meeting of the union’s National Executive Council (NEC).

    The outcome of the meeting held at the Comrade Festus Iyayi National Secretariat, University of Abuja, Abuja on Sunday, 28th August, 2022 was conveyed by ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke in a statement.

    ASUU in the statement insisted that none of the issues that forced the strike in the first place have been addressed by the federal government.

    The statement titled ‘ASUU strikes are to save public universities’ reads: “The National Executive Council (NEC) of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) held an emergency meeting at the Comrade Festus Iyayi National Secretariat, University of Abuja, Abuja on Sunday, 28th August, 2022.

    “The meeting was called mainly to review developments since its last resolution that rolled over the nationwide strike action for another four weeks starting from 1st August, 2022.

    “NEC observed with regret that the Union had experienced a lot of deceit of the highest level in the last five and half years as the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) engaged ASUU in fruitless and unending negotiation without a display of utmost fidelity. In 2017, the Federal Government constituted a committee to renegotiate the 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement under the chairmanship of Dr. Wale Babalakin. After three years of fruitless negotiation, Dr. Babalakin was replaced in December 2020 with Professor Emeritus Munzali Jibril.

    “The Renegotiation Committee produced and submitted a draft agreement to the Federal Government in May, 2021. It is sad that, until 14th February, 2022 when the ongoing strike commenced, the Federal Government made no significant efforts to either sign the agreement or commence implementation. It was only after the commencement of this strike that the Federal Government reconstituted the committee with Professor Emeritus Nimi Briggs appointed Chairman to lead the Government Team.

    “NEC recalled that, before meeting with our Union, the Nimi Briggs Committee confirmed to ASUU in writing that it was consulting with all relevant stakeholders in order to aggregate Government’s position/offer. After intensive bargaining, ASUU came to a compromise with the Professor Briggs-led Team  leading to the submission of the second Draft Agreement to the Federal Government in June, 2022 for consideration and approval for signing by the two parties within one week.

    “This was done in line with the principle of collective bargaining. Shortly after and against all expectations, however, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, and later his Minister of State, Festus Kayamo, alleged that the Union chased away representatives of government agencies and thereafter fixed unreasonable and unimplementable salary package for its members.

    “They claimed that the government would need to borrow 1.6 trillion Naira to implement the Draft Agreement;- a claim that is not only malicious but contrived to blackmail the Union. Subsequently, some miserable, unilateral, and insulting take-it or-leave-it offers of between N30, 000 and N60,000 monthly salary were thrown at the Union. This was obviously an attempt to abrogate the principle of collective bargaining which has guided ASUU engagements with Federal Government since 1981.

    “NEC noted that ASUU and other well-meaning Nigerians have expressed serious disappointment by and consternation on the attitude of the Government conveyed by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, who had deliberately misinformed the public and reduced the current struggle of ASUU to the payment of withheld salaries, claiming that all other contentious issues had been resolved.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, however, none of the issues that forced our Union to resume the suspended strike as listed in the December 2020 FGN-ASUU Memorandum of Action (MoA) has been satisfactorily addressed by the Government to date.

    “The draft renegotiated FGN-ASUU Agreement (second draft) remains unsigned; the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) has not been adopted and deployed to replace the discredited Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS); and the White Papers on Visitation Panels to Federal Universities, if ready as claimed by Government more than six months ago, are nowhere to be found.

    “Similarly, Government has not delivered on the promised balance of one tranche of the Revitalization Fund more than one year after, the outstanding two tranches of the Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) have not been released; and nothing has since happened on the support for amendment to the Law of the National Universities Commission (NUC) to stem the tide of proliferation of universities especially by the State Governments.

    “NEC was utterly disappointed in agents of Government, especially the Minister of Education, for the deliberate falsehood and misrepresentation of facts aimed at scoring cheap political gains. It is disheartening to imagine that a Minister whose responsibility it is to resolve the crisis can overnight turn round to lead in this ignoble enterprise of distorting facts and misleading Nigerians.

    “The disdain with which the Minister of Education handled questions about the ongoing ASUU strike at his distasteful Press Conference on Thursday, 18th August, 2022 lends credence to the widespread suspicion that the current Government never believed in saving public universities from the misfortunes that have befallen Nigeria’s public primary and secondary schools.

    “NEC noted with delight that, in defence of the integrity of the process leading to the agreement reached with government, the Briggs Committee has, in a well- publicized newspaper advertorial, confirmed that all the proposals and recommendations it made to ASUU were properly discussed and cleared with their Principal.

    “The Committee also confirmed that throughout the renegotiation process, all the relevant government agencies, including National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, Budget and Finance and Federal Character Commission (FCC), were in attendance.

    “In addition, the paid advert by the Briggs-led Government Team equally showed that the figure of N1.1 Trillion quoted by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, and his Minister of State, Festus Keyamo, and some other government officials as amount needed to implement the salary increase, came from some imaginative blues and was no way close to reality.

    “We commend members of Nimi Briggs-led Team for their unprecedented act of courage. By this singular act, the Team has put the lie to official propaganda against ASUU and the entire renegotiation process. May this race of Nigerians multiply!

    “NEC observed with displeasure that some mischievous Vice-Chancellors and Chairpersons of Governing Councils of State Universities have evolved disingenuous underhand tactics to undermine the current ASUU struggle in their various Universities.

    “ASUU struggles are to save Nigerian public universities irrespective of ownership – Federal or State. The Union views with all seriousness the fact that the sanctimonious behaviour of these university administrators and managers does not stop them from accessing yearly grants of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) which ASUU struggles of the 1980s and 1990s brought to life.

    “Neither did their holier-than-thou attitude keep these invidious individuals from jumping into the next flight to come for project defence each time ASUU struggles had translated into some handsome funds for the revitalization of their universities (hostels, laboratories, workshops, lecture theatres, etc.).

    “ASUU shall use all legitimate means at its disposal to protect and defend the interests of our members in public universities who may be victimised on the account of the ongoing struggles.

    “ASUU NEC noted with pains, its concerns for Nigerian students who are also our wards and foster children and condemned Government’s seeming indifference to their plights.

    “The Union empathizes with the students, their parents, as well as other stakeholders (including our colleagues who are undertaking their higher degrees) in the universities.

    “ASUU reaffirms its belief in the sanctity of a stable academic system. Were it within our control, our universities would never have been shut for one day! However, ASUU was forced into taking this painful decision to prevent members of the Nigerian  ruling class and their foreign collaborators from further destroying whatever is left of our public universities.

    “We are all victims. We need the understanding, solidarity and sacrifices of all to ensure that every qualified Nigerian youth who cannot afford the cost of private university education or foreign studies has unhindered access to quality university education.

    “ASUU strikes are aimed at saving public education, and ensuring that Governments (Federal and State) use our common patrimony to support quality public university education. This is our collective obligation.

    “NEC acknowledged with appreciation past and current efforts by eminent Nigerians and groups to mediate in the lingering crisis. Our Union remains open to reasonable engagements we have always done.

    “However, ASUU remains focused on the full implementation of the 23rd December, 2020 Memorandum of Action for quick restoration of industrial harmony in Nigeria’s public universities.

    “In view of the foregoing, and following extensive deliberations on Government’s response to the resolution of 14th February, 2022 so far, NEC concluded that the demands of the Union had not been satisfactorily addressed.

    “Consequently, NEC resolved to transmute the roll-over strike to a comprehensive, total and indefinite strike action beginning from 12.01a.m. on Monday, 29th August, 2022. Thank you”.

  • BREAKING: ASUU further extends ongoing strike

    BREAKING: ASUU further extends ongoing strike

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has further extended its ongoing strike, following a heated meeting of its National Executive Council at the union’s headquarters at the University of Abuja.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that a reliable source, who attended the meeting, disclosed this while revealing that the union was divided about whether to sustain the demands the union has put before the government or sustain the fight until all its prayers are met.

    The source, who is a frontline member of the Union in one of the federal universities located in North Central Nigeria, said ASUU Chairman, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke is, however, under pressure to call a truce and return to classrooms.

    The source noted that the union is refusing to yield because of its past experience with the government which has reneged on past promises.

    “Apart from pending issues of allowance and the back-and-forth about whether the government would pay the backlog of arrears of salaries owed our members, there are commitments that are to the benefits of Nigerian universities that we are not getting.

    Also Read || ASUU: Varsity fixes August 29 as resumption date

    “Ironically, these things are not to the benefits of any individual lecturer, but that of the universities,” the source said.

    Principal officers and branch chairmen arrived in Abuja on Sunday for the make or mar crucial NEC meeting, to determine the fate of millions of Nigerian students who have been at home since February 14, 2022.

    Ahead of the crucial meeting, branch congresses were held on Tuesday and Wednesday across universities in the country, the resolutions of which were discussed at the NEC meeting.

    Already, some state universities such as Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso and Delta State University have pulled out of the ongoing strike. Lagos State University, Osun State University and others did not participate in the strike.

    Another close source said: “Aside from two universities that voted against the continuation of the industrial action, many others have backed the declaration of the indefinite strike as against the roll-over that the union commenced on February 14 2022”.

    TNG gathered that the federal government is mounting serious pressure on ASUU leadership using prominent Nigerians for the suspension of its six-month strike.

    One of the branch chairmen who spoke on condition of anonymity said that details of the NEC decision would be made public by Monday evening. He acknowledged the lobby by some prominent Nigerians on behalf of the government to bring the strike to an end.

  • KWASU fires back at ASUU President over quackery label

    KWASU fires back at ASUU President over quackery label

    The Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete, says the institution is founded on the vision of advancing the frontiers of knowledge for the good of society and not a quack university.

    The KWASU Director, University Relations, Dr Saeedat Aliyu, said this in a statement on Friday in Ilorin.

    Aliyu was reacting to statements credited by the National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, in his recent media outing on the ongoing strike by the association.

    Osodeke labeled KWASU, among some other state owned institutions in Nigeria as “quacks” and “irrelevant” for refusing to join the industrial action.

    ”KWASU Management considers these statements as undeserving of an academic of Prof. Osodeke’s purported status.

    ”One who should know better than to denigrate institutions of higher learning for one reason that is unrelated to any factor used to measure the standard of institutions anywhere in the world.

    ”His statements are tantamount to bullying, they are reckless, uncalled for and a denigration of the status he occupies as national head of the union of academic staff in Nigeria,” Aliyu said.

    She added that KWASU was the first public university in Nigeria to extend higher education curriculum to include equipping students with entrepreneurship skills to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

    ”KWASU is also the leading university which focuses on communities with the aim of solving challenges they face while helping to develop these communities.

    ”Currently, we are the only university in Nigeria going green in her thinking and activities as proactive measures to save the environment.

    ”All these reflect in our mantra of ‘the green University for Community Development and Entrepreneurship’.

    ”Again, we are the first institution in Nigeria to mount Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering as a forward thinking move to develop human capacity for the nation’s aeronautic and astronautic needs,” she said.

    The director explained that many of KWASU’s ideas are being replicated by many other institutions which Osodeke eulogised in his uncritical statements.

    She added that KWASU has all of its academic programmes accredited by the National Universities Commission (NUC) and requisite professional regulatory bodies.

    ”As an institution founded barely thirteen years ago, KWASU has made a name for itself as a University which focuses on breaking new grounds,” Aliyu said.

    She, therefore, called for a retraction of what she described as abominable statement and a published apology to KWASU forthwith from Osodeke.

    According to her, the institution will not be quiet in the face of slanderous accusations made against its very existence and contributions.

  • Lecturers, FG trade blame over protracted ASUU strike

    Lecturers, FG trade blame over protracted ASUU strike

    Following the latest meeting between striking lecturers and the federal government, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has accused the government of rejecting a salary package arrived at through collective bargaining.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports ASUU as saying it is a retrogressive step for a democratic government to abrogate the collective bargaining principle after more than forty years of its introduction into the Nigerian University System.

    ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, following Tuesday’s meeting on Thursday issued a statement in which he disclosed that the 1981 FGN-ASUU Agreement, under Alhaji Shehu Shagari’s administration, established the principle of collective bargaining.

    Prof Osodeke explained that it was based on the Wages Boards and Industrial Council’s Decree No 1 of 1973, the Trade Dispute Act (1976), ILO Conventions 49 (1948), 91(1950), 154 (1988) and recommendation 153 (1981), Udoji Commission Report of 1974, and Cookey Commission Report of 1981.

    Osodeke stated that the principle of collective bargaining also provided a platform for resolving such important issues as special Salaries and Conditions of Service of University Staff, University Funding, roles of Pro-Chancellors, Vice-Chancellors, and National Universities Commission (NUC). A key outcome was a special salary scale for university staff known as University Salary Structure (USS).

    The ASUU President further disclosed that, however, at the commencement of the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement on 16th March 2017, both the Federal Government and ASUU Teams agreed to be guided by the following principles as their terms of reference:

    (i) Reversal of the decay in the Nigerian University System, in order to reposition it for its responsibilities in national development; (ii) Reversal of the brain drain, not only by enhancing the remuneration of academic staff, but also by disengaging them from the encumbrances of a unified civil service wage structure; (iii) Restoration of Nigerian Universities, through immediate, massive and sustained financial intervention; and (iv) Ensuring genuine university autonomy and academic freedom.

    Osodeke, meanwhile, disclosed that: “At the resumed meeting of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) 2009 Agreement Re-negotiation Committee on Tuesday, 16th August, 2022, the Government Team presented an “Award” of a Recommended Consolidated University Academic Salary Structure (CONUASS) prepared by the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) to ASUU. ASUU firmly rejected and still rejects the “Award””.

    He further stated: “Government’s surreptitious move to set aside the principle of collective bargaining, which is globally in practice, has the potential of damaging lecturers’ psyche and destroying commitment to the university system. This is, no doubt, injurious to Nigeria’s aspiration to become an active player in the global knowledge industry.

    “Rejecting a salary package arrived at through collective bargaining is a repudiation of government’s pronouncements on reversing “brain drain”. It is common knowledge that, more now than in the 1980s and 1990s, Nigerian scholars, especially in scarce areas like science and medicine, are migrating in droves to Europe, America and many parts of Africa such as South Africa, Rwanda, and Ghana with supportive environment to ply their trades as well as competitive reward systems for intellectual efforts. Does the Nigerian government care about what becomes of public universities in another five or ten years if this trend continues?

    “FGN’s repudiation of collective bargaining is in bad faith. It is a retrogressive step for a democratic government to abrogate the collective bargaining principle after more than forty years of its introduction into the Nigerian University System. The ILO’s Policy Guide on Collective Bargaining stipulates that “The principle of negotiation in good faith takes the form in practice of various obligations on the parties involved, namely: (i) recognizing representative organizations; (ii) endeavouring to reach agreement; (iii) engaging in real and constructive negotiations; (iv) avoiding unjustified delays in negotiation; and (v) mutually respecting the commitments made and the results achieved through bargaining” (ILO 2015, p. 14). Hence it could be safely concluded that FGN’s renegotiation of the 2009 Agreement with ASUU between March 2017 and June 2022 has been done in bad faith.

    “Government imposed the ongoing strike action on ASUU and it has encouraged it to linger because of its provocative indifference. The Munzali Jibril-led renegotiation committee submitted the first Draft Agreement in May 2021 but government’s official response did not come until about one year later! Again, i the “Award” presented by the Nimi Briggs-led Team came across in a manner of take-it-or-leave-it on a sheet of paper. No serious country in the world treats their scholars this way.

    “Over the years, particularly since 1992, the Union has always argued for and negotiated a separate salary structure for academics for obvious reasons. ASUU does not accept any awarded salary as was the case in the administration of General Abdulsalam Abubakar. The separate salary structures in all FGN/ASUU Agreements were usually the outcome of Collective Bargaining processes.

    “The major reason given by the Federal Government for the miserly offer, paucity of revenue, is not tenable. This is because of several reasons chief of which is poor management of the economy. This has given rise to leakages in the revenue of governments at all levels. There is wasteful spending, misappropriation of fund and outright stealing of our collective patrimony. ASUU believes that if the leakages in the management of the country’s resources are stopped, there will be more than enough to meet the nation’s revenue and expenditure targets without borrowing and plunging the country into a debt crisis as is the case now.

    “The New Draft Agreement has other major recommendations for the funding of major components of the renegotiated 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement. One of such recommendations is the tax on cellphone and communication lines. Ironically, the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning recently announced its readiness to implement ASUU’s recommendation, as a revenue source, but not for education, without acknowledging the Union!

    “Our prayer: Where there is will, there will be way. The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Education, should return to the New Draft Agreement of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Renegotiation Committee whose work spanned a total of five and half years as a demonstration of good faith. Thank you”.

    While the ASUU President has accused the government of imposing the ongoing strike action on ASUU and encouraged it to linger because of its provocative indifference, the Minister of Education Adamu Adamu has said Nigerian students should hold the union responsible.

    Adamu on Thursday at the 47th Session of the State House Ministerial Briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja said ASUU should compensate students for the time wasted during the period of the strike.

    He also said the government will not concede to the union’s demand to pay lecturers their emoluments for the six months of no academic activities. Adamu suggested that the affected students should “take ASUU to court” to claim damages incurred over the strike period.

    According to him, the Federal Government bears no liability to compensate millions of students grounded for six months over lost time. He also said if the students are determined to get compensated, they should take ASUU to court.

    Tertiary unions except ASUU accept FG’s offers to suspend strikes – FG

    Also, the federal government has said all striking tertiary institutions’ based unions except Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have accepted its offers to call off their strikes by next week.

    Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, who revealed this at the weekly briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team, said ASUU insisted that its members must be paid for the period of the strike.

    According to him, the insistence by ASUU on being paid six months salaries of the strike period is what is stalling the negotiations between the Federal Government and the union.

    He, however, said that government also insisted on implementing its ‘no work no pay rule’ to serve as deterrence to other unions who might embark on strike action in future.

    ”If you think it is for the government other than what the government is doing in the university to stop strike, the standard government has taken now is not to pay the months in which no work was done.

    ”I think this is the only thing that is in the hands of government to ensure that there is penalty for some behaviour like this.

    ”So, I believe teachers will think twice before they join strike if they know that at the end they are not going to be paid and the federal government is not acting arbitrarily.

    ”Before, it was some magnanimity on its part, there is a law which says if there is no work, there will be no pay. I believe this will be a very strong element that will be determining from going on strike,” he said.

    Adamu also expressed the hope that all other unions like Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, (SANNU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Education and Associated Institutions, (NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) will resume work in the next one week.
    The minister also dismissed media report that the president gave him two-week ultimatum to resolve the misunderstanding between ASUU and the Federal Government.

    The minister further disclosed that the Federal Government had spent over N6 trillion on revamping the country’s education sector in the last seven years. He said the money was spent on the provision of infrastructure and Information Communication Technology equipment to public institutions of learning across the country.

    “The implementation of the sector’s blueprint is on course. In the last seven years, we have undertaken massive physical development of infrastructure, ICT development at all levels of our educational system, established new institutions, improved the carrying capacity of our institutions and expanded access to quality education at all levels.

    “Steps are also being taken to accelerate the implementation of the 2020 presidential approval for the revitalisation of the teaching profession. The government of President Buhari has expended a total of N6, 300, 947, 848, 237 on capital and recurrent expenditure in the education sector in the last seven years,” he said.

    The minister pledged that the government would continue to improve on the implementation of its strategic plans as well as create the necessary environment for the overall development of the education sector in Nigeria.

    Adamu announced that all states of the federation could now boast of at least a federal university and polytechnic in each of them.

    “This administration has ensured that all states of the federation now have a federal university and a federal polytechnic, with nine universities, nine polytechnics and six colleges of education established between 2018 and today. This administration is determined to ensure that they take off very well that is why provisions have been made for all of them,’’ he said.

    The minister highlighted that the basic and secondary level of education had also received attention for the current administration, with about N553 billion spent in the process.

    “When we look at basic and secondary education, the ministry has invested heavily in the construction, renovation and rehabilitation of classrooms, hostels and laboratories as well as some other issues like security and other infrastructural facilities at the basic and secondary levels.

    “In the last seven years, a total of N553, 134, 967, 498.50 had gone into the development of infrastructure at basic and secondary school levels,’’ he added.

    He lamented that the emergence of COVID-19 affected the timing of final examinations for secondary school leavers. He, however, assured that everything would go back to normal from next academic session.

    “In an effort to correct the distortions, we had to reschedule our National Examinations which have already been taken.

    “I am glad to announce that we will resume our normal examination schedules in the next academic session. Nigeria is the first country in the West African Region to achieve this and other countries are copying our model,’’ he said.

    On whether the Nigerian students deserve compensation from the Federal Government for the time wasted from the six-month ASUU strike, Adamu it was duty bound on ASUU to compensate the affected students.

    According to him, the Federal Government bears no liability to compensate the students grounded for six months over lost time, saying that if the students are determined to get compensated, they should take ASUU to court.

    He, therefore, advised the affected students to “take ASUU to court” for damages incurred over strike period.

  • BREAKING: Ongoing strike will not end anytime soon – ASUU President

    BREAKING: Ongoing strike will not end anytime soon – ASUU President

    President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Emmanuel Osodeke has said the ongoing strike by the union will not end anytime soon.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Prof Osodeke disclosed this on Wednesday during a Twitter Space organised by Premium Times while accusing the federal government of not showing any sincerity to end the strike.

    Tuesday’s meeting between the leadership of ASUU and the federal government turned out to be controversial after reports emerged that the meeting ended in a deadlock.

    The striking lecturers had met with the Professor Nimi Briggs Committee at the National University Commission (NUC) in Abuja with high hopes of resolving the impasse.

    Commenting on the meeting, Osodeke said, “The situation now is that it’s even worse than when we started. The government has not shown any responsibility on how to fund our university system and education in general.

    “They only claim they don’t have funds, no one can believe that. There are no funds and one man can steal N109 billion and the government is trying to negotiate with him? The government has not shown any commitment.

    “We met with them yesterday and they came with nothing. It is very sad that all Nigerian universities are closed and all the government is interested in, is how to win elections and Nigerian people are watching”.

    Speaking on some of the way forwards on the lingering strike, the ASUU president said students should not vote for politicians who would not represent their interests.

    “Nigerian students should hold their PVCs and not vote for any candidate that will not prioritise education,” the ASUU President said.

    TNG reports ASUU has been on strike since February 14 over failure by the government to meet its demands