The much-anticipated meeting between the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) could not hold Thursday as planned.
However, Minister of Education Dr Tunji Alausa met with government officials on issues arising from the 2009 agreement reportedly signed with ASUU.
At the meeting was the Solicitor General, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Executive Secretary of TETFund, Chairman of Salaries and Wages Commission, and Director General Budget Office, among others.
While fielding questions from journalists during a recognition event organised by the ministry for students, the minister said the government never signed any agreement to that effect with ASUU, a position faulted by the union.
He said the Ministry of Justice was not involved in previous agreement that had been done with ASUU by the government, rendering it therefore to be null and void.
At the meeting, the attendees went line by line to discuss and deliberate on the proposal presented by ASUU, especially what the government can afford.
He said the federal government will not create an agreement that is not tenable or sustainable, or an agreement that the government does not have the funding to back, but an agreement that every component is actionable, feasible to implement, and sustainable.
He said: “We have a President, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that has been very deliberate and meticulous in solving problems in Nigeria, sector by sector, in a concurrent way. The President, when he campaigned around the country, he told citizens of Nigeria, that I will not lie to you. I’ll fix the problems of this country and put this country in a path of sustainability 10 years from now, 30 years from now, 50 years from now, and decades in eternity.
“We can see the actions that the President has taken in a way that is not based on superficiality. It’s based on resolving this problem once and for all into eternity. And that’s what we’re going to do with ASUU. You’ve seen ASUU. They went on protest. They’re not going to strike because we’ve engaged them continuously and meticulously.”
“And we’ve told them that the mandate that the President has given us is to solve this problem once and for all. We’re talking about 2009 agreements, 2021 agreements. If these problems haven’t been solved 16 years ago, what we’re committing to ASUU and committing to Nigerians is that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has mandated us to solve this problem once and for all. It will be done truthfully, honestly, with full, mutual respect to ASUU and other trade unions.
“We have to do this, not create an agreement that is not tenable, that is not sustainable, that the government does not have the funding to back. We will not work with ASUU to create a bogus agreement. We will create an agreement that every component is actionable, feasible to implement, and sustainable.
“Today, I don’t know why the press made this story up that we’re meeting with ASUU. We did not have plans to meet with ASUU today. We’ve met with ASUU on an ongoing manner. We’ve engaged them. We’ve worked shoulder by shoulder. We still met with ASUU President and their leadership just as early as just last week, Tuesday or Wednesday.
“What we’ve told them is that the Yayale Ahmed proposal that they’ve proposed to him, the government side will meet today, and that’s what we’ve done. The government side met today at the highest level. Myself, Minister of State for Education, Professor Ahmad, Minister for Labour and Productivity, we’re all at the meeting.
“We had the Solicitor General of the Federation. As I told you, we’re going to do this thing once and for all. The previous agreement that had been done with ASUU by the government, the Ministry of Justice was not involved.
“We want this to be done in a constitutional manner that every single agreement that we reach with them will be within the context of our constitution. I’ll continue to tell you the people that were at that meeting this morning. The Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian University Commission, Executive Secretary of the TETFund, Chairman of the Salary and Wages Commission, and the Director General of the Budget Office.
“The proposal that ASUU has given us, we went line by line to discuss, deliberate what the government can afford, what is within the constitutional purview of the federal government. We’ve reviewed all those proposals that they gave to us, line by line. We’ve decided on a counter-proposal to them.
“We now closed by setting up a high-level technical team to clean up our proposal, come with a clean document. And that technical team is being chaired by the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Education, with the following membership: The Solicitor General of the Federation and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, the Chairman of the Salary and Wages Commission, Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Executive Secretary of the TETFund, and the Director General of Budget Office is also part of the seven-member technical team. And the Director of University of Education in the Ministry of Education will be the Secretary.
“We’ve mandated them to come back to us with a clean report. We would review this, and now once we’ve finalized our own proposal to ASUU, we’ll give that proposal, a counter-proposal to the Alhaji Yayale Ahmed Committee to take to ASUU, and then ASUU would talk and deliberate and will come back to us. We will work as assiduously, as quickly, and as fast as possible to get an agreement with ASUU,” the minister added.
Continuing, Alausa said: “But let me clear this point of correction out. The Solicitor General looked into the agreement. The government has never signed any agreement with ASUU. This was a draft agreement. The 2021 agreement was not executed by the government. So I need to be honest and truthful to Nigerians. ASUU might have an impression that they have an agreement with government; there was no signed agreement with government. But ASUU are good people.
“ASUP, University of Polytechnic Association, College of Education, non-academic staff union, they’re all good people. But we now have a responsive government that is being led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. And you know this president, once he makes his promises; he fulfils every single promise that is made. And he has mandated us to do the same. We’ll have a clean agreement, agreement that is actionable, where every content is actionable, implementable in a sustainable manner.
“Nigerians, we would keep our children in school. We will do everything as a responsible government and work with ASUU and all other trade unions so that our institutions will be open and our children will be in school. This president has mandated us to do every single thing to keep our schools open and keep our children in school.”
….ASUU faults FG
Countering the federal government’s position, the university teachers said they were being subjected to untold hardship and poverty.
Making the union’s position known Thursday at a press conference attended by seven universities in the Lagos zone, the ASUU Coordinator in the zone, Professor Adesola Nassir, said: “Let me say it categorically that ASUU does not have any position proposal. ASUU has no position proposal with the Federal Government. For the minister to describe government position paper as ASUU’s own is mischievous.”
“We are also perturbed by the minister’s statement on the plan of government to present a counter position to the Yayale Ahmed’s renegotiated document, erroneously referred to as ASUU’s proposal. This position not only rubbishes the integrity of the representative of government on the renegotiation team but also affirms that they do not have the mandate of government to renegotiate with ASUU.
“The Yayale Ahmed submitted document is a product of eight years of painstaking negotiation that span four chairpersons. Our members are tired of this rhetoric from the minister. Any attempt to rubbish years of perseverance and further entrench poverty within our fold would be met with stiff resistance. We urge the intergovernmental committee to be mindful of what they will come up with as our union has reached the limit of oppression,’’ added Nassir, a former national treasurer of ASUU.
While insisting ASUU had placed its demands before the government for resolution, the union leader warned: “The right of ASUU to embark on strike when all efforts yield no meaningful results is recognized by the labour laws. Our members are being owed various entitlements, including third-party deductions made by the corrupt and discredited IPPIS, promotion arrears of up to four years, arrears of wage award and palliative.”