UJI ABDULLAHI ILIYASU takes a look at the times the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has gone on strike within the current democratic setting and reports that it is better for the union to change tactics in the interest of the nation’s future leaders.
Background
The federal government says lecturers must enroll on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) otherwise they would not be paid their salary beginning from October 2019. Government says, “No IPPIS, No Pay.”
However, university lecturers say the platform does not capture the peculiarities of the academic community, so they would not register on the platform, warning that “no salary, no work,” resulting in the ongoing tug-of-war between the unionists and the government. Therefore, when lecturers were not paid the February salary, they began their two-week warning strike by shutting down the nation’s universities.
What stakeholders say
The IPPIS may be the immediate cause of the current ASUU strike, but the fundamental reasons the lecturers are angry, they say, stems from government’s inability to honour previous agreements it had entered into with them, all bordering on their welfare, poor education funding, collapsed infrastructure in public universities and proliferation of state governments-owned universities without proper attention deserved of their names.
They say the presidency has set-up a committee to harmonise an alternative platform which can absorb university peculiarities called University Transparency and Accountability Solutions (UTAS) and IPPIS at their last joint meeting. So, there is the need for government to adopt UTAS because IPPIS would throw public universities into another crisis.
The chairman, University of Ibadan chapter of ASUU, Prof. Deji Omole, while speaking with journalists after the congress of the union, said, “If those ruling us are sincere, they should ask their sons and daughters who school in universities in the UK how universities run.
“Only patriots can work in our hellish condition. Our position is that the principles of IPPIS are in contradiction to the principles of the autonomy of the university system and the constitution is clear enough because each university has its legal pattern and it doesn’t have provision for IPPIS and it does not even capture the peculiarities of the university system.”
Also speaking on the matter, Sule Emmanuel Egya, a professor of African Literature and Cultural Studies at Ibrahim Badamasi Ibrahim University, Lapai (IBBUL) agreed that IPPIS is not ideal for universities.
“The Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) is one way of reducing the amount of money that should be going to universities. I am not surprised that they are coming up with IPPIS and other measures that will impoverish universities.
“I think the government should drop the idea of using IPPIS to fight corruption in universities. It should adopt other measures. Have there not been measures for fighting corruption in the university before the emergence of the IPPIS? It does not capture the peculiarities in the university system.”
“In my view, even if ASUU goes on strike 10 times in a year, it is justified. I am in the system and I know that the system is a mess.”
Mr. Joshua Daniel, a civil servant, said, “When I got admission to the university, the first fear on my mind was ASUU strike. I prayed they didn’t go on strike until I completed my degree programme. But my fear came to pass. ASUU went on strike three times before I graduated. I ended up spending five years instead of four.”
Shuaibu Magaji, health personnel, said he had forgotten his studies due to ASUU strike in his first year in the university.
“The first year I entered the university, ASUU went on a strike for complete one year. I had even forgotten that I was a student at the time the strike was called off. I forgot because it was during fuel scarcity in 1999 and I was introduced to fuel hawking in the black market and making some money. The federal government needs to do something to halt the lecturers.
“Maria Thomas, civil servant, said, “ASUU needs to think about other means in their struggle with the federal government as it affects university education. You cannot continue to adopt a formula in Mathematics that does not lead you to any solution.
“Do you do the same thing repeatedly and expect different results? Strike does not work in Nigeria. Has the federal government implemented all the agreements it had previously entered into with the university teachers? Also, if your employer said, ‘this is what I want’, why should you argue? Go ahead and do what he wants. If the business collapses, he will realise his mistakes?”
IPPIS not the main issue
Meanwhile, the national chairman of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, had earlier told Blueprint that the payment of January 2020 salary to ASUU members who had not enrolled on IPPIS did not in any way change their position on the new pay system which violates the university autonomy.
He, however, blamed the media for creating hypes on IPPIS leaving the main substance of ASUU’s demands, which borders on the 2019 memorandum of understanding with the federal government.
“We are still discussing with government and we will hold a meeting very soon. It is after that meeting that we can comment on issues about it.
“The 2009 agreement is one of our demands, like we said, we are not just talking about IPPIS; we are talking about all issues that are outstanding in our 2009 Memorandum of Action. There are five issues which we are renegotiating before the IPPIS came in, and the media are creating hypes about it leaving the main issues.
“The five main issues include, “renegotiation; visitation to universities; funds for recapitalisation; payment of arrears of Earned Allowances for lecturers as well as funding of state universities,” he said.
The union leader said the union had always seen the IPPIS as a distraction because there were more serious issues pending to be addressed by the federal government.
“If the federal government is ready to discuss, we are also ready. But we are not to decide for them. Our position remains the same if they choose to stop the salaries of our members tomorrow, we will also respond appropriately.”
ASUU strikes since 1999
The government’s refusal to meet the union’s demands since 1999, ASUU says, has been the basic reason they go on strike almost every other semester.
In 1999, after the return to democracy Nigerian students experienced a disruption in their academic pursuits. Few months after the Obasanjo administration was sworn-in, ASUU embarked on a nationwide strike and it lasted for five months.
In 2001, ASUU declared another strike over the reinstatement of 49 lecturers whose appointments were terminated at the University of Ilorin. The industrial action was aggravated when the then president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, described the lecturers as “a bunch of lazy and ungrateful people.” The strike was suspended after three months.
In December, 2002, ASUU went on another strike after the Obasanjo administration failed to implement the earlier agreement with them. The strike was suspended after two weeks.
In 2003, Nigerian undergraduates had to go home for six months over ASUU strike over non-implementation of previous agreements, which covers poor university funding and disparity in salary and retirement age. Yet in 2005, students witnessed a disruption in their academic activities as universities lecturers went on another industrial action for just two weeks.
In April 2006, academic activities were paralysed in all public universities nationwide following ASUU’s declaration of a three-day warning strike, which eventually took seven days.
In 2007, for the same old reasons, a strike was called. It lasted for three months.
In 2008, ASUU went on strike for one week demanding for improved salary scheme and reinstatement of 49 lecturers dismissed at the University of Ilorin.
In 2009, ASUU struck again. The strike lasted for four months. The 2009 ASUU/FG agreement would later become the reason for subsequent strikes. 2010 also saw ASUU strike embarked on another indefinite strike that lasted for over five months.
The union again paralysed academic activities nationwide in December 2011 due to FG’s failure to honour its 2009 agreement to adequately fund universities in the country and implement the 70-year retirement age limit for ASUU members.
In 2013, again, the government’s failure to review the retirement age for professors from 65 to 70; approve funding to revitalise the university system; increase the budgetary allocations to the education sector by 26 per cent among other demands, led to another industrial action. The strike lasted for five months, 15 days.
In August 2017, ASUU yet declared an indefinite strike over unresolved and contentious issues with the federal government. The strike was called off in September.
In 2018, again, due to the government’s failure to meet its demands, ASUU declared an indefinite nationwide strike. The union announced the strike on November 4, 2018, after their National Executive Council meeting held at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo state. It spread to 2019; then the on-going strike in 2020 over IPPIS registration.
SSANU makes U-turn, rejects IPPIS
The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has withdrawn its support for the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
The workers’ union, which had initially supported the initiative, said its trust in the system was betrayed by the federal government “as reflected in the various irregularities noticed in the payment of February salaries of its members.”
In a statement issued on Monday and signed by the union’s spokesman, Abdulsobur Salaam, SSANU noted that all peculiarities it identified before the implementation, and which the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and other implementing partners agreed to incorporate, were disregarded in the implementation.
“Kindly recall that we keyed into the IPPIS with an understanding that all the peculiarities in the University system, particularly pertaining to our members would be adequately addressed, especially the issues of allowances, appointments, increments, third party deductions, etc…
“It is therefore shocking to us that our first real taste of the IPPIS application is totally different from what was presented. All the concerns raised by our unions were not implemented and disregarded. Apart from the breach of trust which has now manifested, our members across the universities are groaning from various anomalies witnessed in their salaries thereby forcing them into great hardships which they never bargained for.”
Strike illegal
The federal government, however, declared that the current two-week warning strike embarked upon by ASUU is illegal. It accused the lecturers of not following laid-down procedures before embarking on the industrial action.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, gave the government’s position in Abuja after the Federal Executive Council meeting Wednesday last week.
He said ASUU did not give the government the mandatory notice required before proceeding on the strike.
“I am in shock. The strike is illegal because they did not give us the mandatory notice. If you withdraw services and you still want to be paid, it is corruption. Is that not corruption?”
