It was all hailing when leadership of the House of Representatives opted to wade into yet another long strike action embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), a move which subsequently saw the months-long strike called off. Recent developments has, however, shown that all was not well with the terms on which the deal was struck. JOSHUA EGBODO writes
The beginning
When the latest strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), was surprisingly going beyond the expected period; from a few weeks warning action to months running, the House of Representatives through members’ mandate to its leadership opted to intervene.
Unyielding government stance
To many who could recall the then prevailing situation, the federal government in their opinion appeared very unyielding in handling the situation, even when the House of Representatives made practical move in tune with its resolve to end the strike.
From the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu and his Labour and Productivity counterpart, Dr. Chris Ngige were public threats against the university lecturers of ‘no work, no pay’ policy implementation. The same was, therefore, to become a later part of the initial issues that precipitated the strike action.
Another worrisome concern in the perception of analysts was the attempt by the federal government to Balkanise the ASUU, as it through the labour ministry, offered licence to a parallel union of lecturers under the aegis of Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA). Though a second Union was also approved same time, but was not too relevant to the threatening ASUU strike.
The government was later to win a case instituted at the National Industrial Court against the union. ASUU lost at the appellate court, as the union was directed to suspend the strike as precondition for its appeal to be heard.
All these happened while efforts of the House of Representatives, championed by Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila still persisted.
The key issues
ASUU in its renewed agitations had pushed forward demands for the immediate signing of the Renegotiated 2009 Agreement, a new salary structure that would allow a professor at bar to earn N1,116,548.35 monthly, payment of arrears of Earned Academic Allowance, and release of government white paper on the 2021 visitation panels report to federal universities.
Other demands on the list included a call on the House to by intervention, introduce a bill to help the National Universities Commission (NUC), to stop proliferation of universities, especially, by state governors, the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), its self developed payment platform for its members and other university staff as against the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information system (IPPIS) in use by the federal government.
Reps in action
The first leg of the strike saw Speaker Gbajabiamila seeking to know what the issues were, and that intervention was sometime about November 2021, when he engaged ASUU and the Minister of Finance amongst other stakeholders. The efforts yielded a temporary reprieve, which was short-lived as the university teachers were back to the trenches in February 2022.
At the inaugural meeting for the new move held on September 29, 2022 at the instance of Speaker Gbajabiamila, ASUU accused the Federal Government of Nigeria of opting for punishment of its members, rather than addressing the issues that precipitated the strike, which at the time was about seven months old.
National President of the union, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke at the meeting also accused the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, of never attempting to hold any formal meeting with the union since the strike began in February, but was quick to direct the stoppage of lecturers’ salaries.
He said if the effort at coercing the striking lecturers, through a court process back into classes succeeds in any way, “what kind of teaching will they do? It is like forcing a medical doctor to go and treat a patient”, and added that it was erroneous to see the strike as the problem, because if the strike is called off without addressing the issues, the universities will become like public primary schools. “Instead of solving the problem, we’re being punished”, he stated.
Speaker Gbajabiamila who convened the meeting, and was in attendance with his deputy, Idris Wase and several members of the House, had earlier posited that it was not time to beat about the issues, but finding solutions.
“We’re not here to rehearse the problems. We’re not to be asking what happened, or why are we where we are? We all know the issues, and we have to resolve the issues once and for all, for our children to go back to classes”, the Speaker noted at the meeting. He continued in the course of the day’s engagement, saying “My interest of conversation is with the ASUU. Most people are with you. We’re with you”.
Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Opiah, who explained that Mallam Adamu was outside the country for a UN Education Summit in New York, said a good number of measures have been adopted towards addressing the issues without success, including President Buhari, who in about a week earlier granted audience to committee of Vice Chancellors, during which it was resolved to make further consultations. Gbajabiamila subsequently called a closed door session for continuation of the meeting. More meetings in follow up were held at different dates.
Withheld salaries as fresh issue
In one of the continuous engagements, specifically on October 10, 2022, Gbajabiamila came out and gave assurance that the ASUU strike will end soon, and noted that one of remaining unresolved issues at the moment was the withheld salaries of the lecturers for the period the strike lasted. At that time, the action had already been on for eight months.
“This is a recap to seal the deal on what has been a long-fought battle, long hard road for everybody both for ASUU the students and the government. As you would recall, some weeks ago the House got involved in this crisis and we had long, tough, intense meetings with ASUU. We had meetings with those on the government side and we are happy to report that as the result of the consultation and intervention of the House, very significant progress has been made and we are more or less at the end of the road, save for dotting some ‘i’s and crossing some ‘t’s.
“We agreed with ASUU and the government on certain things which we took to Mr President. I have visited the President twice. First time we made our recommendations with the government shifting some and ASUU shifting some…
“There was one sticking issue which was the issue of no work no pay. And the President did ask that he would suggest the recommendations and would have one more meeting which we did on Friday after the budget.
“That meeting was even better than the first one we had with him, and Mr President had agreed to settle things. I am not going to talk about that now, and that he would disclose whatever it is tomorrow, Tuesday which is tomorrow (October 11), on that one remainder issue. But beyond that, the other several issues have been taken care of. We were able to make sure that what ASUU was asking for in terms of revitalisation, salary, that there has been significant improvement, revitalisation has been provided for in the budget. We made sure of that….”, he said.
Strike suspended
After a court ruling directing ASUU to suspend the strike, the union met and announced its plan to suspend the strike. Gbajabiamila had earlier after one the latest meetings stressed that “Once that is agreed, I am very hopeful and very excited about the possibility or probability the strike would be called off in a matter of days”.
But ASUU’s deception allegation
After suspension of the strike, ASUU raised alarm that what its members received was only a part of their withheld salaries, and to many followers of the matter, the agitation for full payment and arguments in defence of the government action appeared neither here nor there, more that there was no express commitment by the government to pay the balance.
Last week, ASUU through its national president burst the bubble, announcing during a media interview that the union was deceptively pulled into ending the strike by Speaker Gbajabiamila, who he said assured the union that the withheld salaries will be paid alongside addressing the other issues.
President of the union, Prof Osodeke while reportedly asked to reflect on the speaker’s intervention and the current situation of its dispute with the Federal Government during the interview, explained that the union had a soft spot for the speaker, and acted the way it did on that understanding. According to him, Gbajabiamil presented a paper signed by him to ASUU, suggesting the seriousness of the federal government to pay the eight-month withheld salaries of its members in full.
House fires back
With publication of the interview, the House of Representatives came hard on ASUU, and also denied any deceptive tendency in the intervention it made. Spokesman of the House, Benjamin Kalu in a reaction last Wednesday insisted that “at no point did the Speaker of the House of Representatives commit to offset the arrears of salaries owed to union members for the time they were on strike”, noting that the House only helped resolve the strike by making commitments to improve the welfare package of university lecturers.
“These commitments are reflected in the 2023 Appropriation Bill, which includes one hundred and seventy billion naira (N170,000,000,000.00) to provide a level of increment in the welfare package of university lecturers and additional three hundred billion naira (N300,000,000,000.00) in revitalisation funds…
“Professor Emmanuel Osodeke knows that the Federal Government of Nigeria is under no obligation to pay university lecturers’ salaries for the duration they were on strike. This is a settled matter in law. See S. 43(1)(a) Trade Disputes Act, Cap T8, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN).
The Executive decision not to pay salaries to lecturers for the time spent on strike is warranted by the government’s legitimate interest in preventing moral hazard and discouraging disruptive industrial actions.
“Nonetheless, the Speaker has made interventions for an exemption in this regard, and Professor Osodeke is well aware of this…
“Professor Osodeke’s bad-faith approach to negotiations and his affinity for political brinkmanship are significant reasons the universities were on strike for so long. His ongoing interventions continue to threaten the progress being made to preclude the possibility of further disruptions to the academic calendar of the universities. Therefore, I call on him, in his capacity as President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), to desist from making further misleading statements against the House of Representatives and the Speaker, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila.
“There is no place for belligerence and selfish agitation in this critical moment. This is the time for calm heads and steady hands, working together for the common good”, the spokesman said in the reaction.
A good gesture turning sour?
Many have been wondering over what may have gone wrong in the process leading to suspension of the strike. Independent investigation suggested that Gbajabiamila actually provided the union with documentary evidence that the federal government had made commitments to pay a part of the withheld salaries, but pointed out that there were no stated specifics on the number of months to be paid.
Is the Speaker’s supposed good gesture turning sour at the long run? This is the big question now begging for answers.
