University of Lagos, UNILAG
By Banji Ayoola
At last, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has suspended its eight-month-old strike, ending the distress into which university students, many of whom had been suffering untold socio-economic hardship and indignities, had been thrown since they were compulsorily sent home in February.
The union suspended the strike at 12.00 am on Friday, today at the end of a crucial meeting of its National Executive Committee, NEC, which started on Thursday night and lasted into today’s early hours.
A statement by the union’s President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, dated 13th October, 2022, said that the strike’s suspension followed a series of appeals by concerned Nigerians and President Muhammadu Buhari, and the intervention of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Hon Femi Gbajabiamila.
He noted regretfully however: “While appreciating the commendable efforts of the leadership of the House of Representatives and other patriotic Nigerians who waded into the matter, NEC noted with regrets that the issues in dispute are yet to be satisfactorily addressed.”
According to him: “However, as a law-abiding Union and in deference to appeals by the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria. His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, and in recognition of the efforts of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, and other well-meaning Nigerians, ASUU NEC resolved to suspend the strike action embarked upon on 14th February 2022.
“Consequently, all members of ASUU are hereby directed to resume all services hitherto withdrawn with effect from 12:01 on Friday, 14th October 2022.”
Following is Osodeke’s full press statement titled “ASUU suspends its strike action”: “The National Executive Council (NEC) of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) held an emergency meeting at the Comrade Festus lyayi National Secretariat, University of Abuja, Abuja, on Thursday, 13th October, 2022. The meeting reviewed developments since the Union declared an indefinite strike action on 29th August, 2022.
“During the intervening period, the Minister of Labour and Employment, through a referral, approached the National Industrial Court (NIC) for the interpretation of “the provision of sections 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 18 (1) of the Trade Dispute Act, Cap T8 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, whether the on-going prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities which started since 14th February, 2022 is legal even after statutory apprehension by the Minister of Labour and Employment?” In addition, he asked for an interlocutory order against the continuation of the strike.
“The National Industrial Court in its wisdom gave an order compelling ASUU to resume work pending the determination of the substantive suit. Given the nature of the order, and in the opinion of our counsel, there was the need to appeal the interlocutory injunction granted against our Union at the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal acknowledged the validity of the grounds of the Union’s appeal but still upheld the order of the lower court and ordered our Union to comply with the ruling of the lower court as condition precedent for the appeal to be heard.
“NEC noted the series of meetings with the leadership of the House of Representatives led by the Hon. Speaker, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, as well as intervention efforts of other well-meaning Nigerians both within and outside government and the progress made so far.
“NEC deliberated on the recommendations of the Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila-led Committee within the framework of the FGN/ASUU’s Memorandum of Action(MoA) of 2020 on the contending issues that led to the strike action.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the issues include: Funding for Revitalisation of public universities; Earned Academic Allowances; Proliferation of public Universities; Visitation Panels/Release of White Papers; University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as a broad spectrum software to stop illegality and provide for an alternative payment platform in the university system; Renegotiation of the 2009 Agreement.
“While appreciating the commendable efforts of the leadership of the House of Representatives and other patriotic Nigerians who waded into the matter, NEC noted with regrets that the issues in dispute are yet to be satisfactorily addressed.
“However, as a law-abiding Union and in deference to appeals by the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria. His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, and in recognition of the efforts of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, and other well meaning Nigerians, ASUU NEC resolved to suspend the strike action embarked upon on 14th February 2022.
“Consequently, all members of ASUU are hereby directed to resume all services hitherto withdrawn with effect from 12:01 on Friday, 14th October, 2022.”
The meeting was called by the union to determine its next line of action after its state branches met over the Court of Appeal ruling last week. The Court had ordered the union to suspend the strike before its appeal of the ruling ordering lecturers to resume work could be heard.
Members of the union’s National Executive Committee, which comprises the chairmen of the state chapters and members of the national executive, attended the meeting at the ASUU National Secretariat in Abuja.
The union had been on strike since February 14 this year.
At the beginning of the strike which was meant to be a four-week industrial action, the union said it was pushing for better funding of universities as well as improved welfare for its members based on several deals reached with the government.
It was particularly asking for the release of the revitalisation funds for schools, the payment of earned academic allowances to members, and the release of whitepapers from the reports of the presidential visitation panels. It also demanded the usage of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as a payment platform for university workers as against the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
But the Federal Government and the union which met many times and always ended in a deadlock, were unable to reach a deal, thus forcing the union to keep extending the strike before making it indefinite in August.
Amid the anxiety and frustrations by parents and students especially, the Federal Government registered two factional unions – the Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA) and the National Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA), which ASUU described as illegal.
The protracted strike had aggravated the numerous challenges facing the nation and particularly the crumbling education sector, which even before the strike had been crying of neglect and under-funding by successive administrations.
