FG/ASUU: Bumpy road to a compromise

National President, ASUU, Nasir Issa-Fagge

After 169 days, the Academic Staff Union of Universities on Tuesday finally suspended its strike thus ending the  intrigues,  politicking,  disillusionment and despair that it elicited.

The ASUU President, Dr. Nasir Fagge, who announced the suspension, said the union and the Federal Government  had resolved  all the issues involved following an agreement sealed last Wednesday in Abuja.

The union’s National Executive Committee, comprising zonal coordinators and various university chapter chairmen, had met and appraised the deal at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State on Monday for over 12 hours.

Lecturers in about 53 of the nation’s public universities had, on July 1, 2013,  embarked on the action to protest  the Federal Government’s failure  to implement an  agreement they  reached in  2009.

Parts of the agreement centered on increased funding of the universities, a declaration of a state of emergency in tertiary education, better wages as well as payment of earned allowances to lecturers.

Curiously, the signing of the pact four years ago came after a four-month strike, which pitted ASUU members against the Federal Government. Interestingly also, the just-ended strike came on the heels of the intervention of President Goodluck Jonathan and five months  and 16 days after the industrial action began.

Following a 13-hour meeting with the President on November 4, the government agreed to inject N1.3tn into public universities between 2013 and 2018.

Government also promised to inject N220bn yearly into the public universities beginning from 2014.  However, for the remaining part of this year (2013), it agreed to domicile N200bn in a special account at the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The government, which promised to domicile the N1.3tn at the apex bank to show its commitment to the agreement, promised to release  the money on a quarterly basis to the universities to cater for the funding of the sector.

The two parties also agreed that the National Universities Commission and the Trade Union Congress would be the joint guarantors of the agreement while the Minister of Education would be the implementing officer.

ASUU’s demands also  included:

•Provision of N1.3tn for the revitalisation of the university system from 2013 to 2018;

•Dedication of revitalisation account at the CBN  by the government. The funds shall be paid into the account on a quarterly basis from which the universities will draw;

•Constitution of a central monitoring committee to monitor the   implementation of the revitalisation of the universities;

•Proper monitoring and verification of the N30bn already released by the  government.

•Engaging the services of universities in special consultancy series such as environmental impact assessment, geological/solid minerals survey, biotechnology, among others to boost the  Internally  Generated Revenue  base of the universities.

The signing  of the deal finally took place last Wednesday in Abuja with the leadership of the organised labour in attendance as witness.

Before the President’s intervention in the crisis on November 4, Vice-President Namadi Sambo, members of the National Assembly, the Benue  Governor Gabriel Suswam-led NEEDS Assessment Committee, traditional rulers, including the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, among other eminent Nigerians, had called for a ceasefire by the the government and ASUU.

In fact, the  government  through the Suswan-led committee, had released N100bn for infrastructure development in the universities and another N30bn for the lecturers’ earned allowances all in a bid to end the strike.

The ASUU leadership, however, dismissed the sum as “mere tokenism”,  saying it was comparable to a drop in an ocean of their requests.

Meanwhile, as the strike lasted, intrigues, blame game and politics became an issue in the action. In fact, barely two months into the action, the negotiation to resolve the crisis  irretrievably collapsed.

The government , which alleged that ASUU leaders were rigid and unbending, also alleged that   opposition political class had infiltrated the leadership of the union.

However, while the government  held this view, ASUU accused the authorities of insincerity in the peace deal.  The hard line postures by the two parties, no doubt, contributed to the elongation of the impasse.

Specifically, the Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, ordered the immediate reopening of the universities. He also threatened to dismiss any lecturer who failed to return to work on or before December 4, 2013.

This further aggravated the situation as students, parents and stake holders became increasingly frustrated.

However, Tuesday’s suspension of the strike had brought a big relief to all stakeholders.

Though, stakeholders noted that with five months gone,   students had  automatically lost more than a semester, they also argued that the strike would compound the already declining standard of education in the country.

But Fagge  promised  Nigerians  that members of the union would make up for the lost time.