ASUU urges FG to address outstanding demands
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has called on the Federal Government to address all outstanding issues in previous engagements for the development of the education system in the country.
ASUU President, Chris Piwuna made the call on Friday, in a press conference at the Festus Iyayi National Secretariat Complex, University of Abuja.
The union expressed displeasure with enormous challenges, including a hostile work environment and debilitating conditions of service among its members.
The union president said the unaddressed status of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement, the struggle in state universities and erosion of University Autonomy were not in the interest of the Nigerian University Education System.
Piwuna said the union may take industrial action to press home these demands, especially the unresolved 2009 Agreement.
He urged the government to release the N150 billion re-vitalisation fund.
Piwuna said, “The governments of Nigeria, at the Federal and State levels, merely pay lip-service to the business of education in general and the welfare of university academics in particular. It is saddening that the tortuous journey of renegotiating the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement has continued endlessly since 2017.
“This press conference is necessitated by the need to share our burdens both for the education of Nigerian youths and the development of our dear country with you and other patriotic Nigerians and friends of Nigeria.
“The university system has not been spared from the whirlwind of policy misadventures and orchestrated befuddlement of the polity.
“The last push, which got frozen again after some recommendations by both parties were made for government’s consideration and approval in December 2024, is yet to be concluded.
“Our members in the last two years or so have had to contend with enormous challenges arising from hostile work environment and debilitating conditions of service. We shall attempt to elaborate on this shortly.”
The new ASUU President who decried the level of implementation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement, called on the present administration not to test its resolve, adding that it has delayed embarking on strikes for about a year.
He said, “We think that the Yayale Ahmed Committee has worked hard, and that we have finished the work with them, and that we need to hear from them. We haven’t heard from them, and we think that they should go back. The Yayale Ahmed Committee should meet their principals and get back to us as soon as possible.
“We have exhausted our patience in waiting for this renegotiated agreement.”
The ASUU president, while giving an assessment of the President Bola Tinubu administration with almost two years in office, lamented that institutional weaknesses, bureaucratic inefficiencies and endemic corruption had undermined governance at all levels.
Piwuna alleged that the government was benefiting from insecurity plaguing some parts of the country, which is why the issue persists without a solution.
He said, “The ordinary citizens of our country have become the victims of prolonged political manipulations and economic exploitation by the ruling class and their foreign sponsors.”
He stated that two years into the Tinubu administration, there has been no positive improvement as it relates to the education sector.
Piwuna stated: “It is noted that the government has made promises on some of these issues. The government agreed to mainstream the EAA into the salaries with the creation of Irregular Allowance as a budget line in the 2026 Budget, after the release of N50 billion for backlog and budgeting N29 billion for payment of 2025 Earned Academic Allowances.
“Similarly, the government also agreed to release N150 billion as re-vitalisation fund within four weeks with effect from April, 2025.
“However, we are still waiting for the government to fulfil these promises. The Union has also reached an understanding with the Yayale Ahmed-led Committee, with the review of the report of the Nimi Briggs-led FGN-ASUU Renegotiation Committee in December 2024. Again, ASUU members have been left in limbo; waiting for the signing of an Agreement five months after!
“Delegates at the UNIBEN National Delegates’ Conference exhaustively evaluated the government’s disposition in resolving outstanding issues with the union and expressed regrets that nothing has significantly changed in the last two years.”
Some of the demands of ASUU include: conclusion of the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement based on Nimi Briggs Committee’s Draft Agreement of 2021; release of withheld three-and-half months salaries on account of the 2022 strike action; release of unpaid salaries of staff on sabbatical, part-time and adjunct appointments.
Others are release of outstanding third-party deductions such as check-off dues and cooperative contributions; funding for revitalisation of public universities; proliferation of universities by Federal and State Governments and others.
