Ending The ASUU Strike

You could say it again: the negotiations
over the last Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU) strike, were perhaps,
the most arduous in the history of strikes
in Nigeria.
Initially, the President, Dr. Goodluck
Jonathan, did not want to be involved
directly. He only wanted to do so through
proxies.
It started with Governor Gabriel Suswam-
led universities Needs Assessment
Implementation Committee and later
Namadi Sambo-led mediation committee,
none of which succeeded in brokering
agreements that could bring an end to the
strike.
Much later, the Senate led by its
President, David Mark, dismissed the
2009 agreement between the Federal
Government and the striking union as
unrealistic, while the House of
Representatives offered to approve a
budgetary intervention to enable ASUU
end the strike.
The Speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal,
who was briefed by the Aminu Suleiman-
led House Committee on Education asked
to investigate and recommend solution
appealed to the warring parties to resolve
the issues involved in the interest of the
students and the educational future of the
nation. None of the arguments cut an ice
with ASUU.
Crisis of confidence occasioned by
unguarded remarks on the part of
government negotiators, and suspicion,
on the part of ASUU national officials led
by the President, Dr. Nasir Isa Fagge,
leading to prolonged impasse, eventually
made Jonathan to personally wade into
the matter, after ASUU had refused to call
off the strike despite his pleas to it to do
so, in many a public forum.
Setting the stage for a fruitful discussion
Whereas the Federal Government
delegation led by Jonathan had on its
team, the Vice President, Namadi Sambo,
the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim,
Chief of Staff to the President, Mike
Oghiadomhe, Coordinating Minister and
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala, supervising Minister of Education,
Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, Minister of Labour
and Productivity, Emeka Wogu; National
Universities Commission (NUC), Executive
Secretary, Prof. Julius Okojie and other
presidential aides, including Dr. Reuben
Abati, Special Adviser to the President on
Media and Publicity, the ASUU nine-man
team led by Dr. Fagge, included former
ASUU Presidents like Prof. Dipo Fashina
and Prof. Festus Iyayi, President, Nigeria
Labour Congress (NLC), Abduwaheed
Omar; President, Trade Union Congress
(TUC), Boboyi Kaigama, Prof. Abdullahi
Sule-Kano and Suleiman Abdul, among
others.
Earlier while entering the conference
room, Jonathan had said, in the course of
exchanging pleasantries with Dr. Fagge:
“My President, I am sure the problem will
be over today. Our children must go back
to school.” And, when he got to where
Omar was seated, he said: “My President,
with you here, it is signed and sealed.”
So, what was it that was discussed
afterward that brought us to the stage
where we are now? Both officials of ASUU
and government representatives had kept
sealed lips on the details of discussion
and outcome of the 13-hour marathon
meeting which started at 2.40 pm last
Monday, and was adjourned about 7pm
for a 15-minute break before being
reconvened later in the evening and
continuing into about 3am of the
following day.
But Education Review understands from
source close to the Presidency that after
more banters inside the conference room,
the meeting kicked off on a more earnest
note with the President expressing his
wish to see the end of the strike and to do
anything within his power, to make
whatever concessions he can to break the
deadlock so that universities can be re-
opened.
Reminding the audience of the various
efforts he’d made and committees he set
up to resolve the crisis, including the
Suswam and Namadi Sambo-led
committees, the President was said to
have argued that they showed his earnest
desire to have the issues involved
resolved amicably so that students and
staff can go back to school. But he had to
personally take it upon himself, to come
in, he said, when stalemates ensued.
Reiterating the commitment of his
administration to adequately fund the
universities and provide the necessary
infrastructures to aid the education sector,
he added that that was why he was
anxious to see the matter resolved by
inviting stakeholders present to the
meeting at the State House. He noted that
his administration is as concerned as
ASUU, about the state of infrastructures in
our universities and is determined to see
that something is done about the situation
within the limited resources available. It
was because of this, he said, that he
approved the setting up of the Needs
Assessment Implementation Committee
as well as the creation of TETFund
(Tertiary Education Trust Fund) from the
former ETF (Education Trust Fund).
Government has also increased the
budget of education progressively from
N234.8 billion in 2010 to N426.5 billion in
2013 with N55.74 billion allocated to the
university sub-sector alone, he said.
Responding, Fagge while thanking the
President for the gestures, was said to
have, however, expressed his misgivings
over what he calls the efforts of Federal
government’s functionaries/
representatives to blackmail the union by
misrepresenting the facts of the case to
the Nigerian public on the government’s
inability to honour and implement the
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
reached with the union in 2009.
Meeting points
It will be recalled that the agreements
ASUU signed with the Federal government
in 2009 included funding requirements for
revitalisation of the Nigerian universities;
Federal government assistance to state
universities; establishment of NUPEMCO
and progressive increase in annual
budgetary allocation to education to 26
per cent between 2009 and 2020; and
earned allowances.
In the agreement, ASUU had demanded
for N1.5 trillion within a spate of three
years from the federal government for the
funding of universities outside the normal
yearly budgetary allocation.
Aside the N1.5 trillion funds for
universities from 2009-2011, ASUU
equally demanded for ‘Earned Allowance’
outside its conventional monthly
emoluments. They include allowances for
the following: postgraduate supervision
allowance, teaching practice/ industrial
supervision/field trip allowance and
honoraria for external / internal examiner.
Others are honoraria for external
moderation of undergraduate and
postgraduate examination, post-graduate
study grant, external assessment of
readers or professors, call duty/clinical
duty / clinic hazard, responsibility
allowance and excess workload
allowance.
But during last Monday’s talks with the
President, sources privy to the meeting
said that Fagge reportedly recalled that an
Implementation Monitoring Committee for
the 2009 agreement, made up of two
members representing the Committee of
Pro-Chancellors, The Chairman,
Committee of Vice-Chancellors, one
member representing the NUC Secretary,
one member representing the Federal
Ministry of Education, five members
representing ASUU, NAAT, SSANU, NASU,
one representative of the Senate
Committee on Education, one
representative of the House of Committee
on Education, Chairman, Pro-Chancellor
of State Universities, and Chairman,
Committee of Vice-Chancellors of State
Universities was set up and wondered
why ASUU was being demonized over its
reference to the state universities in the
course of its agitation over the
implementation of the 2009 agreement.
In addition, he was said to have politely
begged to disagree with the President’s
remarks during the his media chat in
October that the major reason for the
strike which he (the President) said, has
been politicised, is the N79 billion Earned
Allowance arrears. He argued that
contrary to the government propaganda
and misinformation, the strike was for the
betterment of university education in the
country, which he noted was in shambles.
Following apologies, assurances and
corrections over mirespresentations and
misconceptions of public speeches, the
meeting reportedly went into a prolonged
negotiation over the main agenda: the
contentious 2009 Govt/ ASUU agreement.
It was after exhaustive deliberations and
negotiations that ran into hours that
Jonathan offered N220 billion per annum
over the next five years. He was also said
to have withdrawn the no-work, no-pay
threat, even as he assured the union that
his administration was not thinking of
forcefully reopening the universities,
contrary to the rumours making the
rounds in the media. The President also
promised to personally sign the new MoU
that will be reached, after the meeting of
ASUU’s NEC (National Executive Council).