Today (July 21, 2022) is day 157 of the ASUU strike. I thought it was a record until I was told ASUU completed a 9-month uninterrupted strike in 2020, under the same President Buhari (a year after his re-election for that matter).
I spoke with a lecturer in one of the Nigerian universities who has been abreast with the issues at stake. I tried to find out what the bone of contention was and how far they had gone with their deliberations. The longer strike actions last, the higher chance of the actual problems being obscured.
I asked what the issues were. Three things: [1] Revitalization fund. [2] Improved staff welfare. [3] Payment platform
Revitalization fund: After years of demanding for improved funding for Nigerian universities, ASUU finally reached an agreement with the Federal Government (FG) in 2013, then under President Goodluck Jonathan, that 1.1 trillion Naira (about 7 billion dollars at then exchange rate) will be granted the universities. The plan was to release the fund over 5 years in yearly installments of 220 billion Naira. President Jonathan immediately released the first tranche in 2013. Since then, nothing more was paid.
Buhari came on board in 2015 and said the money was too much and the FG could no longer honor the agreement, perhaps due to the dwindling oil prices. ASUU wouldn’t back down, after all the cost of governance was still exorbitant and wasteful and political office holders were receiving unreasonable salaries and allowances.
Since then ASUU has been embarking on strike actions intermittently, each time ‘suspending’ it but technically never calling it off: 6 months in 2013, 4 months in 2018, 9 months in 2020, just to mention a few. Each time President Buhari has always ‘begged’ them to return to the classroom while negotiations continue. ASUU has refused to budge this time around. The amount of money spent in the just concluded presidential primaries doesn’t help matters (for the government).
Improved staff welfare: ASUU is also asking for an upward review of their salary. The last time this was done was in 2009, 13 years ago! If one factors in the inflation and rise in the cost of living, you’ll find that lecturers are earning far less now than they did 13 years ago. A full-fledged professor for instance earns roughly 450 000 Naira per month currently (that is approximately 1000 USD at official CBN exchange rate, and far lower at black market rates).
ASUU however is asking for a 200% increase in their salaries. In the proposal submitted to the FG by the ASUU negotiating committee, a professor will earn 2 million Naira a month, while an assistant lecturer (a few years post NYSC) will earn 700k per month. The FG told them that is preposterous. Dead end.
Payment platform: Jonathan introduced IPPIS (Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System) as a payment platform for all FG workers but due to their ‘peculiarities’, federal lecturers, and staff of NNPC, CBN, NDIC and FIRS (and I think the military too) were exempted. When Buhari took over, he instructed that federal lecturers be included in IPPIS. The problem was IPPIS doesn’t recognize things like sabbatical leaves, adjuncts etc, so this caused a lot of problems and discrepancies in payments.
Then ASUU designed their own payment platform called UTAS (University Transparency and Accountability Solution) that took these challenges into cognizance. They presented it to the FG who said it will undergo what is called an ‘integrity test’ before being accepted. Since then, the FG hasn’t come forward with the result of their integrity test.
Part of the reason the strike has dragged on for so long is that the minister of Labor, Dr. Chris Ngige, has been the one leading the negotiations from the FG side and from what I gathered he could be quite unreasonable and rigid. In 2016, Ngige was said to have asked that all strike actions in the country should be under the purview of his ministry. He had assured Buhari, that in 2 weeks he would resolve the ASUU strike. We are now in the 5th month.
Buhari has now instructed the minister of education, Mallam Adamu Adamu to take over the negotiations. It is said that ASUU has a soft spot for Mallam Adamu who himself was a lecturer. He is said to be a far more reasonable person to negotiate with and ASUU has conceded that they would prefer to discuss with him. Hopefully things will look brighter soon. Buhari has given a ‘two-week ultimatum’ for the strike to be resolved. We hope for the best.