Our Pay Hasn’t Changed Since 2009, ASUU tells Tinubu
In light of the current economic woes, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has encouraged President Bola Tinubu’s administration to swiftly terminate the FGN/ASUU 2009 renegotiation deal.
The union also demanded that the draft agreement struck with the Nimi Briggs committee be signed as soon as possible by the president.
The coordinator of the ASUU Owerri zone, Prof. Dennis Aribodor, apologized to the media following the meeting for the drawn-out renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, which has been extended for seven years since 2017.
He emphasized that university instructors had been paid the same way for the past fifteen years.
Aribodor emphasized that ratifying the agreement would be a big step toward bringing back the respectability of higher education and encouraging peace and cooperation among university employees.
“Wale Babalakin, Munzali Jibril, Nimi Briggs, and the Government committee have had three Chairmen due to the Federal Government’s unwillingness to conclude the renegotiation,” he stated. This indicates that the faculty at our colleges has been paid the same way for the past fifteen years.
The most evident effect of the Agreement’s renegotiation being cut short is that Nigerian university professors have been paid the same since 2009, when the naira was worth N120 against the dollar instead of N1800.
Aribodo further asked the Tinubu administration to end the agitation around the withheld salaries by paying the remaining three and a half months. Aribodo described the efforts taken by the administration to pay four months of the withheld salary as ones in the right direction.
In the end, the Academic Staff Union of Universities’ fight—which was sparked by the government’s disregard for agreements—served the interests of the country. In this sense, granting ASUU’s demand is the magic bullet for maintaining industrial harmony in our colleges.
Regarding the problem of the growth of universities, ASUU raised concern over the federal and state governments founding universities without taking the necessary steps to secure funding for them.
According to the body, “One of the issues that precipitated the 2020 and 2022 strike actions was the proliferation of universities, and a provision of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by ASUU and FGN stressed the need to review the NUC Act to make it more potent in arresting the reckless and excessive establishment of universities.” The evaluation is still pending.
“There should be an end to the widespread and careless process by which the federal and state governments are founding colleges without adequately planning for their support.
The goal of federal and state support for current colleges should be to increase their capacity to accept more students.
Credits:Allschoolabs, Nairaland
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