Frequently asked questions about ASUU and its protracted 8-month strike
Has ASUU strike been suspended?
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has not suspended its 8-month industrial action yet. The Union barely announced a conditional suspension of nationwide strike.
What is ASUU saying about resumption?
Contrary to speculation of planned resumption, ASUU has insisted that it will continue to shun works until FG honours the 2009 agreements. The National Chairman of ASUU, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi had, however tweeted that students should the outcome of their meeting with the Federal Government turn out positive. But it was not to be. Although the federal government has the right to reopen universities, Ogunyem stated that lecturers will continue to withhold their service.
Will ASUU strike affect JAMB?
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has assured that ASUU strike would not affect its admission process, as the authority released cut-off marks for admissions into Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.
What causes ASUU Strike?
From March this year, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has been on strike. The industrial action appears to have protracted, owning to the inability of the two parties in the contention – the federal government and ASUU – to have a common ground where all issues which led to the strike can be resolved.
Interestingly, there have been meetings almost incessantly between the two institutions on the possible ways to find an end to the strike, but these meetings, it seems; rather than draw solutions to the contentious issues, complicate them. The complication arises between the federal government’s initiated Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, IPPIS, and the Universities Transparency and Accountability System, UTAS which ASUU conceptualized as its brainchild.
The federal had come up with the IPPIS as a template for all its workers, including ASUU members. This template is supposed to allow the government capture all the workers in its employ, and perhaps seal all the linkages in the civil service, as well as the public’s. It is a mechanism aimed at assisting the government check wastages that may have characterized almost all the sectors.
ASUU, on its own part, had also created a system for itself to accommodate its members, as the federal government’s IPPIS, the lecturers said, cannot fit into the University system that has a different operating mechanism. These men in our tower of learning believe that the peculiarities of the university education makes IPPIS a misfit, incompetent and unsuitable to be used to capture lecturers and their salaries.
ASUU said its own system is the best for the university system in Nigeria, as it will allow for accountability and probity in the administration of all issues that are related to the lecturers in the federal government universities in Nigeria. This is perhaps the centrality of the persistence of the strike and the government’s refusal to succumb to the all entreaties by AUU.
The National Chairman of ASUU, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi said recently that over 70% of lecturers are not captured in the IPPIS. This, apparently, explains why most lecturers have been owed between four and eight months of salaries.
Beyond the IPPIS and UTAS brouhaha, there are other demands of the academic body. These demands include; Payment of Earned Academic Allowance( EAE), Revitalization of the University System, Setting up Visitation Panels to Universities, among others. Government has made some commitments to these demands, but the bone of contention, it seems, is about the IPPIS of the federal government and the UTAS of ASUU.
What does ASUU Mean?
The full meaning of ASUU is the Academic Staff Union of Universities. This academic body was founded in 1978, a successor to the Nigerian University Teachers formed in 1965, covering all academic staff in all of the federal and state universities.
Since its creation, the union has been active in entrenching good democratic principles and ideals, besides its core mandate of serving as a rallying point for lecturers.
In the early 1980s, the union was very active in the struggles against military regime dictatorship. As a trade union, working side-by-side with the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, ASUU is one body that is notable for its resoluteness, especially on matters that pertain to its members. This explains why, respite of the federal government’s offer of 30 billion as an initial release to fund the university education, ASUU still remains unwavering in its demands for all issues to be resolved once and for all.
What are Functinns of ASUU?
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, is a trade union made up of intellectuals who are not only seeking for the welfare of its members, but also the socio-political and economic interests of all lecturers in Nigeria. The body also seeks for constant improvement in the university education which includes infrastructure, research and development.
As an organised body of University teachers, ASUU is one institution that always advocates for a good budgetary provisions for the education sector as a whole in Nigeria. It is also in the forefront of calling and working with the government to improve curriculum development for tertiary education in the country.
At present, ASUU has become the leading voice in the funding of the education sector in Nigeria to be able to compete anywhere in the world. This is part of its agitation, hence, the lingering industrial action.
