Academic Staff Union Of Universities Sets 21-Day Deadline For Government To Address Issues

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) issued the federal and state governments a new 21-day deadline to meet its demands or face a nationwide strike.

The union's President Emmanuel Osodeke announced the deadline at a press conference on Wednesday at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture in Umudike, Abia.

ASUU demanded the governments resolve all the issues affecting the development of the nation's universities. The union last went on strike in 2022 over similar problems.

Osodeke strongly criticized both the federal and state governments for not addressing the issues raised by the union. He also expressed dissatisfaction with the slow response from the minister of education in resolving these problems.

He said the union will meet again after the 21-day deadline to decide on further actions if needed.

The issues include updating and signing the revised 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement, providing necessary funding like the Emergency Revitalisation Fund for public universities, paying overdue academic allowances, releasing withheld salaries, settling promotion arrears and addressing third-party deductions for members.

"Other issues include stoppage of illegal recruitments, proliferation of public universities and abuse of universities' laws, regulations and processes. There is also an issue of removal of the universities from the Treasury Single Account and new IPPIS vis-a-vis to herald the autonomy of our universities," he said, Premium Times reported.

Osodeke added the union does not support the federal government's recent decision to redirect Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) grants to the Students' Education Loan Scheme. He explained that this move went against the original purpose of the law that created the Education Tax Fund, which was now known as TETFund.

ASUU has faced criticism from many Nigerians, including other academics, for its frequent strikes. The last nationwide strike lasted about eight months in 2022. Despite the criticism, ASUU insisted that its actions were aimed at protecting public universities and the interests of lecturers.

The federal government and the ASUU reached an agreement to resolve all issues peacefully to avoid a strike, after a closed-door meeting held in June. Both parties also agreed to start a communication process to prevent the union's planned industrial actions.

At that time, Osodeke stressed that this was the first formal meeting they had held with the federal government, adding that the process had been started and soon, they would be setting deadlines.