In this episode of Nigeria jaga jaga, the President of the country is off to the UK on a 2-week vacation while Nigerian students stand the risk of suffering another strike action from the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
After his award winning Independence Day speech on Tuesday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu packed his bag and jetted off to the United Kingdom (UK) on a two-week leave on Wednesday.
The explanation from his spokesman, Bayo Onaguga, that “he will use the two weeks as a working vacation and retreat to reflect on his administration’s economic reforms” still cannot excuse the fact that he has not earned this annual leave. We can’t even say for sure that he’s been hitting any of his KPIs
While Tinubu sips hot tea in innit land, ASUU, one of FG’s regular customers is warming up to exit tertiary institutions across the country to go sip some tea of their own at home.
Where is this coming from?- On Wednesday, across different news dailies, the Yola and Nsukka zones of the union sent out clear warnings to the Tinubu administration saying it would go on strike if its demands were not met.
What does ASUU want?
For almost an eternity, the Federal Government (FG) and ASUU have been on each other’s necks over disagreements and each time this happens the union ends up going on strike and Nigerian students end up at home until FG and ASUU forgive each other then it’s rinse and repeat. At this time and by all we know, ASUU is asking Tinubu’s government to do the following:
- Release funding for the revitalisation of universities
- Revisit the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement
- Pay 2022 salaries that were held back because of FG’s no work no pay verdict during the strike action that happened then.
- Change the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS)
- Pay up accumulated 35 months’ salaries and allowances captured in the 2023 budget, among others.
What’s the holdup?
Play Omawunmi’s “If You Ask Me,” because really if you ask us, who are we going to ask? FG and ASUU have been at this for over two decades and across different administrations. Most recently though, in August, the Union brought up the issue again, telling the government that it had 14 days to meet its demands. What did the government do?- set up a panel!
Nigeria has a puzzling history of setting up endless lines of panels to investigate issues that never end up getting resolved; that is exactly what has happened with the ASUU issue. After the panel had a two hour long meeting (which ASUU attended), both parties agreed to return on September 6.
“We have met to discuss all the issues and review them. We have given the government between now and the next meeting to see what they have to do. We believe in the interest of the Nigerian child and we will be protecting their interest if the issues are resolved amicably,” Osodeke said.
They never met again so they gave the federal government a 14-day ultimatum in September which they didn’t meet. Now, they are slamming them with another 14-day ultimatum which started to count from Wednesday, October 2.
Any hope for Nigerian students?
This is hard to tell. ASUU and FG have been fighting each other longer than we’ve known Rihanna so what’s to say they will resolve it now? For context, this is how many times ASUU has gone on strike in the past
- 1999 – 5 months
- 2001 – 3 months
- 2002 – 2 weeks
- 2003 – 6 months
- 2005 – 2 weeks
- 2006 – 3 days
- 2007 – 3 months
- 2008 – 1 week
- 2009 – 4 months
- 2010 – 5 months
- 2011 – 59 days
- 2013 – 5 months
- 2017 – 1 months
- 2018 – 3 months
- 2020 – 9 months
- 2022 – 8months
“We have consistently held press conferences, staged protests, and organized town hall meetings to avoid strikes and impress upon the government the need to act. Unfortunately, all these efforts have been futile,” Rafael Amakohia, ASUU’s Nsukka zonal coordinator said on Wednesday.
“The ball is now in the government’s court. If we go on strike, the blame lies squarely with the Federal Government,” he said again.
So it’s over to FG then or till Tinubu returns from the UK? Welp!
