EDUCATION: Minister of Education set to inaugurate a 7-man committee to renegotiate FG, ASUU 2009 agreement.
Worthy of note, is to recall the strike that engulfed Nigerian universities between 2008 and 2009, when students were out of school due to a Government and ASUU disagreement. Issues that were brought to bare included issues of IPPS, revitalization of Nigerian universities, salary structure amongst other demands.
Looking forward, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was reached between Government and ASUU by September of 2009 which brought about resolution of the then ongoing strike, prior to this agreement Government has blatantly refused to implement at least 20% of this agreement which prompted another call by the lectures in 2020 to present another document of agreement termed “Memorandum of Action” (MOA) with very articulate demands.
Going forward, the University lectures have again embarked on another Strike action which they say is a one month warning strike by which if government does not respond favourably it will metamorphose into another indefinite strike.
On the other hand Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr Chris Ngige has said the amount demanded by ASUU is unrealistic, as such needs to be reviewed.
In-line with the Minister of Labour and Productivity’s submission, the Minister of Education Prof Adamu Adamu is on Monday 7th of March, 2022 set to inaugurate a 7man committee to renegotiate agreements made with ASUU in the September 2009 MOU, the committee is expected to submit it’s review and recommendations, in 6weeks time.
The major demand of ASUU is the issue of UTAS, before any other demand can be met the have agreed to resolve the strike if issues of UTAS is firstly resolve then there subsequent is demand totalling about N1.3 trillion.
Finally, issues raised by ASUU is eminent and should be promptly looked into, the educational system is in total disarray, neglect, unequipped, and total paralysis.
Action of ASUU in previous years has birthed commissions such as TET-fund which is today the pillar and back bone of Nigerian universities in terms of structures, funding, academics, staff and students welfare etc. Without which Nigerian universities would have been in a worse shambus. Therefore the importance of the demands brought by ASUU cannot be swept under the carpet, and an equilibrium decision should be met between Government and ASUU to mitigate the consequences suffered by students, as the saying goes “when two elephants flight, is the ground that suffers”.
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