ASUU strike: 5 reasons lecturers are on strike again

It is no longer news that the Senate has been unable to resolve the crisis between the Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

ASUU strike Cartoon

ASUU had last Monday issued an ultimatum to the federal government to fulfill the agreement it reached with it in 2009 or face a one-week warning strike.


The union has revealed its reasons for going on strike as follows:


1. Denial of staff entitlement
ASUU stated that one of the problems was disagreement between the union and government to include payment of fraction to staff entitlement and the denial of staff entitlement in respect of earned academic allowance amounting to about N128 billion.
This also includes funding of universities for revitalisation and the refusal to register the lecturers under the Nigerian Universities Pension Management Company by the National Pension Commission.



2. Introduction of TSA
The second problem is the introduction of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), which negatively affected university autonomy and a decrease in budgetary allocation to education and the refusal by government to renegotiate the 2009 agreement which was due for renegotiation since 2012.



3. Decrease in budgetary allocation to education
ASUU has also decried the reduction of the federal government’s allocation to the education sector from 11 per cent in 2015 to 8 per cent in 2016. ASUU Sokoto zonal coordinator, Dr Lawal Argungu, made this known at a press conference in Sokoto, saying:

“The way FGN treats the funding of education in this country makes it difficult for ASUU to believe the sincerity of the government in reforming the education sector in Nigeria.
“It is certainly quite possible for us to reposition our educational sector appropriately if we put our priorities right in this country in spite of the apparent economic hardship.”



4. Revitalization
ASUU also expressed regrets that out of the over N1.3 trillion earmarked for the revitalisation of the Nigerian universities in 2013, there was still an arrears of N605 billion.
Argungu said that the revitalisation was part of the agreement reached between the union and the Federal Government to be accomplished between 2013 and 2018. According to him, the union is grossly disappointed with the way the FGN breached this fundamental agreement.
He said the only time it was implemented was in 2013, leaving the arrears of N605 billion as at the third quarter of 2016.


5. 2009 agreement
Another bone of contention is the 2009 agreement and the failure of the Federal Government to implement terms of the 2009 and 2013 agreements.
“Many aspects of the 2013 MoU and the 2009 agreement with the Federal Government have either been unimplemented or despairingly handled,” ASUU President, Biodun Ogunyemi, said at the University of Abuja.
“The agreements are: Payments of staff entitlements since December 2015, funding of universities for revitalisation, pension, TSA and university autonomy and renegotiation of 2009 Agreement.”