The Federal Government will inaugurate the fourth re-negotiation committee to discuss the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities today.
However, the National President of the union, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, revealed in an interview that the two-week ultimatum given to the government to meet its demands would also expire today.
He lamented that the negotiation committee would mark the fourth effort since 2017, with previous committees led by Wale Babalakin in 2017, Munzali Jubril in 2020, and Nimi Briggs in 2022.
He lamented that over the past seven years, little progress had been made, leading to concerns that these initiatives might be tactics to buy time rather than genuine attempts at resolution.
Some of the union demands included the release of revitalisation fund for universities; the release of earned allowances for lecturers, the deployment of the University Transparency Accountability System for the payment of salaries and allowances of university lecturers; an end to the proliferation of universities by government, and renegotiation of the ASUU-FGN 2009 agreement, among others.
Reflecting on past experiences, Osodeke said for the past seven years, the government had never responded to their demands.
He said after reaching an agreement in 2022, they received no communication from the government regarding implementation.
Osodeke said, “We are meeting with the government tomorrow for the inauguration of a new renegotiation committee, which will expire the same day. This is the fourth committee in seven years, following those led by Wale Babalakin in 2017, Munzali Jubril in 2020, and Nimi Briggs in 2022.
“Despite these efforts, little progress has been made, leading us to question whether these initiatives are merely tactics to buy time. As a union, we are hopeful for real change this time around.
“In 2022, we reached an agreement, but since then, we have not heard from the government regarding its implementation. Let’s see what happens.”
The PUNCH reports that in 2020, ASUU embarked on a nine-month strike.
The strike, which was called off in December 2020, led to the inauguration of a Federal Government committee led by Prof. Munzali Jubril.
In 2021, the Munzali committee working with ASUU came up with recommendations in a draft agreement.
On June 16, 2022, the Nimi Briggs Committee submitted a draft agreement to the government, which it said was a product of collective bargaining.
However, the immediate-past Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, while briefing vice-chancellors and other stakeholders in Abuja, noted that the government discarded the Nimi-Briggs committee because of a lack of adequate resources.
