The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has warned that “in the absence of visible and concrete efforts at addressing pending issues and meeting its expectations, 2025 will be a year of long-drawn confrontation between the union and the Federal Government.”
Speaking on efforts made by the Federal Government to address its issues last year as window dressing and cosmetic, ASUU said the FG made no major difference in the university education sector, continued its neglect of the university system, and failed to satisfactorily resolve its issues in the year 2024.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Chairman of ASUU, Ibadan chapter, Prof. Ayo Akinwole, stated that the uninterrupted academic calendar in 2024 was a result of the sacrifice of the union, not that the government had addressed its impending issues.
ASUU flayed the FG over policy somersault in the 18-year benchmark for admission into tertiary education and asked the President Bola Tinubu federal government to, instead of embarking on a fresh renegotiation of the agreement, set in motion a process that will lead to the review and signing of the Nimi Briggs-led renegotiated draft agreement.
The ASUU chairman stated that the FG has repeatedly failed to put machinery in motion to address its long-standing issues of “non-provision of funding for the revitalisation of public universities based on the FGN-ASUU MoU of 2012, 2013, and the MoA of 2017; non-release of the three and a half months of withheld salaries; and non-release of third-party deductions such as scheduled loan repayments, personal savings to retirement schemes, and cooperative contributions.”
Other pending issues, according to ASUU, include the non-release and payment of arrears of Earned Academic Allowance (EAA), the creeping fascism in some Nigerian universities, the problem associated with the proliferation of public universities, the non-implementation of Visitation Panel reports, the non-implementation of UTAS in place of IPPIS, and the non-renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement.
“These pending issues were yet to be satisfactorily resolved in 2024 and will, no doubt, define the trajectories of the relationships between our Union and the Federal Government in 2025. Having reviewed the state of education in Nigeria in 2024, it is time to set an agenda for 2025.
“Fellow Nigerians, given the usual adamant posture of the Federal Government to satisfactorily address the pending issues concerning the education sector in general and the university system in particular, we expect that the year 2025 may, if care is not taken, be a year of another challenge and struggle.
“In the absence of visible and concrete efforts at addressing the pending issues and meeting our expectations, there is likely to be a long-drawn confrontation between our Union and the Federal Government, which will probably lead to another round of untold avoidable crisis in the university system in Nigeria.
“Given the important role of education in national development, it is expected that the Government should show a sincere commitment to reversing the downward trend in basic education by engaging in a total overhaul of the sector through the provision of basic facilities, such as good classrooms, desks, and chairs which will address the issues of over-crowding and dilapidation.
“The remuneration of the teachers should be reviewed to attract and recruit qualified teachers. Critical and concerted efforts should be deployed to tackle the high rate of out-of-school children in Nigeria, considering that education is the fundamental right of every Nigerian child.
“We also expect that the withheld three and a half months’ salaries and third-party deductions owed our members should be paid forthwith. We also expect that the Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) should be released, just as we expect that the funding for the revitalisation of the universities should be released by the FGN-ASUU MoU of 2012, 2013, and the MoA of 2017.
“The welfare of workers in the education sector and Nigerian workers is paramount, considering the state of the national economy and high cost of living, which has deepened the erosion of the conditions of service of our members.
“We, therefore, expect that the Nimi Briggs-led renegotiated draft agreement should be quickly reviewed in line with current economic indices and signed and that the university lecturers’ salaries should be restored to the African average which was the spirit of the 2009 Agreement, leading to the pegging of the professorial salaries at $3,000, which, in 2025, has amounted to paltry $200 due to the deterioration of the Nigerian Naira against the US dollar.
“It is also our expectation that the attack on TETFund should cease and the idea of commodifying university education in Nigeria should be dropped. Instead of borrowing bad examples from Britain and other capitalist countries, we should, as a developing country, borrow from countries like Germany, where education at all levels is free and properly funded.
“The welfare of workers in the education sector and Nigerian workers is paramount, considering the state of the national economy and high cost of living, which has deepened the erosion of the conditions of service of our members.
“We, therefore, expect that the Nimi Briggs-led renegotiated draft agreement should be quickly reviewed in line with current economic indices and signed and that the university lecturers’ salaries should be restored to the African average which was the spirit of the 2009 Agreement, leading to the pegging of the professorial salaries at $3,000, which, in 2025, has amounted to paltry $200 due to the deterioration of the Nigerian Naira against the US dollar.
“It is also our expectation that the attack on TETFund should cease and the idea of commodifying university education in Nigeria should be dropped. Instead of borrowing bad examples from Britain and other capitalist countries, we should, as a developing country, borrow from countries like Germany, where education at all levels is free and properly funded.
“Part of our expectations is that the long-standing challenges associated with the payment mode should be laid to rest in 2025 by the implementation of UTAS.
“Government as a matter of urgency should reverse the downward trend of public universities by deliberately restoring true hope for the children of the people who do not have any option of private university or overseas studies.
“Comrades, in this new year, let us summon more courage to act against the threat to knowledge and human dignity. Consequently, we advise our members to continue to remain vigilant and continue their support to the leadership of the Union at all levels. Let’s brace up for the crisis that may arise should our expectations not be satisfactorily met in 2025. For a people united can never be defeated,” ASUU’s statement read.
