TheCable

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has explained why its latest meeting with the federal government ended inconclusively.

At the meeting which ended deadlocked on Tuesday, the government proposed a Consolidated University Academic Salary Structure (CONUASS) to ASUU.

The union, in a statement by Emmanuel Osodeke, its president, said the proposal made to the Nimi Briggs-led negotiation committee was presented in a “take-it-or-leave-it” manner.

The ASUU president said the proposal was against the principle of collective bargaining.

“At the commencement of the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement on 16th March 2017, both the Federal Government and ASUU Teams agreed to be guided by the following principles as their terms of reference which includes, reversal of the decay in the Nigerian University System, in order reposition it for its responsibilities in national development,” the statement reads.

“Government’s surreptitious move to set aside the principle of collective bargaining, which is globally in practice, has the potential of damaging lecturers’ psyche and destroying commitment to the university system. This is, no doubt, injurious to Nigeria’s aspiration to become an active player in the global knowledge industry.

“Rejecting a salary package arrived at through collective bargaining is a repudiation of government’s pronouncements on reversing ‘brain drain’.

“The Munzali Jibril-led renegotiation committee, submitted the first draft agreement in May 2021 but government’s official response did not come until about one year later.

“Again, the ‘award’ presented by the Nimi Briggs-led team came across in a manner of take-it-or-leave-it on a sheet of paper. No serious country in the world treats their scholars this way.

“Over the years, particularly since 1992, the union had always argued for, and negotiated a separate salary structure for academics for obvious reasons.

“ASUU does not accept any awarded salary as was the case in the administration of Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar. The separate salary structures in all FGN/ASUU agreements were usually the outcome of collective bargaining processes.”

The ASUU president said the government imposed the ongoing strike action on them and has encouraged it to linger because of “its provocative indifference”.

He said the major reason given by the federal government for its “miserly” offer, which was paucity of revenue, was not tenable.

“This is because of several reasons, chief of which is poor management of the economy. This has given rise to leakages in the revenue of governments at all levels,” Osodeke said.

“There is wasteful spending, misappropriation of funds and outright stealing of our collective patrimony.

“ASUU believes that if the leakages in the management of the country’s resources are stopped, there will be more than enough to meet the nation’s revenue and expenditure targets, without borrowing and plunging the country into debt crisis as is the case now.

“At the commencement of the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement on March 16, 2017, both the federal government and ASUU teams agreed to be guided by some terms of reference.

“ASUU, however, expressed regrets that the former reneged on its side of obligations and agreed in the agreement.”

The union asked the federal government to return to the draft agreement of the 2009 FGN/ASUU renegotiation committee, whose work spanned a total of five and half years, as a demonstration of good faith.