General News / Dispute over exemption of state universities from benefits of agreements between federal government and ASUU

The 5-month ASUU strike does not look like it will be over soon, as the federal government and ASUU disagree on yet another issue.

According to a report, the federal government is moving to exempt state universities from any agreement between the union and itself. Ben Goons, the spokesman for the federal ministry of education, explained in an interview that since the federal government does not have a say in the management of state owned universities, there was no need for them to be included in their plans.

However, ASUU as a body has a differing stance on the issue. ASUU president, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, insisted that state universities will be included in the yet-to-be-met agreement as the union (ASUU) covers all universities in the country. 

He also stated that if the minimum wage implementation could cover both state and federal universities, there is no reason to exempt state universities. In his words, "Moreover we only have one NUC." He further stated that the few institutions that didn't join the strike were never ASUU members.

Although little progress had been made concerning lecturers' salaries, the pro-chancellor of the Federal University Lokoja, Prof Nimi Briggs, proposed a 180% increment in salaries of lecturers, with the federal government agreeing to favour only a 100% increase.

Therefore, ministries including the ministry of finance, education, labour and employment, budget office of the federation, office of the head of service of the federation, and the National Salaries Income and Wages Commission are working on the proposal.

In the same vein, NANS had asked the minister of education, Adamu Adamu, to resign from office, since he cannot handle what has been committed into his hands properly. 

NANS stated that since the minister had been in office, the union had gone on a total of almost 18 month strike. The tertiary education system is deteriorating, and the educational sector is now in a state of 'yam pepper scatter scatter.'

For now, we can only keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.

By Ayomide Obembe