IBADAN, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – President Muhammadu Buhari says the Federal Government has earmarked N470 billion for university revitalization in the 2023 budget.
Funding for the revitalization of public universities is among the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which has been on strike since February.
While presenting the N19.76 trillion 2023 budget estimates to the joint session of the National Assembly, on Friday, Buhari renewed his appeal to university lecturers to show a better appreciation of the country’s current economic situation and return to the classroom.
The president, however, said universities must find means of funding instead of solely relying on government budget.
ASUU commenced its ongoing strike on 14 February 14, 2022, as the Federal Government failed to meet some of its demands, including the release of revitalization funds for universities, renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, release of earned allowances for university lecturers, and deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
Adamu A
Intentious issues between the government and ASUU, have been settled, except the quest for members’ salaries for the period they have been on strike to be paid, which was vehemently rejected by President Muhammadu Buhari, insisting on “No work, No pay” legal provision.
ASUU’s key demands are:
- Funding for the revitalisation of public universities. The Federal Government, in its agreement entered with the union in 2009 and 2013, agreed to inject a total of N1.3 trillion into public universities in six tranches, starting from 2013. Only N200 billion has been released since 2013.
- Payment of earned academic allowances (EEA). The Federal Government had in 2019 agreed to pay lecturers EAA, but failed to implement it. The government finally agreed to pay the first tranche of the backlog of allowances in November 2019 and the second instalment by August 2020, but nothing was paid. In 2020, the Federal Government agreed to pay N40 billion. It also said it has released N22.127 billion earned allowances of both academic and non-academic workers of universities to 38 universities.
- Reconstitution of the FGN/ASUU 2009 Renegotiation Committee. The Federal Government agreed to renegotiate the 2009 agreement to review university’s conditions of service, funding, university autonomy and academic freedom. The conditions of service included a separate salary structure for university lectures to be known as ‘Consolidated University Academic Salary Structure’. Thirteen years later, the government inaugurated a seven-man committee to renegotiate the 2019 agreement, led by Nimi Briggs.
- Adoption of UTAS. ASUU kicked against the introduction of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), and wants the government to accept its own UTAS.
- Constitution of visitation panels. The union is demanding that the government ought to visit its universities every five years, according to the law, but the last visit was conducted in January 2011. The Nigerian government finally inaugurated 10 panels for 36 universities, six for 25 polytechnics, and five for 21 colleges of education.
- Proliferation of universities.
The union is calling for the review of the Nigeria Universities Commission (2004) Act to tackle the proliferation of universities. - Withheld salaries and non-remittance of check-off dues. These are contained on December 22, 2020 Memorandum of Action. ASUU accused the Federal Government of deducting check-off dues on behalf of the union and refused to remit the same between February and June 2020.
- Twenty-six percent budgetary allocation to the education sector. In a bid to improve the education sector, the union wants 26 percent of Nigeria’s annual budget to be allocated to education, and half of that allocation to universities.
On 29 August, 2022, the union embarked on an indefinite strike, explaining that the government had not met most of its demands and was not showing the readiness to do so.