The President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, has stated that the union is not moved by the ‘no-work, no-pay’ threat issued by the Federal Government through the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu.
Osodeke said he expected more from the minister given his background in the media but that he was unpleasantly surprised to hear him threatening the union with a no work-no pay directive.
He said this on Wednesday during an interview with AIT, monitored by THE WHISTLER.
“Knowing the pedigree of that Minister, I was surprised by what he was saying. Did ASUU go on strike because of no-work-no pay? We went on strike on a number of issues and none of them have been resolved and he’s talking about no work-no pay, threatening the workers. Do you resolve normal problems in Academics by the use of threats? You’re supposed to come to the table and negotiate. You don’t use blackmail to solve the problem.
“Apart from the issue of salary, in which they mentioned a miserly amount of money, they have not done anything. Let the Minister provide any piece of evidence where they have offered us anything on the 7 issues we are on strike for, even the release of the decision panel report of 2021 that doesn’t even cost money, have they released it? So that is it, they’ve not done anything, and if they believe they have, they should show the Nigerian people a piece of evidence to that effect, a signed agreement or Memorandum of Action; or the amount of money that has been released. You don’t solve problems by going to the media to tell lies,” he said.
Addressing the salary increments announced by the government for academic staff, the union President said: “In collective bargaining, you don’t give awards, you negotiate salaries and that is what has been there since 1982. There have been various commissions that have explained to the FG on how to negotiate with unions, especially unions of intelligencia. You don’t give awards, you negotiate with basis. What are issues you want to achieve with the salary increments? Is it just to dash people some stipends, or you want to create an environment that will better the system? There has to be a basis for salary increase for academics and that is what we have told them.
“We asked you before and you gave us your own view on what you want to give. We had not finished negotiating, we asked you to sign and you said no you are throwing that away and awarding salary increments. We are very particular about the process and we don’t want award, we want to negotiate our salaries.”
Speaking on the decision of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Education Institutions (NASU) to accede to the government’s offer and call off their strike, Osodeke said that it was their prerogative to do so as those unions have nothing to do with ASUU.
“If you check the history of these strikes, you will see that the unions did not go on strike at the same time, so if they have called off their strike, its their own and we have no relationship with them so they are free to call off their strike, they are free not to even go at all.
“Our own issues however, have not been resolved and if they haven’t been resolved, on what basis are we calling off the strike? After the students have already been at home for about 6 to 7 months we should just call it off like that? It doesn’t make any sense.
“We expected this government to intercede immediately, ordinarily it shouldn’t have lasted more than two weeks, but they abandoned it completely. Now they are just talking to the media and not talking to us, I don’t think that is fair”, he said.
Osodeke also shed some light on the nature of the agreement between the FG and ASUU as well as what exactly was contained in the offer which the Education Minister said the government made to the union.
He said, “Let me explain again, and I challenge the Minister to provide the evidence, they have not solved 1 out of all the problems, not even the one that does not require money so it’s not correct.
“Have they adopted UTAS? You recall that when we met with the Chief of Staff, we all agreed that we would test the three platforms, UTAS, U3PS, and IPPIS, and after testing, the best of the three will be accepted to pay salaries in the universities. Even the Minister of Education, at that meeting, accepted that IPPIS was the last, and failed the tests, while UTAS came first and the Minister accepted it”, he said.
Reacting to reports that the Federal Government had released N100 billion to universities, he challenged the government to back up the claim with evidence.
“The N100 billion they said they released, they should mention the bank it was released to. where is the money? Where is the evidence that they released the money? The N50 billion they are talking about, let them show the evidence that they have released the money. They are all lies. We have not formally met with the Minister Of Education since this strike began in February. They just go on TV to deceive the people and turn them against ASUU,” he said.
He explained that the union only had meeting with the renegotiation committee for the 2009 FG-ASUU agreement, led by Prof. Nimi Briggs.
“The Nimi Briggs Committee meant to discuss one of the seven issues for which we are on strike, only 1 item which is the renegotiation of the 2009 FG-ASUU agreement. That is his function and we have met with them and reached an agreement, which the government also threw away and refused to implement.
“For the other six issues, we have not met with any group of government or the Minister formally to discuss any of those things”, he said.
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