ASUU - why Asuu strike

 
In the 19 years since Nigeria returned to civil rule under the Fourth Republic, university teachers in the country have embarked on strike 14 times that saw them stay away from work for about 40 months.





Its negative effect on the academic activities is not left out. The strike has a drastic effect on the ranking of our Nigeria universities in the Africa and in the world at large, due to lack of government commitment in revitalizing the university system.

History of Asuu Strike in Nigeria

Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was established in 1978 to ensure the welfare of all academic staff in Nigeria. The first national strike by ASUU was called in 1988 to request fair wages and university autonomy. This led to the banning of ASUU on August 7, 1988 by the military regime of Major General Ibrahim Babangida, including the seizure of all her property.  The ban was lifted in 1990 but her activities and declaration of another ASUU strike led to a second banning on August 23, 1992.  This ban was soon lifted and a series of meetings between ASUU and the Federal Government finally led to an agreement on September 3, 1992.  The Federal Government met several of the union’s demands including the right of the university academic staff to collective negotiation.  There were further strikes in 1994 and 1996 to protest against the dismissal of 49 University of Ilorin lecturers in late 1993 by General Sani Abacha.  Further strikes were called by ASUU between 1999 and 2020.

 It is very obvious that all 19 strikes carried out so far by ASUU since its foundation in 1978 were initiated by the Federal Government for the following reasons:

1.    The insincerity of the Federal Government in honouring agreements reached between her and ASUU in 2009.
2.    Poor funding of the Nigeria universities.
3.    The federal government continued appointments of highly inexperienced politicians as education ministers and ministers of labour and employment.
4.    The government imposition of IPPIS on highly educated academics responsible for the development of the nation.

The Present State of ASUU in Nigeria
 
Currently, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, returned to an indefinite strike on Monday, March 23, 2020. This came after its two-week warning strike which commenced on March 9, 2020. According to the Union’s President, Biodun Ogunyemi, the strike became necessary because the Nigerian government has chosen to use hunger as a weapon of war against its academics.

Although the Union included the age-old non-implementation of agreements reached with the Federal Government dating back to 2009 and aimed at fostering better conditions of service for its members and the upgrade of Nigerian universities including earned academic allowance. The main sticking point this time is the deadlock over The Federal Government had earlier withheld the lecturers’ salaries over their refusal to register in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System but has of now ordered that the withheld salaries of lecturers in federal universities be paid.

According to the National President of ASUU, lecturers would not resume work because the strike was not only about IPPIS; however, the payment of salaries will pave the way for a meaningful dialogue with the Federal Government.

IPPIS and ASUU

The Federal Government had enrolled everyone under its payroll into the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System, IPPIS,in order to fight ghost workers and arrest corruption at source. ASUU had obstinately refused to embrace this because, according to her, IPPIS is an “imposition” by the World Bank. ASUU also argues that IPPIS would erode university autonomy. It developed a separate accountability platform for the universities known as the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, UTAS. The Federal Government had reached an interim agreement to integrate the UTAS into the IPPIS, still ASUU said no. The Federal Government in January 2020 stopped paying salaries of ASUU members who were not enrolled on IPPIS.

ASUU’s tendency to go on strike was one of the reasons some of its members last year broke away to form the Congress of University Academics, CONUA, whose members have readily embraced the Federal Government’s IPPIS scheme.