The Federal Government of Nigeria has said it would no longer enter into any form of agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities,ASUU, that will be difficult to implement.
Also, the Buhari-led FG further stated that no amount of blackmail and intimidation will make them accept the tall unrealistic demand of the universities’ unions.
The government’s stance is in response to the conflict it had with the four university-based unions, which ended in a strike that lasted for almost six months.
ASUU strike which is now six months old began on February 14, 2022, after the Union issued a one-month warning strike over the claimed failure of the federal government to address some of the issues it presented.
A few weeks after ASUU stopped working, the three unions representing non-teaching staff—the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Educational Institutions (NASU), and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT)—also went on strike.
The face-off between ASUU and FG bothers on the non-release of the revitalization fund, non-payment of earned allowance, and renegotiation of the 2009 Agreement, among others.
According to FG, It had set up the Professor Nimi Briggs Renegotiation Committee to interface with the four unions, but it seemed no solution is in sight.
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Multiple sources at the Ministry of Finance, National Income, Salaries and Wages Commission, as well as the Accountant General Office of the Federation, told Vanguard that the government wanted to be careful in order not to sign an agreement that will be difficult to implement.
According to one of the sources he said: “The Federal Government will no longer be blackmailed to sign any agreement that will be unimplementable.
“Before we put pen on paper, all the necessary government advisory team, including the Ministry of Finance, the Budget Office, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the National Income, Salaries and Wages Commission, will sit together and take a decision that would not lead to another crisis.”
