It is no longer news that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has called off its three month old strike. A Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) signed by representatives of the Union and those of the Federal Government signalled its suspension.
The ASUU strike which commenced on Monday, 4th November, 2018 and ended on Thursday, 7th February, 2019 was “conditionally” suspended by the university teachers’ union with the hope that agreements reached would be implemented.
Prior to this latest development, ten negotiatory meetings were held between ASUU and officials of the Nigerian government.
Earlier agreements
Prior to this latest agreement, there were previous ones between ASUU and the Nigerian government.
These are the 2009 and 2017 Memoranda of Agreement and the 2013 Memorandum of Understanding.
Some of the issues raised in those earlier ones are still yet to be entirely resolved.
Prominently, the 2009 Memorandum led to the conduct of the 2012 NEEDS Assessment in Nigerian public universities, which revealed the poor state of infrastructure and staffing in Nigerian universities.
That of 2013 had the agreement to spend 1.3 trillion naira towards the revitalisation of the universities as its main point.
Successive strike actions by the union, including the most recent one, had been to challenge government towards implementation of previous agreements.
ASUU National President, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi expressed worries that the union’s constant advocacy towards reducing the rot and decay in the universities had fell in deaf hears. He called for a change in that attitude.
“Our experience, as a trade union, shows that successive governments in Nigeria always entered into negotiated agreements only to placate those pleading the cause – be it education, health, transportation, employment or any other issue of meaningful living.”
“This proclivity of the Nigerian ruling class, irrespective of which wing of the insensitive stock they belong, must be continually be tracked, engaged and resisted by all people of goodwill.”
2019 Memorandum of Agreement
EduCeleb.com presents you highlights of the 2019 Memorandum of Agreement as obtained from ASUU.
| Agreement | Timeline/Deadline |
| 1. In addition to the N20 billion for 2018, the sum of N25 billion only would be released in April/May 2019, after which government would resume full implementation of the MoU of 2013. | April/May 2019 |
| 2. (a) Part-payment of the outstanding arrears of the earned academic allowances; defraying the balance up to 2018 in 4 tranches within 36 months.
(b) Mainstreaming further payments of EAA into the annual |
36 months
2019 |
| 3. Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) verification and the release of the arrears of salary shortfall at the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi. | By 15th February 2019 |
| 4. Strengthening the Consultative Committee on State-owned Universities (CCSOU), inaugurated on Monday, 28th January, 2019 to look into the issues of proliferation, underfunding and governance to consistently deliver on its mandate. |
No deadline |
| 5. Payment of the outstanding EAA arrears of all eligible staff in the University of Ilorin, especially the loyal ASUU members whose appointments were illegally terminated. |
No deadline |
| 6. Government approval granting operational licence to the Nigeria Universities Pension Management Company (NUPEMCO). | Done |
| 7. Commencement of visitation to all Federal Universities. | 11th March, 2019. |
| 8. Provision of documented guidelines on procedures and roles of parties in the process of renegotiating FGN-ASUU Agreement of 2009. | Between 18th February, 2019 and Friday 29th March, 2019. |
