ASUU decries stalled renegotiation of 2009 agreement

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has expressed frustration over the Nigerian government’s slow pace of renegotiating the 2009 agreement signed with the union.

In a statement signed by its National President Chris Piwuna, a professor of medicine, ASUU said the renegotiation efforts led by the committee headed by Yayale Ahmed, the Pro-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, has stalled since December 2024, with no agreement signed five months later.

ASUU said it is regrettable that the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement between the federal government and the union had continued endlessly since 2017.

“The last push, which got frozen again after some recommendations by both parties were made for government’s consideration and approval in December 2024, is yet to be concluded,” the union said.

ASUU said the government’s implementation of the agreements has been discouraging.

The union listed its demands to include “the conclusion of the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement based on Nimi Briggs Committee’s Draft Agreement of 2021; release of withheld three-and-half months salaries on account of the 2022 strike action; release of unpaid salaries of staff on sabbatical, part-time and adjunct appointments due to the application of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS); and the release of outstanding third-party deductions such as check-off dues and cooperative contributions.

Other demands are funding for revitalisation of public universities, payment of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), end to the proliferation of universities by Federal and State Governments; and the adoption of University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) in place of IPPIS.

The union called on Nigerians to prevail on the government to address ‘all outstanding’ issues agreed up in previous engagements, noting it would create a conducive atmosphere to address welfare issues of the academics.

“ASUU remains open to discussion in this respect. However, the union would not continue to look helpless while the rights of its members are being trampled upon and washed away with reckless abandon,” it said

History of stalled negotiations

The Yayale Ahmed-led committee, inaugurated in October last year, is the fourth committee handling the renegotiation since 2017.

The government has failed to implement each of the renegotiated agreements, resulting in industrial actions by the union in 2018, 2020 and 2022.

Wale Babalakin, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and the then pro-chancellor of the University of Lagos, led the renegotiation team constituted by the government from 2017 until his resignation as pro-chancellor in 2020.

In 2021, Munzali Jibril, an emeritus professor of English and then pro-chancellor for the Federal University, Lafia, Nasarawa State, took over.

With him, the negotiation fared relatively smoothly as his committee turned in a draft agreement in three months —May 2021. But the government never signed or implemented the agreement.

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When the union embarked on another nationwide strike in 2022, the government constituted yet another committee –this time headed by the late Nimi Briggs, also an emeritus professor.

Mr Briggs-led committee also renegotiated the 2009 agreement and submitted a draft to the government in June 2022.

It was never signed, forcing the 2022 strike action to last until October when an Industrial Court asked the ASUU to suspend the strike after a suit was instituted against the union by the federal government.