The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has stated that it is embarking on a lecture-free day in all universities across Nigeria to sensitise the university communities and the public on its impending strike.
ASUU in a statement explained that the lecture-free day will be held on Monday, February 7, 2022, prior to another strike because of the federal government’s failure to honour the agreement reached in December 2020 by both parties which led to the suspension of the then 9-month prolonged strike.
Emmanuel Osodeke, the national president of ASUU, explained that multiple circulars had been sent to various branches of the union announcing the decision.
“The national body had instructed all the chapters to sensitise the public on the nobleness of its cause,” the statement read.
However, President Muhammadu Buhari had recently assured of his administration’s commitment towards fulfilling the agreement with the ASUU, pleading with the union to exercise patience and consider current economic realities.
This disturbing news is coming on the heels of ASUU’s huge timeline of strikes since 1999.
In 1999 ASUU was on strike for 150 days, 2001 for 90 days, 2002 for 14 days.
In 2003 the union went on strike for 180 days that ended in 2004, 2005 witnessed just a 3days strike, and 2006 was 7days.
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However, in 2007, ASUU had 90 days strikes, 2008-7days and 2009 was 120days. 2010 had 157 days of the academic session wasted on strike, while in 2011 ASUU had 90 days strike that started in December and ended in 2012.
2013 had 150 days spent on strike, 2014 and 2015 witnessed zero strike actions; only for this ugly monster to resurface in 2016 with 7days of the strike, and 2017 had 35days of ASUU strike.
In 2018, ASUU downed tools for 19 days and this continued till February 8, 2019.
2020 witnessed a whopping 9 months of ASUU strike following its disagreement with the federal government over the funding of the universities and implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), which according to the union, negates the autonomy policy for the universities, among other issues.
ASUU called off its 9-month old strike in December 2020 after the federal government agreed to some of its conditions which includes the deployment of University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) software for payment of its salaries and allowances.
Nevertheless, after some months, ASUU alleged that the federal government failed to fulfil its side of the bargain and threatened to mobilise for another strike immediately.
The federal government quickly moved to pay N55bn as part-payment for the Earned Academic Allowance and Revitalisation Fund, but the union was unmoved until the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council and other dignitaries waded in.
Some of the demands of ASUU include the sustainability of the university autonomy, which it said the introduction of IPPIS violates; immediate deployment of UTAS to replace IPPIS; renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement; release of the reports of visitation panels to federal universities and distortions in salary payment challenges, among others.
