JUST-IN:ASUU,SSANU, NASU,others meet FG’s committee next week over agreement

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, among other academic unions, will meet the reconstituted committee on the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement with university-based unions, Saturday PUNCH confirmed.

ASUU’s National President, Emmanuel Osodeke, made this known in an interview in Abuja.

Though the ASUU leader didn’t specify the date of the meeting, he noted that the committee would meet in the coming week to deliberate on issues.

Early October, the Federal Government had announced the reconstitution of a committee to renegotiate the 2009 agreements between the government and various university-based unions.

The committee received a time frame of three months.

It'll be recalled that this is the fourth renegotiation committee set up by the government since 2017, with previous committees led by Wale Babalakin in 2017, Munzali Jubril in 2020, and Nimi Briggs in 2022.

Recall that in 2020, ASUU embarked on a nine-month strike.

The strike, which was called off in December 2020, led to the inauguration of a Federal Government committee led by Prof. Munzali Jubril.

In 2021, the Munzali committee working with ASUU came up with recommendations in a draft agreement.

On June 16, 2022, the Nimi Briggs Committee submitted a draft agreement to the government, which it said was a product of collective bargaining.

Following the recent ultimatum by ASUU, the Ministry of Education led by former Minister Tahir Mamman unveiled another committee.

Speaking during the inauguration, Mamman said, “In the composition of this important Committee we have the Chairman and members of this Committee, who are exceptionally experienced in both University and other matters. There are officials appointed from other relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies to serve as Advisers or Observers on the Committee will bring in peculiar information and make the work transparent.

Speaking with our correspondent, Osodeke said, “The Committee hasn’t been dismantled, we are meeting next week to fully deliberate on matters regarding the agreements. We hope something good will come out of it.”

Meanwhile, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, on Friday said it would meet next week to revisit issues of withheld salaries, wage awards and N50bn earned allowance yet to be released by the Federal Government.

The revisiting of some of the outstanding issues will take place on Wednesday next week at the 3rd Quadrennial National Delegates Conference, NDC, with the theme, “Respecting Collective Bargaining Agreement and Industrial Peace in a Democracy.”

SSANU President, Mohammed Ibrahim, disclosed this while briefing journalists in Abuja.

Ibrahim said the conference would offer a unique opportunity for the association to reaffirm its commitment to advancing the Nigerian university system.

He said, “Specifically, we are revisiting the matters of the outstanding 3 months’ withheld salaries, the N50bn in earned allowances, arrears of the 25/35 per cent increment, and the wage award.”

He further said, “The upcoming National Delegates Conference will also mark the commencement of SSANU’s electoral process, wherein new leadership will be elected to steward the affairs of this great association over the next four years.”