ASUU says Nigerian lecturers dying of ‘pauperisation,’ threatens industrial action

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said many of its members have either died or are suffering critical health challenges due to what it described as the pauperisation of the academia by the Nigerian government both at the federal and the state levels.

The union disclosed this in a statement issued at the end of its National Executive Council meeting held at the weekend and hosted by the Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State.

The statement, signed by the union President, Emmanuel Osodeke, said the dire situation has forced many lecturers to flee the country for greener pastures, saying apart from the poor working environment and conditions of service, members are also dying of workload pressure occasioned by the exodus of its members abroad.

ASUU also accused the administration of President Bola Tinubu of failure to fulfill his promises of releasing members’ withheld salaries and exempting the universities from the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

The union said its members have been receiving the same salary since 1999 despite the steeply depreciating value of the naira, saying an average professor now earns the equivalent of $210 per month.

ASUU said: “The meeting was alarmed, going by the reports it received, on the failed promises of the Tinubu-led administration toward addressing the lingering issues that forced the union to embark on the nationwide strike action of February–October 2022.

“NEC was seriously alarmed by reports of the increasing number of Nigerian academics who have died or are currently nursing life-threatening ailments as a result of work-related stress and chronic pauperisation arising from failed promises by the governments and the general macroeconomic climate of the country.”

The union listed various issues of concern such as the unsigned new FG/ASUU agreement, the needs assessment fund, and the proliferation of universities, among others, threatening that it could not guarantee peace on the campuses if these issues are not urgently addressed by the government.

The union also accused the government of continuous encroachment on the universities’ autonomy, especially with the dissolution of their governing councils, a move ASUU described as illegal.

“NEC observed with dismay the continued attack and erosion of autonomy of public universities, as enshrined in the Universities‟ Miscellaneous Act, through the illegal dissolution of Governing Councils,” the union stated.

Mr Tinubu had in October 2023 announced that the university lecturers’ would be paid four of their eighth-month salaries withheld as a result of the ‘No Work, No Pay’ policy invoked by the previous administration of Muhammadu Buhari during the union’s industrial action in 2022.

The Minister of Education, Mamman Tahir, a professor, also announced that the university workers are no longer to be paid through the IPPIS, a payment system used to pay other government workers.

Salaries still withheld

But ASUU said the government has fulfilled none of these promises.

“It is unimaginable that a government that raised lecturers‟ hopes a few months back will continue to deprive them of any modicum of comfort by withholding their entitlements,” ASUU said in the statement.

The union noted that the sum of withheld salaries is hardly worth more than one-third of its value given the massive devaluation of the Naira in the last year as a result of the declining value of the Naira and persistent inflation.

The union, therefore, called on the government to, as a matter of urgency, release “all the withheld salaries and third-party deductions of Nigerian academics to restore their fading hope in the Nigerian university system and Nigeria as a country.”

“To continue to ignore ASUU’s formal and informal demand in this respect is to invite an avoidable industrial crisis in the system,” it stated.

‘New IPPIS’

The union also noted that the government has continued to pay lecturers’ salaries through the IPPIS, a payment portal it has consistently rejected.

ASUU said it suspected that certain individuals within and outside the government may be planning to undermine the government directive “in view of the ambiguity that currently surrounds that transition out of IPPIS.”

The union said its members received their January salaries from a portal called ‘new IPPIS’.

“ASUU’s position is very clear: Government should revert to quarterly releases of university funds to enable them to design and implement their salary payment plans,” the union said.

The union also called on the government to release promotion arrears and pay all academics who were unjustly denied their salaries arising from “the obnoxious imposition of IPPIS”.

On governing councils

Less than a month after he was sworn in, President Tinubu dissolved the governing council of all government parastatals including the universities. This, ASUU said, was illegal and erodes the universities’ autonomy.

The union said the continuous running of the universities by the vice-chancellors and ministries of education is illegal.

“They have taken over the functions of the Council through illegal contract awards, approval of promotions, and recruitments without following due process. NEC condemns these anomalies in strong terms,” it said.

ASUU, therefore, called on the government to “reverse themselves where Governing Councils were dissolved without serving their terms and reconstitute Councils whose tenures have expired.”

“Vice-Chancellors are also strongly advised to stop taking matters meant for Councils to the Ministries or Commissioners for approval as this has great consequences for the future of the universities,” it added.

Renegotiation agreement

ASUU also called on Mr Tinubu to expedite the process of signing and implementing the renegotiated agreement between the union and the government representatives led by the late Nimi Briggs in 2022.

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“For the umpteenth time, ASUU calls on the President Tinubu-led administration to immediately set in motion the process leading to the review and signing of the Nimi Briggs-led renegotiated draft agreement as a mark of goodwill and assured hope for Nigeria’s public universities. Nigerian academics are tired of platitudes laced with disdain for intellectuals; only concrete steps to restore their eroded dignity and degraded lives can guarantee lasting peace on our campuses,” it stated.

“University teachers in Nigeria have been on the same salary regime since 2009 when the value of naira to a dollar was N120! Today, it is above N1,500. It is no longer news that the salaries of the highest paid professor, on the average, has been reduced to a meagre $210/month.”

The union accused the immediate past Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, of deliberately frustrating the efforts to get the draft document signed.

“However, the then Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, truncated the process at the point of finalising the reviewed draft agreement. From 2021 till date, the document has remained in its draft form.”

Proliferations of universities, underfunding

The union also condemned the continuous proliferation of universities by the government without comprehensive funding plans.

ASUU noted that the new universities being established rely largely on TETFund interventions, a situation it said is stretching the resources of the government agency.

During the eight months of industrial action that ended in October 2022, the Nigerian government said it has included N170 billion for revitalisation funds into the 2023 budget.

“Our understanding was that N120 billion was meant to address part of the outstanding Needs Assessment Intervention Fund while the balance would go into paying one of the agreed tranches of EAA. Sadly, however, the Government has not released any funds to the universities based on the understanding,” it stated.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe