The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to embark on strike action by January 2025, accusing President Bola Tinubu’s administration of failing to fulfil the promises made to it.
This development was communicated to SaharaReporters in a phone conversation with the ASUU President, Prof. Victor Osodeke, on Monday.
Osodeke said there are many promises that the government has failed to fulfil and the union has exercised patience for three years, with no results.
Also read: Nationwide strike looms in Nigerian universities- ASUU
“The government has made many promises but all we have seen is that they are playing games. They owe lecturers arrears between January and December 2023,” he noted.
“The government earlier this year said they have approved a N300 billion NEEDS assessment fund for universities in the country. Up till now, despite approving the money in the budget, there has been no actual release,” he told SaharaReporters.
He noted that another issue concerns the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) which lecturers complained about.
IPPIS is a centralized database system for the Nigerian Public Service. It was introduced by the Federal Government of Nigeria with the support of the World Bank as part of a Public Service Reform initiative.
“We complained about IPPIS and the government said that they have solved the issue with GIFMIS, we then saw that it’s same thing they are doing, so there is not much difference between IPPIS and GIFMIS,” he said.
He noted that they have been having discussions with a government committee which noted that it would reach out to higher authorities to check if certain demands would be agreed upon but for two weeks “ASUU has not heard anything from the government”.
The union noted that it may declare a strike action in January.
“We will meet in January and may declare strike action,” he said.
When asked when the industrial action will be declared in January, he said “this will be communicated”.
In September, ASUU threatened to go on strike and gave the government a 14-day ultimatum to meet its demands.
The union noted that this was in addition to the initial 21 days, beginning from Monday, September 23, 2024, during which all the lingering issues must have been concretely addressed to the satisfaction of the membership of the union.
“The union should not be held responsible for any industrial disharmony that arises from the government’s failure to seize the new opportunity offered by ASUU to nip the looming crisis in the bud,” ASUU said at the time.
The union, however, did not eventually declare an industrial action.
