ASUU president blows hot, says honeymoon with Tinubu-led govt over

Professor Chris Piwuna

The President of ASUU, Chris Piwuna, in this report, said the union is warming up for a comprehensive shutdown of Nigeria’s university campuses, accusing the President Bola Tinubu-led administration of taking the union for granted after its members have endured continued hardship for two years, hoping the promises would be kept.

The respite currently being enjoyed across Nigeria’s public university campuses may soon be truncated as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the umbrella body for university lecturers in the country, threatened a showdown.

ASUU said the benefit of the doubt it granted to the administration of President Bola Tinubu has been grossly abused.

Within the last two years, the nation’s university system has enjoyed relative peace with both academic and non-academic staff maintaining a fairly good relationship with the government, while expecting that the unresolved issue of failed implementation of the 2009 FGN-University-based Workers’ Unions’ Agreement would be addressed.

However, in an exclusive interview earlier today, the newly elected President of ASUU, Chris Piwuna, a Professor of Medicine and Consultant Psychiatrist at the University of Jos Teaching Hospital, Plateau State, said the waiting period is over.

According to Mr Piwuna, it has been 16 years since the union entered into an agreement with the Nigerian government on practical steps to address critical issues affecting the country’s university system, and more than seven years since the renegotiation of the same agreement started, yet without success.

“The document, which was freely signed in 2009, speaks to the issues of university autonomy, funding, academic freedom, and staff welfare, among others. But since the agreement was signed till today, what was supposed to have been implemented progressively upon expected constant renegotiation has been left to gather dust.

What we have in terms of remuneration, instead of reviewed salaries, is a wage award. Even on the wage awards of 25-35 per cent, our members are owed more than 12 months now. And when they talk about the new minimum wage, what we receive is a N40,000 increment,” he said.

The ASUU president said graduate assistants in public universities who were earning between N90,000 and N95,000 before the new minimum wage now receive between N135,000 and N160,000, while a professor at the peak of promotion goes home with less than N500,000.