ASUU & FG's 2009 Agreement

On the first day of July this year, the
Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU,
began an indefinite strike that has lasted till
date and may run deep into the future.
According to the union, the strike followed
government’s inability to keep to an October
2009 agreement reached by both parties.
The agreement was reached after two years of
negotiation between the lecturers and a
government team appointed by the then
Education Minister, Obiageli Ezekwesili.
The Government team was led by the then
Pro-chancellor, University of Ibadan, Gamaliel
Onosode while ASUU’s team was led by its
then president, Abdullahi Sule-Kano.
The agreement reached at the negotiations
included conditions of service for university
lecturers, funding of universities, university
autonomy and academic freedom, and issues
that required legislation to implement.
Details of that agreement were held as
confidential by both ASUU and the
government, leaving the public to feed on
crumbs of information thrown out at
negotiation meetings between the two parties.
PREMIUM TIMES has now obtained a copy of
the agreement and is now making it available
for public viewing.
Click here to download
The agreement
The agreement included details such as the
breakdown of lecturers’ salary structure, staff
loans, pension, overtime, and moderation of
examinations.
Part of the agreement dwelt on funding of
universities where both parties agreed that
each federal university should get at least
N1.5 trillion between 2009 and 2011 while
state universities, within the same period,
should receive N3.6 million per student.
The agreement also had parts that asked the
re-negotiation committee to ensure that at
least 26 percent of Nigeria’s annual budget
was allocated to education, and half of that
allocation to universities.
The agreement also asked that the 2004 Joint
Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB,
Act, and the National University Commission
Act 2004, be amended.
Text of the suggested amendment bills –
including suggestion for amendment of the
Education (National Minimum Standards and
Establishment of Institutions) Act 2004 – were
provided in the agreements.
The agreement was signed by Bolanle
Babalakin, the then chairman of Committee of
Pro-Chancellors of Federal Universities;
Gamaliel Onosode, chairman of the re-
negotiation committee; and Ukachukwu
Awuzei, the then president of ASUU.
The agreement demanded a heavy financial
commitment from the government and was an
adaptation of an earlier agreement reached in
2001.
It is unclear how much of the agreement have
been implemented by the government.
However, the secretary to the federation, Pius
Anyim, after one of the recent failed
negotiations, said that most of the issues
contained in the 2009 agreement, had been
fully met except for the earned allowances
estimated at N92 billion.
“Some of the issues which bothered on
amendment of pensionable retirement age of
academics in the professorial cadre,
consolidated peculiar allowances (CONPUAA)-
exclusively for university teaching staff,
National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS),
setting up of budget monitoring committee in
all public universities have been fully
implemented,” he disclosed.
ASUU Chairman, Nasir Fagge, could not be
reached to confirm how much of the
agreement have been implemented.


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download-ASUU-federal-government-2009-
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