The Academic Staff Union Of Universities (ASSU) has conditionally suspended the nine months strike embarked upon by the union on 23rd March, 2020.

The suspension takes effect from 12am on Thursday 24th December 2020.

Announcing the suspension of the industrial action at a Press Conference in Abuja, at the end of its emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held in the early hours of Wednesday, the President of ASSU Prof Biodun Ogunyemi said that the decision to suspend the strike came after diligent and careful appraisal of the various reports, especially the agreements reached by ASSU with the Federal Government of Nigeria on the 22nd December 2020.

He said that some of the issues in dispute like funding for revitalisation of public universities, payment of Earned Academic Allowances, salary shortfall, withheld salaries and Non-remittance of Check-off Dues etc were discussed at the stakeholders’ meeting on 22nd March 2020 and conclusion reached using the memorandum of Action MoA of 7th February, 2019 as basis.

“On our part we are going back to rekindle the motivation and aspirations in our members to strive to encourage our students to excel, in all the expectations that governments will sincerely fulfill their own part of the bargain, ” he said.

NEC resolved to accept the agreement reached between ASUU and the Federal Government on Dec. 22. To also consciously and diligently monitor the implementation of Federal Government ASUU agreements of Dec. 22, in all branches.

He also said that union expects that government and ASUU re-negotiation exercise would be concluded as specified in the timeline agreed by both parties, among others.

“However, should government fail to fulllfil its own parts of the agreement, ASUU will resume its suspended strike as deemed necessary.

“NEC also resolved to ensure that no ASUU member suffered any loss of deserved benefits as a result if participation in the strike, ” he said.

He said that NEC would pursue fervently the areas in the Federal Government-ASUU agreement of 2009 and Memorandum of Action (MoA) 2013 that require legislation.

Ogunyemi also said that ASUU expectation from both state and Federal Government is that government should faithfully implement all the agreements reached and signed with the union.

“Therefore the implementation Monitorng Committee (IMC), which had already been constituted to the satisfaction of government and ASUU, will work diligently to ensure that funds released are used to meet genuine revitalization needs of Nigerian public universities.

“This is with a strike and disciplined supervision of the implementation processes by the universitas themselves. To this end the students and their parents would see the fruits of the struggles of ASUU in their lives.

“The union expects the immediate release of EAA as agreed, the mainstreaming of EAA into annual budget using the agree formula.

“The union also expects government to immediately engage the universitas and other research centers in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

The Nigeria Labour Congress has objected the recent moves by State Governors Forum to borrow from the Pension funds.

The NLC President Comrade Ayuba Wabba made the objection in Abuja as special guest of Honor at the 47th National Executive Council meeting of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria.

Ayuba who sounded a strict warning over the moves, said that the governors are planning to reap where they did not sow, their request is dead on arrival.

The number one worker in Nigeria stated this against the backdrop of plans by the 36 state governors to approach the National Pension Commission to borrow the sum of N17trillion for infrastructural development.

According to the NLC President, its unconstitutional and unacceptable for governors to contemplate going to access money that is meant for retirement of Nigerian workers.

He said, “We are waiting for them, just imagine you have a savings account and somebody, an outsider will just come and collect money from your account, its not done anywhere, we would never accept it.

“We should be ready, whenever the leadership of NLC will call you out to protest because we will use the last blood in our veins to protest our savings”.

Recall that while the Social Economic Rights and Accountability Project SERAP had asked President Muhammadu Buhari to stop the governors from borrowing the money, the idea to approach the pension funds managers was reached at the National Economic Council meeting, where Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai serves as Adhoc Committee Chairman.

Earlier, the President of Medical and Health Workers Union, Comrade Biobelemoye Joy had called for economic restructuring, rather than dissipating energy on the amalgamation and political structuring of Nigeria.

According to MHWUN, that a hundred years after amalgamation and sixty years after independence, Nigerians are still grappling with the intricacies of how to live together, is quite a misnomer.

His words, “As a union, we believe rather than tackling settled issues, we should concern ourselves with how to come out of the structural gridlock that bad leadership has thrown the country into and instead restructure the nation’s economy so that the potentials that abound in the country could be realized and subsequently set us on a path of wealth generation and job creation.

“I therefore feel the recurring calls for restructuring should be clearly defined and aligned from a development point of view and the attendant benefits to the country.

“It should be centred around the ambition of stimulating economic activities to improve the wellbeing of Nigerians, it should also be about how to make every part of the country to get involved in productive economic activities and generate wealth to our people. It is all about equity, justice, fair and equitable dealing in marshalling out the dividends of democracy”.

The battle between the Federal government and labour over the alarming hike in Premium Motor Spirit popularly known as petrol yielded result as the Federal Government finally succumbed to the pressure from organised labour and reduced the present price of PMS with N5.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, announced this to journalists after a meeting that elapsed into the early hours of Tuesday with the leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), which held at Old Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, said the reduction would be from N168 to N162.44 per litre with effect from December 14.
The product is presently sold at N168, following the decision of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company to increase the ex-depot price of petrol from N147.67 per litre to N155.17 per litre in November.

The ex-depot price is the price at which the product is sold by the PPMC to marketers at the depots.

According to Ngige, a technical committee has been set up to ensure price stability in the industry, noting that the committee, which will report back to the larger house on January 25 will appraise the market forces and other things that would ensure stability in the industry.

“Our discussion was fruitful and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation which is the major importer and marketers of petroleum products and customers have agreed that there will be a slide down of the pump price of PMS and that the price cut will get us about N5 per litre and that the price cut will take effect from next Monday, a week today,” Ngige told journalists.

The minister explained that the price reduction was not meant to suspend deregulation because it did not affect the price of crude oil but on areas where the NNPC as the main importer had agreed that it could cut cost like freight and demurrage costs.

He argued that the reduction of new price was a product of a joint committee of NNPC and labour representatives which looked into ways of cutting costs.

The minister further said that both sides agreed to wait till the next meeting date on January 25 to enable the special committee dealing with complaints to conclude their deliberations electricity tariff.

Earlier before the meeting entered a closed-door, government officials led by Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, had hailed NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, who was absent at two previous meetings.

In his reaction, the President Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Ayuba Wabba confirmed the earlier position of the minister, saying that the agreement was reached by both parties.