The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said it would not rule out a strike action in its ongoing bid to get the Federal Government to implement the agreement it reached with the university academic staff body in 2009.

ASUU President, Prof Chris Piwuna, said in an interview with The PUNCH that strike is a universal tool recognised by labour movements all over the world, but whether ASUU would use that tool or not depends on what action the government decides to take.

This is coming barely a week after Piwuna disclosed that nine critical issues in the 2009 FG/ASUU agreement remain unresolved, including the stalled renegotiation process since 2017, warning the Federal Government to honour the agreement or face a nationwide industrial action.

Speaking in the interview published in The PUNCH on Sunday, Piwuna lamented that the issues surrounding the welfare of ASUU members remain unaddressed. He said apart from the committee that was set up, the 2009 FG/ASUU agreement has not been considered by the government, and nothing has been done on it since the advent of the President Bola Tinubu administration.

“We are still on the 2009 agreement matter, and this is one of the key things that we believe will reverse the deteriorating state of affairs in our universities, particularly the welfare of our members,” Piwuna said.

“We are talking about an agreement that was supposed to have been signed in 2009 and reviewed in 2012, but nothing has been done on it to date.”

The ASUU President said the 2009 agreement was supposed to address the issues of universities and the welfare of their staff, but the government had refused to review the document before now, and would now need much more effort to solve the problem.

“They would have been reducing these challenges over time. But you are making a leap from 2009 to 2025, and of course, it is heavy – but they pushed themselves to this point. The person who wears the crown now is President Bola Tinubu, so he has to look at how to address the issues,” he said.

Asked whether ASUU would make good its threat to go on strike over the government’s failure to implement the 2009 agreement, Piwuna said it was not ruling out strike.

“Strike is universal, not an ASUU tool. It is not a tool devised by the Nigeria Labour Congress. It is universal and recognised by all labour movements that you can think of around the world. So, we cannot take strike off the table. But what we are saying is: do we have to use it? The answer to that question depends on whether the government sits down to look at the issues with us and resolve them,” Piwuna said.

“We have been attempting to resolve these issues for so long, but Nigerians don’t listen to us, and governments do not understand us. All they understand is ‘ASUU is on strike’. But we are drawing attention to the issues now. The 2009 agreement addresses the issue of funding, remuneration for university staff, governance, and several others.

“Look at our universities; are you happy with the level of governance in our institutions? Governing councils are removed and replaced at any time. The chairman of the council in one university is transferred to another university, as if we are in a barrack and a commanding officer is moving from one battalion to another. No consistency! We need to look at these things, and we are ready to talk with the government. We don’t like this attitude of pushing us to strike. We have had enough of it. So, we want to sit down and, in a very substantial and futuristic manner, address the issues that we have raised,” he said.

Piwuna said President Tinubu in his manifesto on education promised to take Nigeria to the top of the economies of the world, and the document acknowledged that education was key to achieving that dream.

“And yet, what we have are spoken responses to our demands. What we have are short-term, immediate policies that will not solve the problems in any substantial manner.

“For instance, if you want research that is creative and innovative, it would outlive two regimes of any government; that is 16 years. Countries that have impacted this world invest heavily in education and research, so that whatever outcome of the research can benefit and bring development to the country. That is not what we have.

“I think if the government wants to sit back and look at the last two years, they would realise that the only thing they have achieved in education is the NELFUND, which we have a problem with. That is something they said they wanted to do, and that is what they have done,” he said.