ASUU Urges Tinubu to Implement Agreements to Avoid Strike
The union urged the President Tinubu-led administration to immediately set in motion the process of upward-reviewing and signing of the Nimi Briggs Committee’s renegotiated draft agreement as a mark of goodwill and to forestall industrial crisis and restore hope for Nigeria’s public universities.
AKACHI NOEL 
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Kano zone has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to faithfully implement the content of the agreement it freely signed with the union, describing it as the only way to avoid a strike.
Comrade Abdulqadir Muhammad, the zonal coordinator of ASUU Kano Zone, made the call during an emergency press conference held at the end of a zonal meeting comprising the seven universities in the zone in Kano.
Issues discussed during the meeting included the renegotiation of the Federal Government – ASUU 2009 agreement, which was reached when the exchange rate to the Dollar was N146.7 and has currently risen to N1,900 per Dollar, resulting in a 90 percent erosion of their salaries.
The union urged the President Tinubu-led administration to immediately set in motion the process of upward-reviewing and signing of the Nimi Briggs Committee’s renegotiated draft agreement as a mark of goodwill and to forestall industrial crisis and restore hope for Nigeria’s public universities.
Furthermore, ASUU confirmed that its members have started receiving partial payments of their seven and half months withheld salaries, but called on the government to pay the remaining balance.Additionally, the Kano zone called on the Kaduna State government to immediately and unconditionally pay the five-month, May – September 2022, withheld salaries of Kaduna State University.
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The union also condemned the dissolution of the governing councils of public universities, describing it as a contravention of the Universities Miscellaneous Acts and respective university laws.
ASUU called on the government to be paying Earned Academic Allowances and promotion arrears which it had abandoned after agreement, and urgently review the Nigeria Universities Commission (NUC) Act to check proliferation of universities in the country without adequate provision for funding.
Concerns were also raised about the state of the nation, including insecurity, worsening poverty, unemployment, rising cost of living, livelihood displacement, and heightened destitution.
