Professor Christopher Piwuna is the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). He speaks in this interview with TUNBOSUN OGUNDARE on a wide range of issues, including ASUU’s position on delayed salaries, Federal Government’s unsigned agreements with other workers’ unions, alleged reckless spending by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), solar power projects on campuses, the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), as well as proliferation of centres of excellence in universities, among others.
What is the update on the implementation of your newly signed agreement with the federal government?
Concerning the new agreement, the intention of government is clear; it is to implement it in full. But I want to believe there are practical difficulties at the moment. One is that the 2026 budget has not been passed, let alone becoming law. It is until that is done that the new salary structures will be fully implemented. And so what we have now in terms of payment of salaries for January and February were the efforts of vice chancellors to ensure that the agreement is implemented. In January, some universities were paid in full. When I said ‘in full’ it means that what they paid reflected what we agreed on in the new agreement, while other universities couldn’t meet up with full payment. Even for February, I don’t know of any university, as we are speaking, that has paid its workers. Another difficulty is the issue concerning special allowance for lecturers in the medical field. Some universities have paid while some others are yet to pay. We believe that going forward, there will be clarity on the part of government as to how these payments will be made. I’m aware that the Ministry of Education is trying to clarify all of these things with the Salaries and Wages Commission to ensure that everybody gets paid. Also, some vice chancellors are wondering whether they can pay our members on sabbaticals. But our understanding is that if you are on sabbatical, you get full payment. And so we do not expect that anybody on sabbatical will be denied any aspect of this agreement. We are also aware that state universities have not started implementing this agreement with their lecturers. We have officially communicated to their visitors, who are state governors, on the need to prevent a situation where arrears will accumulate and will become another agitation by our members. We should know that ASUU agreements cover all members across both federal and state-owned universities nationwide. So, we don’t want any university to be left behind in this new agreement.
That is on the issue of our salaries. There are other issues in the agreement that have also not been attended to. Number one is research funding. We agreed with the government that the Research Council would address this concern with the contribution of one per cent (1%) of GDP to the Council. We intend to follow up on that with the Minister of Education. We are aware that the Office of the Vice-President is the one coordinating research and we have reached out to the Vice-President [Kashim Shettima] to ensure that aspect is not lost. So far, the Minister of Education told us that he was preparing for the Federal Executive Council to consolidate that aspect of research. Basically, for now, that is where we are. And our appeal to members whether at the federal or state universities is to exercise more patience over the delay in payment of salaries. We appreciate what some vice chancellors are doing and we want them not to relent. Our understanding is that the 2026 budget will be signed into law this month, which we are all looking forward to. Lastly, there are some pending aspects of our agitations. One is our withheld three and a half months’ salaries. When this government came on board, part of the money was paid, and we want to appeal to President Bola Tinubu again to look at this aspect passionately and show magnanimity as he demonstrated when he came into office and ensure that the remaining three and a half months’ salaries are released to our members.
Another aspect of our issues is the 25–35 per cent salary award increase which the Minister has promised would be included in the 2026 budget along with the promotional arrears. These items also mean a lot to our members. We are confident that once the budget is passed, these issues will be addressed without engaging government in a manner that will disrupt the stability that we have achieved in the system. ASUU is happy that we are marching towards stability. Our students are happy, parents are happy and Nigerians generally are also happy that we have been able to settle into this possibility of achieving academic stability. And as a union, we do not think that anything should come in the way.
If you claimed that some vice chancellors were the ones who raised money on their own to pay their workers for January while some others couldn’t, where do you think those who paid got their money from?
They are the ones that can best answer that question. But what I know is that not all universities have the same sources of funding. Where University A, for example, has something to do with the payment, University B may not have it. We can only encourage them to continue doing what is right. Those other universities should also try and do the same. And that is why ASUU as a union will continue to appeal to our members to exercise more patience till the budget is passed. That is when we will know the true position.
On the issue of your withheld three and a half months’ salaries you mentioned earlier, some people believe ASUU should forget the money, that you didn’t actually work to justify payment. How do you react to that?
That belief, if there is any like that, doesn’t hold water. ASUU has said it repeatedly that members did all the work required of them after calling off the strike. We have said this many times and I’m saying it again that our members did the work we needed to do during the strike. That is why students could graduate and those who were still in school could move to the next class. We did all our lectures, exams and other activities required of us.
So, we don’t have any outstanding lectures or exams to give our students based on our 2022 industrial action. What we expect is that we will be rewarded for doing our work. Workers deserve their wages. So, we can’t forget our salaries, no matter the length of time. No one has ever forgone salary in Nigeria and ASUU won’t be the first. So, we can’t imagine why anybody could be thinking that ASUU should forget the withheld salaries. But having said that, it is an appeal we are making to Mr President to order the release of our withheld salaries. We don’t want anything that will disrupt our academic activities again. The system is operating well, and we should not go in the way of instability. It is not that we have no right to take drastic measures to demand our entitlements, but we are not getting to that level yet and we don’t want to get there.
We learnt that the 40 per cent salary increment in your new agreement is not on salary per se but on what is called Consolidated Academic Teachers’ Allowance (CATA). What do you say on this?
Honestly, we don’t like to go into the specifics of our agreement with anyone, more so that the agreement is a public document. So, anybody that wants to understand what the 40 per cent is should look for the agreement to study. It is clear there.
But what does it mean to ASUU that other workers’ unions, such as the Senior Staff Union and the Non-Academic Staff Union, have yet to conclude their negotiation with the federal government, let alone sign a new agreement?
ASUU has repeatedly called on the federal government to quickly wrap up the negotiations with other unions — SSANU, NASU and NAAT. We want to see that done as soon as possible. We are not happy that things are still at this stage with them. We are in the same system and so the delay of one may slow down the flow of work in the entire system. So, government should conclude their own agreements without further delay. Though the Minister of Education has recently harmonised the negotiation team to make the process faster, we expect this to be translated into reality. We want their members to start getting what they are entitled to.
Recently, the National Universities Commission introduced a new guideline to prevent indiscriminate award of honorary doctoral degrees to individuals by various universities; how did ASUU receive the news?
What NUC has just done is in line with our long-time demand, that universities should stop bastardising honorary doctorate awards. There are guidelines and specific declarations as to how these awards should be given out. Part of these is that those who are still in government or holding political positions should not be given honorary awards. That is one. We also talk about the integrity of award recipients. We observed that most of them are constantly being called to question. If the universities cannot stand to ensure they give awards to only people who sincerely deserve it, it means they are failing in their responsibilities. The Senate of each individual university should stand up because nobody will be awarded these honorary degrees without passing through the Senate for endorsement. We cannot sit in ivory towers and be doing what is wrong. Our lives and actions must be a good example to the larger society. That is why we cannot afford to encourage this wanton bastardisation of awards of honorary doctorate degrees. And so, we stand shoulder to shoulder with NUC in ensuring that sanity is brought back as regards this matter in our system.
Sometime last year, the issue of forceful connection of some universities by power-generating companies to “Band A” tariff circle caused a lot of uproar because of the associated high tariff and government then promised to address the issue by providing independent solar power technology to some of these universities. What is the current situation like on this concern across campuses?
This promise is gradually turning into a scam. This is because we can’t see the project anywhere across our campuses. At least, eight universities were chosen across the country for this solarisation of power to our institutions. We also demand accountability in the contracts to be awarded. We haven’t seen anything on the ground as regards that. And if there is any but we are the ones who are not seeing it, those who are seeing it should come to show it to us. But as it is now, it appears as if it is a job for the boys. For us, we have not seen anything in that regard and we want to see it. So, if they are doing it, it will certainly show. Where are the projects located in the eight chosen universities? It is now about a year and we are not seeing anything. And we don’t expect that government is just saying something without the intention to carry it out. Government must be able to walk the talk by backing its promise with action. So, let them show to us that those contracts have not only been awarded but executed. That is one. We have also observed in the last few days that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) has been throwing money at the centres of excellence for AI and computing. There are over 30 centres of excellence already on the ground on our campuses across the country being funded by TETFUND. Our simple questions to government and TETFUND are: where are those existing centres of excellence? What are they doing? What is their standing? What have they achieved? They should answer these questions first rather than splashing money again on another round of centres of excellence. What we are saying is that they should ensure that the existing ones are working well rather than proliferating them.
ASUU, for decades, fought government over proliferation of universities. The argument is that establishing new universities without taking care of the existing ones is absolutely unnecessary. Now that they said they have stopped establishing new universities, TETFUND is now proliferating centres of excellence. It appears TETFUND has too much money to throw around. We just want TETFUND to go back to the basics and assess the impact of the existing centres of excellence on society. We should not be deceiving ourselves again as a country. If they are placing a moratorium on the establishment of new universities, they should equally place a moratorium on the centres of excellence until they know what is happening with the existing ones.
How will you now explain the N48 billion that the Federal Government recently directed TETFUND to give to 12 universities on equal basis to develop their engineering and technology education?
That is the same explanation I just made. That we already have over 30 centres of excellence across the country and we need to know what is happening to them. What are their impacts? Are they really achieving their visions, goals or not? What are their challenges and how can they be tackled? That is what TETFUND should be doing, not behaving like a drunken sailor as if it has money for everything under the earth. TETFUND should rather look into the existing centres of excellence and see what they can do to thrive and not by establishing new ones.
You once accused the Federal Government of deliberately impoverishing Nigerian lecturers to kill public universities; what is now your current position about this narrative?
Yes, it was true and that was when government refused to honour simple agreement. Now with the signing of the new agreement, we expect things to change positively. So, it is left for government to do what is right. And, therefore, that position can only be tested when our new agreement is fully implemented.
When the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) was to be established by this government, ASUU totally opposed its birth, saying it would not work. What is your position now about the Fund?
On the issue of NELFUND, we have made our position clear, which is still the same. So, we don’t want to continue to belabour the issue. We are not part of NELFUND, and we don’t know what is going on there. But if government believes NELFUND is doing well, we wish them well. We want our students to be happy. But we don’t know what is going on in NELFUND and so we don’t have further comment on NELFUND.
But some believe that the current government might have warned various workers’ unions, including ASUU, against speaking to the media on issues causing frictions between them. Is that how the situation is?
Which government will gag us and for what? The military did not gag our leaders. So, is it now a civilian government that will gag us? It is absolutely impossible. We will always talk when it is necessary. Our role is to ensure that we advance education in the country. And whichever way we think that can be done, we will do it. We want the autonomy of our institutions to be respected. And if government violates it, we will talk about it. If our academic freedom is trampled upon, we will talk and if the interests of our members are jeopardised, we will also talk and, likewise, on any other issue that we are not comfortable with. So, nobody can gag ASUU.
Yes, we will continue to pursue peace and allow our system to run smoothly. ASUU has never for one day fought an unjust cause. So, for me, nobody has ever told me not to talk to the Press, and nobody can tell me that and I will listen. I think such a view is just a figment of the imagination of some people that has no bearing on what is on the ground. ASUU will continue to fight for justice and fairness in our system. Education is not something to toy with by any government.
Credit: Tribuneonline
