The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Nigerian government have reached an interim agreement on the ongoing renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt. The agreement could bring an end to an over a decade-long impasse.
The initial agreement, first signed 16 years ago, has been the primary source of conflict between the duo.
The renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, which was intended to occur every few years, has not been successful for nearly a decade.
The agreement contains the academics’ conditions of service, funding and autonomy for the universities.
Although none of the parties has made an official announcement, a source within ASUU’s National Executive Council (NEC) told our reporter on Wednesday that the agreement has been signed and implementation is set to begin in January.
The spokesperson for the education ministry, Folasade Boriowo, couldn’t be reached as a phone call and messages to her line went unanswered.
The ASUU President, Christopher Piwuna, a professor has also yet to respond to our text and a phone call.
Agreement reached
The agreement included a 40 per cent salary increase for the academics and the establishment of a National Research Council (NRC) with statutory funding of at least one per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Professors are now to earn a pension equivalent to their annual salary at retirement at the age of 70, according to the agreements reached.
The agreement also captured the government’s commitment to more substantial university autonomy and academic freedom, better funding for universities with allocations for research, libraries, laboratories, equipment, and staff development.
Long walk to agreement
This agreement was finally reached after the sixth renegotiation committee, set up in October, completed the harmonisation of the negotiations.
The committee, known as the Federal Government Tertiary Institutions Expanded Negotiation Committee, was led by the Pro-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Yayale Ahmed.
The committee was set up shortly after ASUU embarked on a two-week warning strike to protest the government’s failure to sign or implement the agreement.
The union accused the government of routinely constituting renegotiation committees only to fail to sign or implement the draft of the said committee.
Before this new committee, Mr Ahmed headed the renegotiation committee inaugurated by the government in October 2024 to renegotiate the 2009 agreement with ASUU.
In August, Education Minister Tunji Alausa inaugurated a committee headed by the ministry’s permanent secretary, Abel Enitan, to review the draft agreement between ASUU and the Yayale Ahmed renegotiation committee, which was submitted in February.
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Before Mr Ahmed, the late Nimi Briggs, an emeritus professor, led the renegotiation committee in 2022 and produced a draft that the government never signed or implemented.
Before Mr Briggs, it was Munzali Jibrin’s committee of 2021, which also produced a draft that was never signed.
Before them was Wale Babalakin, who headed the committee from 2017 to 2020 when he resigned.
