The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has denied saying that there was no signed agreement between the Nigerian government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
A statement by the Director of Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Education, stated that the last signed agreement was in 2009.
The ministry, in the statement, urged “the public and all stakeholders to disregard any misinterpretations and to note that the Federal Government’s commitment to resolving issues with ASUU remains firm under the Renewed Hope Agenda.”
“For the avoidance of doubt, the FGN-ASUU Agreement was last signed in 2009. That agreement remains the most recent signed and binding agreement between the Federal Government and ASUU,” it said.
“Subsequently, in 2017, the then Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, inaugurated a renegotiation committee to review the 2009 agreement. The outcome of that process was the draft Nimi Briggs Agreement produced in May 2021,” the statement further read.
It added that “it is important to stress that this 2021 draft agreement was not signed by the Federal Government.”
“When the Minister said that there had been ‘no new signed agreement’ with ASUU, he was referring specifically to the 2021 draft Nimi Briggs document, which has not been formally executed,” the statement further read.
The ministry reaffirmed that “the 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement remains the last formally signed agreement. The 2021 Nimi Briggs draft agreement was not signed but serves as the latest framework for discussions.”
It also stressed that the “Federal Government remains committed to ending the 16-year stalemate with ASUU in a sustainable and constitutionally backed manner, ensuring our universities remain open for teaching and research.”
On Thursday, the Federal Government was quoted as saying that the referenced documents were merely proposals.
Alausa was quoted as making this clarification while addressing journalists in Abuja.
According to reports, he stated that both the 2009 and 2011 documents often cited by ASUU as binding agreements were never signed, but rather proposals presented during negotiations.
“The documents ASUU has been referring to as agreements were just proposals that were never signed,” Alausa stated.
However, on Thursday, the President of ASUU, Professor Chris Piwuna, maintained that the union signed an agreement with the Nigerian government and dismissed suggestions to the contrary.
Piwuna made the clarification during an interview on AriseTV.
“We had an agreement with the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua regime in 2009. It was during his regime that the agreement was signed. It was signed with our President, then, Professor (Aloysius) Awuzie; we had an agreement,” he said.
“Since then, that agreement has not been properly renegotiated, with the process coming to an end,” he added.
The ASUU leader explained that efforts had been made over the years to revisit the 2009 agreement.
“When I say it has not come to an end, we had meetings on that agreement with Babalakin (SAN) in 2017, we couldn’t conclude with him. We had another round of negotiations with Professor Musa Ali Jubril that was concluded within the collective bargaining team.”
“We had another one with Professor Nimi Briggs of blessed memory, that was also concluded. Between us, we had agreements, draft agreements.”
Responding to claims by the Minister of Education that no agreement was signed, Piwuna said, “If the minister is referring to the documents we had with Musa Ali Jubril, Nimi Briggs, and now with Yahaya, yes, those documents are not signed, but it would be incorrect to say we never had any agreement with the government.
“Indeed, the minister himself agreed with us on the 11th of August, this month, that the agreement between us and the government in 2009 was a very long time ago. Even, he agreed that we had that agreement,” he said.
The lecturers’ union has threatened to go on strike if its demands are not met.
