The Federal Government may explore out-of-court settlement to resolve the lingering dispute with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) despite the National Industrial Court fixing 19 September for ruling on the matter.
This is as President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday promised to engage in further consultations with relevant stakeholders towards ending the seven-month-old action.
The President told a delegation of pro-chancellors of federal universities, led by Prof. Nimi Briggs, that, without necessarily going back on the already established policy, he would make continued the consultations and revert to them.
Prof Briggs said the team met with the President in three capacities: “As president and commander-in-chief, as father of the nation, and as visitor to the federal universities”.
According to a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, the President told the chairman and some pro-chancellors of federal universities at the State House in Abuja, “I will make further consultations and I’ll get back to you”.
ASUU embarked on the industrial action on 14 February demanding government’s implementation of the Memorandum of Action on funding for revitalisation of public universities, which was signed in December 2020.
Other are Earned Academic Allowances, renegotiation of the 2009 agreement and the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) for staff payment, among others.
In a bid to resolve the strike and other contentious issues, the government had raised a panel led by Prof. Nimi Briggs to head the government’s negotiations team.
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu recently told State House correspondents that government’s refusal to agree to pay the lecturers’ salaries for the six months they had spent at home was stalling the strike.
But the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige dragged the striking university lecturers to court, asking that the suit be given an accelerated hearing in order to resolve the dispute between the union and the government.
He asked the court to interpret in its entirety the provisions of Section 18 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, especially as it applies to the cessation of strike action once a trade dispute is being resolved.
Meanwhile, a source in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment told Saturday PUNCH that the government might consider an out-of-court settlement if the lecturers call off their strike and return to work.
The source said that the ASUU was were dragged to court because of its failure to return to work despite the efforts made by the government.
The source said: “We may consider an out-of-court settlement if they agree to return to work. The reason we dragged them to court initially was because they refused our pleas to return to work. We met with them several times and made moves for reconciliation but they refused. The reason for going to court is for the court to compel them to go back to work. If they agree to resume, there is no need going ahead with the suit”.
At the resumed sitting of the Federal Government’s suit on Friday, its counsel, Mr James Igwe asked the court to give the case an accelerated hearing due to the urgency of the matter to enable the students to return to school.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria requested the court to direct ASUU to resume work pending the determination of the suit. He told the court that since the matter was already in court, it would be proper for the industrial action to be called off pending the determination of the suit.
But ASUU counsel, Mr Femi Falana opposed the request, stating that it would amount to determining the substantive suit.
Falana, also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, argued that the matter was adjourned to that day for further mention and not for hearing. He said he had been served with the Federal Government’s motion for interlocutory injunction.
The judge said it was the issue for determination and therefore could not be resolved before hearing.
Meanwhile, the application brought by the Socio-Economic Rights And Accountability Project (SERAP) seeking to be joined in the suit was not heard as the counsel filed another application which was only served on the parties on Thursday.
SERAP’s lawyer prayed the court to withdraw the earlier application and substitute the same with the current one. The court subsequently struck out the earlier application.
The lawyer also argued that for the sake of justice, his application should be heard before entertaining other matters related to the suit.
On his part, Falana agreed that in the interest of justice and clarity, it would be proper to hear the application brought by SERAP pertaining to the same matter before the determination of other issues.
He added that ASUU was currently meeting with stakeholders to ensure that the lingering crisis was resolved. He appealed to the Federal Government to cooperate with the union to resolve the issue.
In response, counsel for the Federal Government contended that SERAP’s application was not ripe for hearing because he had not been served with the relevant papers.
Justice Polycarp Hamman subsequently adjourned the suit to 19 September for hearing. He ruled that SERAP’s application was not ripe for hearing since it was only served on parties on Thursday through the Federal Ministry of Justice.
At the meeting with President Buhari on Friday, Prof. Briggs made reference to the recent listing of the University of Ibadan among the first 1,000 universities in the world, noting that “the future of the university system in the country is good”, despite the seven-month industrial action.
Briggs commended the Federal Government for concessions already made to the striking lecturers, including the offer to raise lecturers’ salaries by 23.5 per cent, and 35 per cent increase for professors.
He, however, asked for “further inching up of the salary, in view of the economic situation of the country”.
The pro-chancellors also asked that the “No-Work, No-Pay” stance of government should be reviewed, as he promised that lecturers would make up for time lost as soon as an amicable situation was reached, and schools reopened.
The Minister of State for Education, Mr Goodluck Opiah said all the concessions made by the Federal Government were to ensure that the industrial action came to an end, but that ASUU had remained adamant.
