THE RECURRING ISSUES FACING THE UNION

• THE REVISED CONDITIONS OF SERVICE FOR FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES, INSTITUTES AND COLLEGES (COS 2019) AND SCHEMES OF SERVICE (SOS)

Negotiations with the Federal Government, as represented by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), for the revision of the Conditions of Service (COS) took 15 years – from 2004 through 2019. When eventually it was approved on 7^th November 2020, to take effect retroactively from January 2019, the document was not transmitted by OHCSF to the relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), thus prompting the strike action which the Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions (ASURI) commenced on Monday, 21^st December 2020.

In apprehending the strike, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment called a roundtable of all the stakeholders, incorporating the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), OHCSF, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, National Wages, Incomes and Salaries Commission (NWISC), all the Ministries supervising Research Institutes, Colleges and Colleges, the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), as well as representatives of security agencies.

In the early stages of the negotiations in April 2021, the Federal Government directed OHSCF to transmit the Conditions of Service for Research and Development Agencies, Institutes and Colleges (COS 2019) which it approved since November 2019 to the relevant MDAs but the document is trapped within bureaucratic cobweb.

It is unimaginable and a most distressing irony that current officials of the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) are now surreptitiously asserting that the extant COS and SOS approved in 2004 by the HCSF is a forgery. This evidently is a ploy by these officials to frustrate the approval of the revised COS and SOS thereby continuing to throw the R&D sector into stagnation. With such flagrant insensitivity and uncertainty, it is no surprise then that there is continual brain drain from research institutes to universities and other better paying organizations the moment researchers get their PhDs.

• ESTABLISHMENT ACTS FOR R&D INSTITUTIONS THAT HAVE NONE

It is an embarrassment that a nation that is hungry for development will establish institutions and leave them without establishment Acts for decades. All supervisory ministries of such institutions should be held accountable for this lacuna that makes our nation the object of mockery in the comity of developing nations. 

• THE AWKWARD  DISPARITY IN THE RETIREMENT AGE OF CHIEF RESEARCH FELLOWS, RESEARCH DIRECTORS/RESEARCH PROFESSORS IN THE R&D SECTOR AND UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS

Research Directors retire at 65 years while their counterparts in the universities, Research Professors retire at 70 years. This is a breach of extant government policy. The result is research staff instability, confusion and anarchy because most researchers, who usually have more research publications than their counterparts in the universities, exit the institutes for the universities by the time they are in their 50s to continue as University Professors and retire at 70 years.

While a strike embarked upon by the Union was still in progress, ASURI, through a letter of 8 March 2021, titled “NOTICE OF NATIONWIDE PICKETING OF RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS AND SUPERVISING MINISTRIES AND RALLIES TO ADVOCATE THE UNENDING NEGLECT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTIONS BY GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONARIES,” and addressed to the Federal Government, notably the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), the Chief of Staff to the President, Hon. Minister, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment (FMLE), the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HCSF), as well as Chief Executives of Research Institutes and the security agencies, served a notice of more stringent industrial action to back up its demands. To apprehend this, FMLE called a roundtable of stakeholders, including the Union.

The first sitting of the roundtable came up on Thursday 22^nd April 2021 in the Office of the Permanent Secretary, FMLE, with representatives from the Office of the SGF, Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Federal Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development; Science and Technology; Education; Environment; Finance, Budget and National Planning; as well as Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), National Wages, Incomes and Salaries Commission (NWISC) and the Department of State Services.

The main issues for deliberation, as listed on the agenda, were the issues of concern to the Union as contained in its letter, viz:

1. Refusal of Supervising Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to direct Chief Executives of Research Institutions to Implement the Conditions of Service (COS) of Federal Research Institutions that was approved by the Head of Service of the Federation (HCSF) since 2019;
2. Refusal of MDAs to Facilitate the Payment of Arrears of 53% on CONRAISS Despite the Agreement Between JORAISU and Federal Government since 7^th March 2018;
3. Refusal by the Relevant Government Agencies to Facilitate the Retirement Age of Staff in Research Institutions to 65 Years; and
4. The Alleged Sabotage by Government Functionaries in the Establishment of National Research and Innovation Council (NRIC) at the 8^th National Assembly.

• THE NON-PROVISION OF BUDGET LINE FOR RESEARCH IN THE APPROVED BUDGET OF R&D INSTITUTIONS IN NIGERIA:

The fact that there is no budget line for Research and Development in the budget of R&D Institutions is an indication that government functionaries do not appreciate that no country develops without R&D. There are budget lines for capital, personnel emolument etc but not research. Research managers are usually handicapped and cannot easily veer votes.  Since research depends on the crumbs, researchers are left with no choice than to fund their research projects from their meagre salary.

ASURI continues to demand therefore that FMSTI should insist that the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) request the adjustment of budget template to create a budget line for research in Research Institutes.

• THE NON-ENACTMENT OF THE NATIONAL RESEARCH AND INNOVATION COUNCIL ACT

Knowing fully well that no nation develops by funding research solely through budgetary allocations, the authors of the National Policy on Science, Technology and Innovation 2012 appropriately made provision for the establishment of the National Research and Innovation Council (NRIC) in Section 4, “FUNDING FOR ST & I ACTIVITIES.” It was welcome development therefore when former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan on February 18, 2014, inaugurated the NRIC barely 15 months to the end of his tenure. Taking it up from there, President Muhammadu Buhari re-inaugurated the Council, of which he is Chairman, on January 7, 2016, barely six months into his administration, expressing the hope that through appropriate funding of research as envisaged by the NRIC dream, the nation would start producing Nobel Laureates. He went ahead to preside over no fewer than three meetings of the Council.  

Yet, without an Establishment Act, the NRIC still lacked legal muscle. So it was heart-warming when, during the Eighth Assembly, a private member’s Bill to establish the National Research and Innovation Council and Foundation was initiated at the National Assembly. Introduced by Senator David Umaru of Niger East Senatorial District, the Bill was co-sponsored by 50 other Senators and passed on January 31, 2018. The NRIC Bill was transmitted to the Villa for Presidential consent on August 2, 2018, but was returned on 30^th August 2018 by Mr. President, citing some grey areas. The Bill was rectified by the National Assembly and re-transmitted to the Villa on 17^th June 2019.  However, the Bill was still denied Presidential assent, this time without any official explanation either directly by Mr. President as he did the first time or through any of his aides. 

ASURI believes very strongly that as important as NRIC is not only for the Research and Development Institutes (RDIs) sector but also for the country as a whole and in spite of the optimism of Mr. President in its capacity to turn things around, some of his aides in the bureaucracy are up in arms against its establishment for reasons best known to them.  

6.       NON-PAYMENT OF TWELVE MONTHS ARREARS ON 53.7% INCREASE ON           CONRAISS.

The matter of payment of the twelve months arrears has been lingering since 2009. It has resulted in several strike actions by ASURI and the other unions in the Research Institutes sector. Several meetings have been held over the years and agreements reached without yielding the desired results. It is a pointer to the culture of relegating the research sector in the polity.