Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has threatened to embark on an indefinite strike action.
The Chairperson, ASUU Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU), Prof. Chike Ugwuene who disclosed this during a press conference in Umuahia recently, added that the intransigence of the Federal Government made the strike inevitable.
He said that Federal Government is a deliberate serial defaulter in terms of honouring its agreement with ASUU about 13 years ago.
Comrade Ugwuene, who said that its almost 13 years since the government stalled the first review of the FGN- ASUU Agreement, which ought to have been reviewed every three years, has resulted to staff of Nigerian Universities earning the same salary for the past 13 years since 2009.
“The salary we earn today has been a slave wage relative to the stupendous take home salaries being paid to National Assembly members and other political office holders. The salary of a professor is currently less than $1,000 at the current exchange rate of over N500 to the dollar”, he noted.
He said the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), which is an alternative to IPPIS, developed by ASUU at great cost to the Union, which has been demonstrated and tested severally and was confirmed to address the numerous shortcomings of IPPIS has been relegated by the FG in spite of numerous audit reports indicating that FG is losing billions of Naira to IPPIS.
The ASUU MOUAU branch chairperson, who said that the University system is not a public service system, hence, the laws of the universities provide that civil service rules cannot apply to the universities, further added that universities of Agriculture are currently operating without governing councils which has adversely affected the effective administration of the universities, including the release of staff promotions.
He added that the infrastructure in the universities are in a dilapidated state, making teaching and learning difficult while students are now at the mercy of landlords for accommodation.
In his words: “The FG is in arrears of several billions of Naira in terms of the NEEDS Assessment Fund and the Earned Allowance. It is worrisome that the FG even defaulted in the release of N30 Billion EAA contained in the MoA of 2021, releasing only N20 billion”.
“A government that prides itself on its zero tolerance to corruption, has willfully refused to bring to bare, the corruption in the Universities through the release of the authentic reports of visitation to the Federal Universities and the outcome of the petitions to the FG by various branches of ASUU on the activities of the University Managers in respect of the use of various funds alloted to the Universities through NEEDS Assessment interventions and TETfunds”, he said.
Ugwuene, who said that ASUU has respected the appeals of well meaning Nigerians including the highly respected leadership of Nigerian Inter-Religion Council (NIREC), added that the benefit of doubt given to FG has lasted long enough, hence, the strike action.
Fielding questions from newsmen, the former Chairperson and zonal coordinator, ASUU, Owerri Zone, Dr Uzo Onyebinama, stated that ASUU didn’t have any issue with Non-academic staff over the earned academic allowance, which include, excess workload, responsibility allowances, among others, as the money was already allocated right from source, adding that the Non- academic staff only complained that what they got was little.
Present at the press conference include, Former National Investment Secretary of ASUU, Prof. Charles Ononuju, among others.
