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From Scholastica Hir, Makurdi
The Academic Staff Union Of Universities, Benue State University (ASUU-BSU) Makurdi, on Tuesday, staged a peaceful protest to bring to the notice of the Nigerian public, the negligence by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu led Government towards public universities.
The Union urged the federal government to desist from the deceit of promise and fail and keep faith with its promises to sign the report of its renegotiation teams.
Speaking to newsmen after the protests, the union’s Acting Chairperson, Comrade Ali Ako, called on spirited Nigerians who have the interest of public universities at heart to intervene in the situation to avert another prolonged strike action.
Recall that public universities in Nigeria have been faced with serious issues since the inception of the present government including the renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU/FGN Agreement, poor funding of the universities, breach of university autonomy, particularly by the Integrated Personal Payment Information System (IPPIS), and the concomitant issues that arose from the breach.
They have also been protesting non-payment of Earned Academic Allowance (EAA), the constitution of councils, and other emoluments and entitlements to members, especially the eight months’ salaries of their members withheld by the government on account of the 2022 strike.
Reading from a text he co-signed with the Assistant Secretary, Comrade Daniel Chile, Ako said despite the series of promises by government officials, none of the issues have been satisfactorily resolved as some have not even been touched or mentioned.
“The issue of the illegal dissolution of Governing Councils and the failure to reinstate these councils has added to the list of contentious issues in our universities. Renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, which the Federal government entered into with the union in 2009 through collective bargaining, is a major point of contention.
“The agreement was meant to be reviewed every three years. However, the agreement, which was to be reviewed in 2012, never had the opportunity to be reviewed until five years later in 2017.”
He noted that within the period of renegotiation, three different persons were appointed to preside over the negotiation process including the Pro-Chancellor, University of Lagos, Barr. Wale Babalakin, Prof. Munzali Jibril, who was the Pro-Chancellor, of Federal
University Lafia, and the late Prof. Nimi Briggs, Pro-Chancellor, of Alex Ekweme Federal University.
He stated that the Government/ASUU negotiating teams had a draft agreement ready for signing by 2019, under Professor Munzali Jibril.
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“Disappointingly, the government set aside the draft agreement reached between the Munzali Jibril-led government negotiating team and the ASUU team and instead set up a new team headed by the late Professor Nimi Briggs with the mandate to renegotiate with our Union.
“Another draft agreement was reached and ready for signing in 2021. The government
ignored the signing of this agreement that had been arrived at after painstakingly coming through a difficult process. Instead of the government being fair and recognizing the agreement reached, it decided on a wage award of 35% for the Professorial cadre and 25% for other ranks without recourse to the considerations, indices, and other
parameters which resulted in the draft documents that were agreed upon by both the Munzali-led negotiations and the Briggs-led negotiations.”
On withheld salaries of members, the Chairperson said the December 2020 MOA entered by the Government concerning payment of EAA was violated. “This was coupled with the withheld salaries of members for eight months by the past administration of Muhammadu Buhari. There has
been a total disregard for all two negotiation teams it had constituted.”
He argued that if the government had kept faith with its promises and the report of its renegotiation teams, there would have been no strike, and the issue of withheld salaries would never have arisen.
While noting that ASUU has developed trust deficit issues with the government due to its attitude of breaching agreements, the union urged the government to clear the remaining arrears as a sign of good faith and respect for industrial harmony.
The union recalled that government had assured that it had
allocated the sum of N170 billion in the budget of 2023, out of which N120 billion was for needs assessment and N50 billion was for payment of a tranche of EAA.
Ako said that 11 years later, it has not come to fruition rather the public universities have continued to grapple with total neglect, overstretched facilities, inadequate lecture rooms, and poor utilities on campuses nationwide.
“The NEEDS assessment fund has not disbursed up to half a trillion naira yet in eleven years, and it goes without saying that with the current value of the naira, even if 1.3 trillion naira is disbursed today, it will not provide what half a trillion would have provided five years back. This is the cost of procrastination, lack of political will, ineptitude and insincerity of our governments.”
Describing ASUU as a Union that has high integrity in ensuring that the University system is functional, Sule said because the Union stands for truth, justice, peace, and progress, it will not give
up on its struggle to have globally competitive universities and, by extension, a far greater Nigeria.
“The Union has totally lost hope in the current regime based on her negligence to the functioning of Nigerian universities. It shall continue to be our collective zeal to work tirelessly as a Union and ensure that our resilience remains
unwavering,” he added.
He appreciated the members of the union for remaining steadfast and availing themselves for the peaceful protest urging them not to give up until their demand to have a working university system is achieved.
While on the protest members bore placards with several inscriptions including “Pay Our Members their Withheld Salaries”, ” Enough of the Deceit by the Federal/State Government”, ” Our Salaries cannot take us Home”, “We say No to IPPS/New IPPS, Adopt UTAS as our Payment Platform”, among others.
