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From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
The Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) released by the Federal Government for the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has widened the gulf between the union and the Congress of University Academics (CONUA) at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State.
ASUU insisted that the allowance belonged to its members, having fought for it alone. But CONUA maintained that the money was meant for every academic. It declared that the plan to exclude its members from it would be resisted.
Moreover, the refusal of the vice-chancellor of OAU, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede, to release the allowance infuriated ASUU. The union declared an indefinite strike on January 31, 2022, saying action would continue until the OAU management agreed to pay the allowance.
CONUA immediately distanced itself from the ASUU strike and promised to attend classes. This got the support of the management of the institution, which immediately issued a statement, saying lectures would continue in OAU. The public relations officer, Mr. Abiodun Olarewaju, said: “The university management is using this medium to inform the general public, particularly our students, their parents or guardians, that the overwhelming majority of the academic staff in OAU are not on strike neither do they have the intention of going on any strike. In actual fact, lectures are ongoing and students are being attended to by lecturers in their respective departments.”
However, investigation showed that the ASUU strike paralysed academic activities on the campus. Students were seen playing table tennis during the time they ought to be in class. CONUA members who did not join the strike could not cover the gaps. A student of English Department, Faculty of Arts, told The Education Report that ASUU members formed most of their lecturers, hence, they were not receiving lectures.
Another student said members of CONUA that promised to be teaching them could not handle the classes without the support of ASUU members. She lamented that the strike affected many things in her life, as she could not think of any other thing despite going to 30 years.
A visit to some departments showed that some lecture rooms were deserted. In the Faculty of Education, students in some departments were receiving lectures while others were not. Students said lectures were not regular because ASUU formed the larger percentage of their lecturers and they were not attending classes.
Chairman, ASUU, OAU branch, Dr. Adeola Egbedokun, said: “I say it to the whole world, no lecture is going on the campus of OAU. Whatever information the university is feeding the public is all lies and they are deceiving parents.
“Let me categorically say that we haven’t seen anything. It is just the beginning of the strike. To us, the VC has declared a war and we are going to give it to him and march up with him. We have just begun the strike.
“Our VC has refused to listen to what ASUU said he should do regarding the payment and the disbursement of our EAA. This money was disbursed around December 11, 2021. Many of the universities, even 98 percent, paid before the end of 2021. It is only OAU that spilled up till now.
“The only reason is that our VC is a member of CONUA. Each time we had a meeting with the VC, he would be telling us CONUA could not do this and that, as if CONUA is a gene. We fought for this money and we should decide how the money would be disbursed.
“That is how it happened in every other university. So, why should OAU be different? This is not the first time we would disburse EAA. It has always been based on the template submitted by ASUU and not by any other group.
“If they have that capacity, they should go to the Federal Government and ask for their money. This is our money. We have said it times without number. The narration that came with that money is ASUU’s share, other unions’ share. If the VC wants to give money to the union that is not known by law, he should use the non-ASUU share to give them the money. He should disburse ASUU’s share to our members.”
OAU’s position on EAA
However, Olanrewaju denied the VC was a members of CONUA: “The allegations against the VC are unfounded from the pit of hell. At OAU, our academics belong to two factions of union, which are ASUU and CONUA. Since the EAA is not on the union basis, we believe that every member of academic unions of the university, particularly those who earned it, is entitled.
“Unlike before when both unions would agree on a template, this time around, ASUU is going this way and CONUA is heading another way.
“We decided that we could not use two templates for the same set of people. We said they should both go and harmonize their position and come out with a template, which would be used to pay the money. It is not in our character to hold unto such money.
“It is not compulsory that everyone belongs to one union in the university. The names of members of CONUA and ASUU are in the money sent to OAU by Federal Government. All this that ASSU is doing is just causing undue noise.”
Sharing template causes conflict
National coordinator, CONUA, OAU, Dr. Niyi Sunmonu, told The Education Report: “There is a plan of exclusion by the ASUU to deny non-members of ASUU from benefiting from the fund. That is the first reason we haven’t received the allowance and the university hasn’t taken steps, concrete steps, let’s say.
“The second reason is, we submitted a template and ASUU submitted a template. By template, we mean payment advice, which we want the university to follow. ASUU can speak for itself on its payment advice. We want to speak for ourselves on the payment advice that we have.”
“The EAA the government has been owing from 2009/2010 up till the current academic session 2019/2020, the last session and they have paid them in part, especially up to 2012/2013. Our own payment advice says that certain percentage should be for up to 2012/2013 of the current tranche released.
“Government has released five charges. This is the fifth one. As in this fifth one, we say, let certain percentage be used to pay up to 2012/2013 academic sessions then certain percentage should be used to pay 2013/2014 to 2014/2015 sessions. The last but not the least certain percentage should be used to pay 2015/2016 up to 2019/2020.
“The reason is people who are retirees, who government has been owing on excess work loan, people that are just newly recruited, people that have unfortunately died and that no one is going to be short changed on what they are being owed. That is our template. But what we discovered in the course of discussion with the university management was that ASUU in its own advice said they shouldn’t pay us by virtue of the fact that we don’t belong to its union.
“Another thing is that we maintained that it was not an allowance for strike, it’s an allowance for work done. We discovered on their template that certain individuals who are not on ground for the current session in which they said should be paid were allocated some amount of money. We asked them to defend and they haven’t defended.
“This money released is for work done and is not a largesse. It is that reason that the university management hasn’t paid. We are hoping that matters can be resolved between us and the other union.
“Actually we want the university to take up the matter, be transparent about it, because the university is in receipt of the money. It’s the one to account for the money before the government. The university should ensure that no one who deserves the money is cheated. The money is meant for excess work done. It should be so disbursed on account of the reason it’s released.”
Status of CONUA
Sunmonu said: “We are still expecting pronouncement from the Ministry of Labour on it. We held a meeting with the Minister of Labour on November 19, 2020. He gave us publicly a whole week time for the committee he set up to look at our registration to complete. I want to call on the minister to make a pronouncement on the registration of CONUA such that this shenanigan can just come to a halt.”
ASUU faults CONUA’s claim
Egbedokun: “It is our duty to do whatever we feel should be done to that EAA form and that is what we have just done. The issue of transparency they talked about probably they should talk to themselves. As far as we are concerned, that form is transparent enough and I think I should explain one or two things.
“If you are a member of ASUU in OAU and you filled that form, it’s about 28 pages. You read, fill it, you submit and it goes to a spreadsheet located somewhere on somebody’s computer. That person downloads it, summarises it, it is an automation summarising to just one page.
“Those 28 pages that you have filled would be summarised to one page and taken to your HOD for verification. When that is verified, if there are issues raised, if there are corrections made, the person in charge of your faculty will attend to it because the spreadsheet must have been given to the representative from that faculty.
“He would do the correction. The final thing would be submitted to the central policy committee who will then come up with the actual conclusion. That was what we eventually submitted to the university administration. If anybody is talking about transparency, that means the person does not know the meaning of transparency.
“For us in ASUU, we are transiting from analogue to digital. The form that our colleagues are referring to was designed by ASUU.
“What they did in that form is called plagiarism. I’m very sure in future we are going to take that up with somebody. They also claimed so many people including claiming all the university administration; that the excel form being filled was the old ASUU form. The only thing they did was to remove the name of ASUU and put their own name there.
“That is plagiarism. What we also did was just to transit from that old format to a new format. It would be easier for our people to fill and easy for us to complete because we have automated everything.
“Also, it is not only OAU that this transformation has happened. It happened in some of our federal universities in some of branches all over the nation. All of us used the excel form and because of the cumbersomeness of the process of the computation and we found an automated way to do that computation. And somebody is complaining, our form is our form.”
As at the time of this report, ASUU was not considering the option of sharing the EAA with CONUA. The VC is holding to the allowance pending the time the two unions would agree on a template to share the money.
