By
University of Ibadan
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says 53 lecturers of the University of Ibadan (UI) have not been paid their salaries for more than a year.
Same sour tale is found in some state universities such as the Ebonyi State University, which the union has claimed as enough justification to embark on a fresh industrial action.
ASUU Coordinator, Ibadan Zone, ASUU, Prof Oyebamiji Oyegoke, made the clarification during the review of the union’s threat to embark on a long strike over the non-implementation of the Memorandum of Action between it and the Federal Government.
He called on Nigerians to intervene “at this critical moment before our members withdraw their services” from the ivory towers.
Speaking on the sideline of the marking of the Human Rights Day last Friday after the union’s zonal meeting at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Oyegoke lamented the squalid state of most lecturers under the Buhari administration.
“Fifty-three lecturers of the University of Ibadan have not been paid their salaries since December 2020 till date, while lecturers in the Ebonyi State University have not been paid their salaries for months and the state governor has established two more universities without paying the lecturers of the existing one,” he hinted.
He said the full implementation of terms of the 2020 MoA, including funding for the revitalisation of public universities; payment of earned academic allowances, withheld salaries and promotion arrears; renegotiation of the 2009 agreement; and inconsistencies in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System and the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, was imperative.
Oyegoke accused the Federal Government of insincerity in fulfilling its part of the agreement, just as he condemned the piecemeal implementation of the contentious issues in the MoA.
“Our base line is the full implementation of the 2020 MoA freely signed by the Federal Government and the union. This calls for a lot of concern.
“There’s no commitment to the agreement entered into. The government is not sensitive to the welfare of workers.
“That’s why we’re using these channels to sensitise the people so that they won’t see us as using strike as the only tool of fighting for our demands.
“While we commend interventions of notable Nigerians in the matter, it should be stated here that it is about actions and not deliberations.
“These are no new demands. Some of our members have not been paid salaries since December last year and they’re still working. It shows commitment on our part.
“Selective treatment of issues in dispute instead of a comprehensive approach will no longer be acceptable to our members.
“We shall no longer take the issue of the welfare of our members for granted. Any treatment of MoA of 2020 that precludes its full implementation and rejection of the IPPIS will be incomplete.
“If it has taken ASUU’s position of resuming a suspended strike action to rouse the government from its sleep of non-implementation of the MoA of 2020, one needs to ask how many of such reminders should ASUU give before its demands are met.
“It is on the basis of the failure of the government to meet up with the promises made as attested to in the MoA of 2020 that the union is calling on Nigerians to intervene at this critical moment,” he pleaded.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has stated that it has paid lecturers N30 billion Revitalisation Fund and N22.5 billion Earned Academic Allowance.
It stressed that it has made lot of progress in the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding reached with the university workers.
FG, through the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr Chris Ngige, also said that the contentious issue of the salary payment platform, University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), was being addressed.
He revealed that the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has submitted its report to government.
“Just today (weekend) again, NITDA submitted its report on the assessment conducted on UTAS and it has been forwarded to the Ministry of Finance, Accountant General’s Office and IPPIS Office so that they will look at it and sort out other details.
“Copies of the report have also been forwarded to the Federal Ministry of Education and National Universities Commission (NUC),” he claimed
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