Gbenro Adesina
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Wednesday November 4, 2020, appealed to the Federal Government to pay the withheld salaries of its members, stressing that it was ready to suspend its seven month long strike.
ASUU, who stated this in Ibadan at a press conference to give an update on the strike action, pointed out that members of the Union can not work on empty stomach.
In attendance were Dr Femi Abanikanda (Osun State University), Dr Dauda Adeshola (Kwara State University), Prof Ayoola Akinwole (University of Ibadan), and Prof Olusiji Sowande, Lagos Zonal Coordinator, ASUU.
In his address at the conference, the Ibadan Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Prof. Ade Adejumo, accused the Federal Government of using hunger as a weapon to weaken the members of the Union, demanding that the government should remit the check-off dues of the union to the rightful owner and speed up the process of testing the integrity of UTAS so that it may be deployed for payment beginning from January 2021.
Describing the ongoing disagreement on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as a distraction to the demands of the Union, Adejumo noted that apart from the IPPIS being a cesspool of corruption, it was strange that the government would lump the payment of lecturers together with that of civil servants, which was not done anywhere in the world.
He said, “Government against international labour laws opted to use hunger as a weapon against us. Our members have been battered by the suspension of our salaries for several months but rather than capitulate and throw our universities to the dogs to suit the interest of the politicians, we have decided to weather the storm until the needful is done. Just as our able President, Comrade Biodun Ogunyemi, said recently, the issue of the IPPIS is a distraction to the union. Apart from IPPIS being a cesspool of corruption as many Nigerians who are at its receiving end have attested to, there is no serious-minded country in the world where university lecturers and intellectual assets of the country are lumped together in payment with the civil service”.
He said, “Nigerians and the international community should be aware that despite the ongoing negotiations, the government has refused to pay our salaries and allowances. It has also callously withheld the check-off dues of some of our members, who were selectively paid amputated salaries, in order to starve the union of the energy needed to sustain the negotiations. Government appears to be keen about making lecturers commit suicide, as some have been doing, due to economic hardship, though, no society progresses beyond its education. It is a rough road but we continue to trudge on because when the going gets tough, only the tough get going. We can only appeal to our members to continue to persevere the same way we persevered during the inglorious days of military misrule”.
According to him, “At this stage of the struggle, Nigerians are urged to compel the government to release the withheld salaries of our members, remit the check-off dues of the union to the rightful owner, pay us the same way it had paid our arbitrarily handpicked members without subjecting them to IPPIS registration and speed up the process of testing the integrity of UTAS, so that it may be deployed for payment beginning from January 2021. We are ready to suspend the strike as our children too are tired of staying at home, but we cannot work on empty stomachs while politicians homes and warehouses are filled with palliative materials that they don’t even need. Let the politicians note that the interest of Nigeria and the future generations is more paramount to ASUU than the immediate gains of its members. That is why ASUU has been consistent in challenging the rots in the system through sustained engagements with powers that be since the time of the military.
“The gains of ASUU struggles are in the changes that TETFund has been able to bring to the tertiary education sector in the country and ASUU will not relent in pushing for a better university system in the country. The road may be tough, the burden is huge but ASUU remain committed in saving our public universities and not making them suffer the lot of our public schools”.
