The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU has threatened that if federal government fails to pay the backlog of their salaries, academic works for previous sessions of 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 will be abandoned.
This formed part of resolutions reached at the congress and a protest embarked upon by members of ASUU, FUOYE branch held at the University Campus, during which they carried placards with inscriptions such as “University Workers are not casual workers” “University Staff say no to prorated salaries” “Buhari pay our backlog salaries, it is our right” among others.
Speaking with newsmen, the Financial Secretary, FUOYE branch of ASUU, Dr Ojo Fagbuagun said the leadership of the union at the national level should meet Vice Chancellors and Pro-Chancellors of various universities on whether they are ready to pay the backlog of salaries, failure of which would lead to forfeiture of the previous sessions, while they would only focus on new session of 2022/2023.
“The no work no pay that federal government subjected us to is not known to international labour law, the criminalization of strike is not known to any law, strike is part of the tools to fight for our rights”.
“Though strike is not the only weapon we have, we have tried other means, but the federal government remained adamant, they did not give us the due recognition because they don’t have much interest in education”.
According to Dr Fagbuagun, members of the union also urged the leadership of ASUU at national level to prioritize their welfare.
He pointed out that no member of ASUU should participate in elections until government changes its decision on no work no pay policy.
Dr Fagbuagun stressed the need for federal government to honour the resolutions of various committes it had set up on the issue of ASUU in view of their relevance in the education sector.
“Different committees was set up in 2009, 2013, 2020 and 2022 their reports and recommendations were not implemented by the government”
“We say no to all the tactics being used by government to deny us our entitlements and we say no to the frustration of education”.
He noted that the protest was part of moves by the national body of ASUU to press home their demands from government.
The FUOYE ASUU Financial Secretary restated that federal government should adopt UTAS as a means of paying their salaries, calling for revitalization of universities in the country.
“Government should use UTAS to pay us because IPPIS has failed, even the government agencies attested that it has failed, they carried out a test recently and out of the three solutions presented to them they discovered that UTAS came first, but it is the IPPIS that came third that government adopts”.
In a remark, the ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Akure zone, Dr. Olu Olufayo advised members of the union to be peaceful in pressing home their demands, with an assurance that the battle would not be lost.
“ASUU has never lost a battle and that is why we are telling them to maintain law and order”.
Dr Olufayo said the national leaders of ASUU were committed to ensure that the demands of the members were met, as the case involving the union and federal government was still in court.
“The case is still in court and the court has not met over it, so let’s be a bit calm and wait for the final verdict of the court”. Olufayo said.
