…holds peaceful protest, threatens Strike Action
By Precious Oham
The Federal University Oye-Ekiti branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has decried the insensitivity of the Federal Government to address the issues confronting members of the union despite their persistent outcry.
The FUOYE branch of ASUU expressed their grievances on Thursday at the Oye Campus of the institution during a peaceful protest to draw the attention of the general public to the state of ASUU struggles with the FG.
The ASUU Chairperson in FUOYE, Fagbuagun Ojo Abayomi said that the union is emotionally and physically distressed that the FG has failed to address the numerous challenges against the development of academics in the university system.
He highlighted the outstanding issues to include; renegotiation of the FGN/ASUU 2009 agreement, withheld salaries of Academic Staff, unpaid promotion arrears, underfunding of Universities, Earned Academic Allowances, degenerating socio-economic crisis, among others.
He disclosed that the Union won’t fail to embark on yet another industrial action if the insensitive stance of the government persists.
His words: “The Union was very hopeful that the Tinubu Administration would address all the issues affecting the Union, going by his campaign promises to end ASUU strike. But the government has shown insensitivity and has not responded to the issues at stake.
“Despite our good intentions to make our Universities better, government has continued to unleash untold hardship on the lecturers and students.
“Nevertheless, the patriotic stance of the Union is in no doubt and we shall continue to speak up in order to ensure that our Universities become centers of excellence.
“Nevertheless, if the insensitive stance of the government persists, and our members are pushed to the wall, the Union should not be blamed by Nigerians for avoidable industrial action.”
While calling on the FG to discontinue the use of IPPIS as a payment platform, the chairman regretted that the FG used the power of the judiciary to activate the no-work-no-pay regime whenever they embark on any industrial action
“It is noteworthy to mention that before ASUU embarks on any industrial action, it ensures that the condition for embarking on such action are fully fulfilled. Such travesty of justice, if allowed to continue through executive muscling of the union, will never augur well for the academic sector.
“We call on the government to honestly discontinue the use of IPPIS as payment platform, which is inconsistent with the University Establishment Act. As a solution, ASUU developed UTAS (University Transparency and Accountability Solution) as a way to alleviate payment problems encountered through IPPIS but the government rejected it after the software was tested with 98.8% performative evaluation.
“We want to state without minicing matters that the budgetary allocation to education had always been meagerly over the years. This has created crises in terms of infrastructural development, teaching and research equipment acquisition, acute shortage of staff, students’ accommodation, water and electricity supply, among others.
“ASUU FUOYE hereby condemns in all ramifications, the sheer insensitivity of the government and demands that the revitalization fund be released without further delay. We additionally demand that budgetary allocation to education be upwardly reviewed to reflect international best practices.”