ASUU also called on the central government to pay the salary
of lecturer’s owed for 22 months for their refusal to be captured in the
Integrated Personal Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
Dr Aniekan Brown, Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Calabar Zone,
who briefed newsmen on Tuesday in Calabar, said that the situation had caused
untold hardship on their members.
Brown said that refusal to pay the affected lecturers may
cause the union to embark on an industrial action.
“It is not in any way unkind of us to demand for our due by
calling on our members to down tools, especially when confronted with malignant
policies which are against the survival of Nigerian public university system.
“Recall that on Dec. 23, 2020, our union patriotically
suspended the strike after nine months of being in the trenches.
“The patriotic suspension was an extreme act of goodwill
signifying our sole desire to ensure industrial harmony in our public
universities while trusting that the FG will fulfil its own side of the
Memorandum of Action signed then with attached timelines.
“It is very unfortunate that almost one year down the line;
the Federal Government is yet to fulfil her own part of the Memorandum of
Action.
“The issues, you may recall were: revitalization fund for
public universities, payment of earned academic allowance, the deployment of
UTAS and the issue of non-payment of salaries owed our members stretching since
Feb. 2020,” he said.
The zonal coordinator said that UTAS platform was ready,
having been subjected to an integrity test to ascertain its functionality.
He expressed worries that if the UTAS platform was not
deployed by the federal government, the whole essence of the university
autonomy would be defeated.
“We therefore call on the general public to advise the
government to as a matter of utmost urgency, fulfil the components of the 2020
Memorandum of Action.
“The Public Universities remain the hope of the everyday
parent and of course, the common man.
“We urge the general public to stand by this fair call on
government to do the needful and clear all issues in the said Memorandum of
Action it willingly signed with ASUU,” he added.
The seven branches of ASUU that made up the Calabar Zone
are; Abia State University, Akwa-Ibom State University, Cross River University
of Technology and Ebonyi State University.
Others are, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, University of Calabar and University of Uyo. - NAN