University lecturers under the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have threatened to embark on another strike action that will halt academic activities in public universities in Nigeria.
According to ASUU, the union will not hesitate to resume its suspended strike action if the federal government continues to fail in honouring agreements between them.
ASUU Chairperson of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Dr. Ibrahim Inuwa, made this known while speaking with some journalists at the Union’s Secretariat during the weekend.
He said the federal government has so far failed to honour its own end of the agreement as contained in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed before the union suspended its strike action in December last year.
Inuwa lamented that the government has only addressed two out of the eight issues agreed upon in the MoU.
“The University Campuses are becoming restive across the length and breadth, as Academics are threatening to shut down activities once again. This is coming as a result of the failure of the FGN to implement many aspects of memorandum of Action (MoA) it willingly signed with ASUU that ended the last strike in December, 2020.
“Given the glaring and deliberate failure of government to honour the agreement it willingly signed with the Union, it is becoming obvious that industrial harmony is gradually being destroyed in the university campuses.
“Enough is enough. ASUU is fed up with deceptive antics of the federal government of Nigeria,” he said.
Some of the issues yet to receive government attention according to him are: Earned Academic Allowance, Funding for Revitalisation of Public Universities, Salary Shortfall, Proliferating of state Universities and Visitation Panel, Renegotiation, Replacement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) with the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), withheld salaries and non-remittance of Checkoff dues.
“Only salary shortfall and visitation panels to federal universities have been addressed,” he added.
The ASUU official said members are still on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) which means some of them are omitted in salary payment while others experience serious salary amputation.
“Meanwhile the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) through the IPPIS office has continued to omit our members from payment of salaries while others experience serious salary amputation. We are convinced this is done in connivance with the University Administration.
“In the meantime, IPPIS appears to be the corruption headquarters of the Federal Civil Service, as exemplified by double payment of salaries to employees, payment of salaries to non-employees, over taxation, dubious amputation of salaries, etc.
“We, therefore, call on well-meaning Nigerians to wake up the FGN from its slumber to avoid another disruption of academic activities on universities campuses across the nation. The atmosphere is already tensed and charged,” he noted.
