ASUU to FG; Avert Another Round of Strike, Review 15 Years Old Agreement

Emmanuel Nlewedum, Port Harcourt

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has urged the President Bola Tinubu led-Federal Government to avert another round of strike action and disruption of academic activities in public universities by reviewing the 15 years old agreement signed with them.

The Union made the call during a press conference at the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Rivers State on Tuesday.
Chairman of the University of Port Harcourt Chapter of ASUU, Comrade Uzoma Darlington Chima, who spoke shortly after a special congress involving parents, students and lecturers at the Union’s secretariat, regretted that the government had only paid lip service to the issues raised by the public tertiary institutions’ lecturers.
He said successive governments had refused to renegotiate the Federal Government and ASUU 2009 agreement, as well as provide funds for the revitalisation of public universities in the country, among other selfless demands.
The UNIPORT ASUU Chairman said the Union is open to dialogue and negotiation towards the resolution of the pending issues that are threatening the peace and harmony in public universities in the country.
“It is sad to note that over twenty (20) months after the suspension of the last strike, the Federal Government has only paid lip-service towards addressing those core issues that led to the strike ab initio and others that emanated from the strike.
“The need for better remuneration for our members cannot be overemphasised. It may sound incredible to note that our conditions of service have not been reviewed since the past 15 years despite the galloping inflation and untold hardship that successive governments have caused the critical mass of the Nigerian citizenry.
“We are calling on all well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the Federal Government led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to avoid another crisis that may disrupt industrial harmony and academic activities on our campuses.”
Chima further noted that over N20 million deducted from salaries of lecturers at the University of Port Harcourt by the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) had not been remitted into the account of the Union’s corporative society, adding that the anomaly had continued unabated.
He said, “Payments of promotion arrears, especially to our members promoted to the professorial cadre in the last five months. It is pertinent to note that for the University of Port Harcourt alone, we have 325 academic staff that are owed some of them up to 30 to 40 months arrears, that issue has not been addressed.
“Another is the release of third party deductions by the operators of IPPIS, third party deductions made by the operators of IPPIS are still being withheld. We have a situation where the University of Port Harcourt where over N20 million deducted as savings from workers’ salaries is yet to be remitted into the account of our cooperative society and that problem continues unabated.
“You will also recall that towards the end of last year, government announced the exclusion of staff of tertiary institutions from the IPPIS, I want to inform this congress today that our salaries are still being paid through IPPIS, that has not been implemented.”