ASUU berates government over unpaid workers’ salaries, TSA

Rising from its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, held at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Monday night, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) criticised federal and state government’s over handling of its members’ welfare.

National President of the association, Comrade Biodun Ogunyemi, who addressed journalists in Lagos, regretted: “Budgetary allocation to education has drastically dropped from 11 per cent in 2015 to eight per cent in 2016. This situation has scuttled the smooth process of revitalisation of the universities, which started in 2013, and has led to several abandoned projects in the nation’s higher institutions.”

He added: “Of the 36 states of the federation, 28 owe workers’ salaries of between six and 12 months. And many state governors are unapologetic about it. They remain insensitive to the intolerable sufferings that workers are going through and the fact that several families have been torn asunder by the situation.”

On the Treasury Single Account (TSA), ASUU said the initiative is “inimical to the wellbeing of universities. All our appeals for government to exempt universities from the TSA regime have fallen on deaf ears. ASUU will go to any length to resist the continued implementation of TSA in our universities.”