Guardian Nigeria
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has protested the withheld three and half months’ salaries, promotion arrears, and earned academic allowances among other demands.
Members of the union, who demonstrated from the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Bauchi, Yelwa campus, to the gate, were seen with placards, demanding the conclusion of the 2009 re-negotiation.
The union also lamented the use of the rejected Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) for the payment of members’ salaries.
Deputy Chairman of ATBU ASUU, Muhammad Muhammad, told newsmen, yesterday, that the union and the government had been in fruitless negotiation since 2009.
Muhammad urged the government to call for dialogue to conclude the renegotiation.
He said, “We have our earned allowances approved by the previous government, which was budgeted. As we speak, nothing is being done about it. We also have our three and a half months salary arrears that we worked for. The same government has refused to pay our promotion allowance.”
The union also restated its opposition to underfunded public universities and urged the government to provide adequate funds for the university system.
Also, he called for the dissolution of the newly constituted university councils, saying the former councils were illegally dissolved. He demanded that any council member, whose tenure had yet to expire, should be allowed in office.
National Internal Auditor of ASUU, Prof Adamu Babayo, chided the government for entering into a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) to build hostels in 12 universities with N1 billion while the investors contributed N3 billion.
He said, “This is an aberration. Imagine that the students will have to pay N250,000 each; if you have four students in a room, that is N1 million per room yearly. This is the government that is paying N30,000 minimum wage.”
