ASUU threatens nationwide strike over pay

.Says varsity dons got N5,000 as April salary
The national leadership of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to embark on a nationwide strike to press home their demand for better welfare and other administrative matters.

Specifically, the union condemned alleged refusal of federal and state governments to address all outstanding issues with the union.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja, yesterday, ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, said the National Executive Council meeting held at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, also rejected all “ongoing illegalities and flagrant violation of university autonomy in public universities as a result of non-reinstatement/reconstitution of governing councils of universities”.

He said the NEC would reconvene in the next two weeks to review the situation and take a decisive action.

He lamented that despite a presidential order, the Federal Government was still using the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) to pay lecturers, adding that ASUU members were yet to receive four of the eight months’ withheld workers’ salaries, despite the order by President Bola Tinubu in October 2023 approving its release.

He said: “NEC observed with dismay the continued erosion of autonomy of public universities, contrary to the provisions of the Universities Miscellaneous Act (1993, 2012). The illegal dissolution of Governing Councils by the Tinubu Government and many state governments has paved the way for all manner of illegalities in the Nigerian University System.

“University administrations now place advertisements for the appointment of Vice-Chancellor without authorisation from the appropriate authorities, the governing councils. outgoing vice chancellors, working in sync with federal and state Ministries of Education, are illegally running the universities on daily basis. They routinely usurp the powers of governing councils to recruit and discipline staff as well as manage university finances in manners bereft of transparency and accountability.

“It is, therefore, stating the obvious to say that these and sundry activities that run contrary to the extant laws are compounding cases of corruption in our universities. ASUU condemns these anomalies in strong terms and calls on the Federal Government and the equally affected state governments to respect the laws establishing their universities. Universities are supposed to be the bastion of democratic ethos and practices. We cannot entrench sustainable democratic culture in Nigeria if universities are run by the whims and caprices of individuals.