HOT!! University Unions At War As ASUU Fixes Month To Resume Another Strike

HOTUniversity Unions At War As ASUU Fixes Month To Resume Another Strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities on Wednesday indicated that it might resume its suspended strike in February if the Federal Government failed to implement agreements it signed with the lecturers. The National President of ASUU, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, disclosed this in an interview with Punch in Lagos, while shedding more light on the decision of the union to suspend its nine-month strike. But while ASUU ended its industrial action on Wednesday, non-academic unions in universities threatened to go on strike over N40bn earned allowances government promised to release to all unions. They described the sharing formula for the money as unfair. The Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, the National Association of Academic Technologists and the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities alleged that the government planned to give 75 per cent of the fund to ASUU, leaving 25 per cent for the other three unions. Commenting on the issue on Wednesday at a press conference in Abuja, the National President of NAAT, Ibeji Nwokomma, said government should correct the alleged imbalance. He stated, “My union is rejecting the sharing formula of the earned allowances as it is being done presently by the government. Government has allocated 75 per cent of the money to ASUU and 25 per cent to all non-teaching unions in the universities. That is grossly inadequate. “That is robbing Peter to pay Paul and using divide and rule in the university system. No union, not even ASUU, has the monopoly of opening or closing of schools through strikes; other unions also have that capacity to ensure that the system does not work.” Recall that ASUU had on March 23 begun a nationwide strike over the Federal Government’s insistence that all its employees must register for the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System. Although government argued that the IPPIS was meant to eliminate fraud, the union stated that it should not be applicable to universities on the grounds that it violated their autonomy. – Punch