The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has asked the Federal Government, through the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, to release outstanding promotion arrears owed its members in the interest of industrial peace and harmony in Nigerian universities.
A statement by its President Emmanuel Osodeke, following a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held at the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) in Borno State, reads: “NEC expressed serious concerns over the non-release of almost eight months’ salaries of university academics withheld on account of the 2022 patriotic strike action triggered by government’s failure to implement the December 2020 FGN/ASUU Memorandum of Action (MoA) and its truncation of the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement.
“NEC reiterated that the application of the anti-labour ‘No-Work-No-Pay’ policy to academics ignores the indisputable facts that (i) only the teaching component of academics’ work was suspended during the strike action, and (ii) with the suspension of the strike through interventions by the then Speaker of the House of Representatives (now Chief of Staff to Mr. President and Visitor to federal universities), Femi Gbajabiamila, and other well-meaning Nigerians, the academics have made up for the lost ground under the most excruciating economic conditions.
“NEC commended Nigerian academics for their courage, resilience, and determination to weather the economic, social, and emotional storms unleashed on them by the unpaid salaries.
“NEC attributed past strike actions of ASUU to failure of successive governments to honour agreements and memoranda arrived at through the collective bargaining principle enunciated by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and domesticated in Nigeria’s labour law.
“ASUU, therefore, calls on the new government to put machinery in motion for the speedy conclusion of the renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU/FGN Agreement following the recommendations of the Professor Nimi Briggs’ Committee to restore the integrity of the Nigerian University System (NUS).
-Thenation
