The Federal University of Lafia branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities on Wednesday protested over the non-payment of their backlogs of Earned Academic Allowances, accumulation of promotion arrears and withheld salaries by the Federal Government, among other demands.
The protest, which started at about 10 am from the Faculty of Sciences to the Faculty of Arts, terminated at the university’s main gate at exactly 11:30 am.
The protesters carried placards that bore various inscriptions such as “Fund Nigerian Universities;” “FG Respect University Autonomy;” “Pay our Withheld Salaries Now;” “Address all Pending Issues to Avert Strike;” and “Nigerian Lecturers are Not Slaves.”
Briefing journalists shortly after the protest, the branch chairperson, Dr. Sunday Orinya, urged President Bola Tinubu to, as a matter of urgency, resume the negotiation of a new salary package to forestall another distortion of academic activities across public universities.
Dr. Orinya vowed that as a union, ASUU would not relent in demanding for improvement in the welfare and conditions of service of its members.
“Our take-home cannot take us home. In this regard, we wish to call on the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to re-call the Nimi Biggs Renegotiated Draft Agreement for signing and implementation without further delay,” he stressed.
He further called on the President to urgently resume the negotiation on the new salary package and conditions of service; funding for revitalisation of universities; payment of backlog of Earned Academic Allowances and accumulated promotion arrears; and the release of their withheld salaries.
He insisted that ASUU would resist any attempt to blackmail the union and derail its patriotic struggle for a productive university system by official propaganda founded on tokenism and crumb-sharing.
Dr. Orinya, therefore, urged the Federal Government to ensure that it meets all its demands such as transparency and accountability solutions, with concurrent discontinuance of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.
“Our members are perturbed by the spirited efforts of government agents to reduce the demands of ASUU to a regime of intermittent payment of watered-down revitalisation fund and release of distorted and grossly devalued Earned Academic Allowances,” he cried out.
While appreciating the concerns expressed by patriotic Nigerians and friends of ASUU in solidarity, he vowed to salvage the welfare of its members, its students, and public education in general and the Nigerian University’s System in particular.
He assured all and sundry that ASUU would spare no efforts in its struggle for repositioning public universities and the transformation of Nigeria.
“It has become imperative for us in the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), FULafia to update Nigerians, the Press and Stakeholders in the Nigerian University System on our ongoing engagements with the Federal Government and the impending nation-wide strike action.
“The import of this Press Conference, therefore is to underscore; that it calls attention to the welfare of our members, our abysmal material conditions as workers and academics, and also the deplorable state of infrastructures in public universities,” he stated.