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Professor Lawal Garba Abubakar, ASUU Bauchi Zonal Coordinator addresses journalists
By Akanji Alowolodu, Bauchi
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to resume its suspended strike action unless the Federal Government implemented all of the articles contained in the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) signed in 2020.
The threat was made by the Bauchi Zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which declared that a total of 95 lecturers from the University of Jos, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi and Federal University, Kashere are being owed salary arrears of between 2 and 13 months.
The ASUU Bauchi Zone made the declaration while addressing Journalists shortly after its meeting at the ATBU ASUU secretariat on Tuesday saying that what the Federal Government is doing is a “deliberate stealing of our members salaries”.
ASUU Bauchi Zonal Coordinator, Prof Lawal Garba Abubakar said that ASUU is holding the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige responsible for the lingering crisis in ASUU because according to him, “he has refused to act to end the crisis due to his personal reasons”.
He also said that though the Minister gave a marching order to IPPIS officials to resolve all the issues or prepare a memo to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) report them on the manner they have kept embarrassing the government.
According to him, The inconsistencies observed in the application of the IPPIS in the payments of salaries, remittances of third-party deductions have continued in all the Federal Universities.
He said that, “Since the introduction of IPPIS in February 2020, our members have continued to be omitted from the payments of salary on monthly basis. This is the situation across all the Federal Universities in the country”.
He added that, “Every month when salary is paid, a different set of staff will have their names omitted from the payment for that particular month. As we speak now, about 95 lecturers from the University of Jos are being owed salary arrears of 2 to 13 months it is the same situations in ATBU,16, Bauchi and Federal University of Kashere, 18.
“This is deliberate and amounts to victimization of ASUU members by IPPIS Office as a ploy to force them to enrol, thereby frustrating the implementation of UTAS as agreed before the strike was suspended in 2020”, the ASUU Zonal Coordinator stressed.
Lawal Abubakar said that, “The questions that need answers here are: Are some individuals feeding fat on the high cost of maintenance and consultancy fees on IPPIS as against the freely developed and more efficient UTAS that has taken care of the University peculiarities, in line with extant Laws? Could this be the reason for the foot dragging by FGN to deploy UTAS in the Universities?”
He further said that,”One other disturbing trend we wish to bring to the public domain is that Professors and Readers (Associate Professors), who are supposed to retire at the age of 70 years, are now being forcefully retired by IPPIS through abrupt stoppage of their salaries in violation of the Universities Miscellaneous Act of 2012″.
He also claimed that, “Again, the salaries paid to our members are not commensurate with their ranks based on the prevailing salary Table. What we have been suffering is a theft on our salaries; others call it amputation.
“At the end of every month, no one can say for certain what his or her exact salary would be as a result of unauthorized deductions; one must just do with what IPPIS throws at you. Another question is, “Where do they take these unauthorized deductions to?”, he said.
Another problem according to him is that Promotions are not implemented on time; even after implementation, the Promotion Arrears are not easily paid.
Lawal Abubakar then declared that, “in the light of the above, we are pained to bring these issues to the public because more than 9 months after suspending the 2020 strike, government has again reneged on the FGN-ASUU 2020 MoA and the union is now left with no choice than to activate its procedure of resuming the conditionally suspended strike in the event that these issues are not addressed before we conclude our internal processes”.
“The public, in this circumstance, should not hold our Union responsible for any disruption of Academic activities in the Nigerian Public Universities. We call on well-meaning Nigerians, parents, students, Civil Society Organizations and the general public to continue to understand with, and support ASUU on this just course. We call on ASUU members all over the country to continue to be with and support the National Leadership”, he declared.
