By Chijioke Kingsley
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASSU), University of Jos Chapter, has said the 14 days deadline given to the Federal Government (FG), by its parent body in Abuja to address unresolved issues including the reconstitution of the governing councils of federal universities remains sacrosanct, of which failure by the FG to adhere to will result to a total shutdown of academics in UNIJOS.
Speaking to journalists in Jos on Friday, Comrade Jurbe Molwus, the UNIJOS ASSU Chairman, said all federal Universities are on standby to join the strike.
According to him: “The Academic Staff Union of Universities, University of Jos branch held its meeting on Friday 17th May 2024 and took a report of the National Executive Council meeting that was held at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th May 2024.
“The union at the branch comprehensively reviewed the report and deliberated extensively on the status of the union’s engagement with the federal and state governments on the lingering issues.
“Given a critical review of the current state of affairs in our public universities as well as in our nation at large bearing in mind the hardship being faced by our members and the Nigerian masses, the University of Jos branch of ASUU strongly aligns with the position of NEC in giving the government a 14-day ultimatum to do the needful to avoid breakdown of industrial harmony. Our Congress is undoubtedly fully mobilized even as we hope that the government will be responsive and act responsibly”, he said.
Molwus lamented the failure of the federal and state governments to keep to their promises towards addressing the lingering issues that forced the union to embark on the nationwide strike that lasted for eight months in 2022.
“It is sad that the federal government had not paid the backlog of the earned academic allowances owed its members more than one year after they were captured in the 2023 National Budget for Federal Universities.
“A report from NEC indicated that an increasing number of our members had died while thousands of others are nursing life-threatening ailments occasioned by work-related stress, absolute pauperization and multidimensional insecurity”, he said.
The ASSU Chair called on the Federal Government to return to the negotiation table with the union to address the lingering issues.
He pointed out several issues on which ASUU had been engaging the federal government in the last decade.
“These include the non-payment of EAA arrears and three and half months with held salaries already captured in the budget, the sanctity of legally constituted governing councils, review of the 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement, revitalization fund for public Universities, third party deductions of their members, illegal recruitment, proliferation of public Universities, promotion arrears and Treasury Single Account policy, among others.
