From Scholastica Onyeka, Makurdi
Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, (ASUU-FUAM), have staged a protest with a call on the Federal Government to, as matter urgency, release the backlogs of their withheld salaries.
Leading the protest within the south core part of the school premises, on Tuesday, The Chairperson of ASUU-FUAM, Professor Simon Ejembi, said the rally is meant to sensitise Nigerians and relevant stakeholders in the educational sector to prevail on the ruling class to stop bastardising and casualising the system.
In a speech he titled “Casualisation Of Academics: Ignorance of the Ruling Class,” while recalling that academics in Nigeria were forced to embark on an avoidable strike by the federal government on the 14th February, 2022, Ejembi said the strike was to press on the government to address certain issues which include University Transparency Accountability Solutions (UTAS) and IPPIS.
They were to also address the “signing and implementation of the renegotiated Draft 2009 Agreement, Earned Academic Allowances, (EAA) accruing to our members, State Universities and Funding for the Revitalisation of Public Universities.”
He said it was regrettable that rather than approaching the issues responsibly, the ruling class chose to politicize them and also convert the whole essence of the issues to an ego fight championed by Dr Chris Ngige (Minister of Labour).
He explained that after the lecturers called off the eight months strike, the Federal Government, in October, 2022 paid them half salary saying they only worked for 18 days and should be paid as such based on the Federal Government no-work-no-pay policy .
The lecturers who described the action as unlawful and also an injustice on them urged government to pay them their backlogs and also do all other things necessary (especially those issues that led to the strike action) to revamp the educational sector in Nigeria.
According to him, Ngige has variously misinformed and disinformed the Nigerian public in his attempts to turn them against the ASUU membership in addition to denigrating them.
“He created several false impressions as regards the workings of academics world over by mischievously and ignorantly limiting the works of academics to just teaching which was why he orchestrated the stoppage of their salary on the grounds that they did not work during the periods of the strike.
“It is important to stress here that the work of academics is not limited to teaching only as ignorantly and or mischievously portrayed by Dr. Chris Ngige. The work of an academic world over is on a tripod of teaching, research and community development.
“It was the teaching component that was suspended during this strike while the other two were ongoing even within the strike period.
Prof. Ejembi noted that going to court to procure a judgement that could not be appealed until after compliance with a ruling which was challengeable, to say the least, was not just a bid to further destroy the university system but a gross abuse of power which should not be condoned.
“This is not patriotism by any stretch. The ruling class should be humble enough to understand the functionality and operations of the university system.”
He said that the union will continue to use strike action as a last option to draw the attention of government and other critical stakeholders to their plights, adding “We have demonstrated that we are law abiding union in a government that is totally lawless. We are here today to create awareness and inform Nigerians that Federal government has started again. That we are patriotic union and craving for education hence Nigeria child deserve to be in school”, Ejembi stated.
During the peaceful protest, FUAM-ASUU members bore placards with inscriptions such as “ASUU Says No More Memoranda! Sign & Implement Agreement Now,” “IPPIS is the grandfather of corruption”, “UTAS represents integrity!, Deploy UTAS Now”, “Pro Rata? We’re not causal workers”, ” University Teachers deserves their salary”, ” 2009 Agreement is not Okija agreement. It must be kept, among others.