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AMILOADED MEDIA HUB NEWS UPDATE
The University of Jos chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities on Friday said it is fully ready to join the nationwide strike if the government fails to meet up with the 14-day ultimatum given to it by the National Executive Committee of the union to address unresolved issues including the reconstitution of the governing councils of federal universities.
Addressing a press conference in Jos on Friday after an emergency meeting with union members, ASUU chairman, Jurbe Molwus said that workers in the federal university had been mobilised for the action.
“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 government will be responsive and act responsibly”, Molwus stated
The ASUU chairman 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.
He said it was 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
He disclosed that a report from NEC indicated that an increasing number of their members had died while thousands of others were nursing life-threatening ailments occasioned by work-related stress, absolute pauperization and multidimensional insecurity.
Calling on the Federal Government to return to the negotiation table with the union to address the lingering issues, the ASUU chairman equally pointed out that several issues on which ASUU had been engaging owners of public universities in the last decade or so were yet to be meaningfully addressed.
According to him, these include the non-payment of their 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.
ASUU had on Tuesday threatened a nationwide strike, giving the government a two-week ultimatum to reconstitute the governing councils of federal universities.
ASUU lamented the failure of the Federal Government to appoint Governing Councils for Federal Universities.
(Punch)
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