The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Calabar Zone, has raised alarm over the poor remuneration of Nigerian academics.

At a press conference organised by some of the union’s zonal chairpersons on Monday in Calabar, the zonal coordinator, Comrade Happiness Uduk, highlighted some of the union’s demands, including completion and implementation of the renegotiated ASUU/FGN 2009 Agreement, payment of withheld 7-month salaries, payment of the backlog, and mainstreaming of Earned Academic Allowance (EAA), among others.

In a statement jointly signed by seven chairpersons of ASUU from different institutions, the union insists on the immediate and urgent commencement of the process that would lead to the completion and implementation of the draft agreement reached by the Joint Committee as led by the late Emeritus Prof. Nimi Briggs, as her members have been on the same salary scale for more than fifteen years.

The statement reads in part: “ASUU calls on the Federal Government of Nigeria to pay without further delay its members their varying months withheld salaries in Federal and State Universities for participating in the 2022 strike.

“ASUU, as a union under the conditions of the ILO, like any other union, can use strikes as a veritable tool to get its demands. Denying its members their salaries for the period of being on strike and for work that has now been completed is against Labour best practices.

“The government’s leaning on the obnoxious “no-work, no-pay policy is a breach of labour laws, and this is to further heighten the already tensed work environment. Do not forget that the strike was unwillingly suspended on the heels of interventions and promises made both formally and informally by well-meaning Nigerians, including the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, who is currently the Chief of Staff to the President.

“To say the least, none of those promises and entreaties have yielded any fruit, even with the current exalted position of Mr Gbajabiamila, they asserted.

On the state of the nation, the union called on the government to accelerate the process of negotiating the new living minimum wage with the NLC while accelerating efforts to complete the renegotiations with the union for better take-home pay for their members, even as the government puts in place worker-friendly policies that would truly cushion the adverse effects of its earlier stiffening policies on petrol, food, and forex to counter the current atmosphere of despondency, despair, and frustration.

The statement was assented by the following persons: Comrade Happiness Uduk, Zonal Coordinator, ASUU Calabar; Comrade Chidi Mbah, Chairperson ABSU; Comrade Inyang Udosen, Chairperson AKSU; Comrade Ikechuku Igwenyi, Chairperson EBSU; Comrade Louis Omenyi, Chairperson FUNAI; Comrade Patrick Ushie, Chairperson CRUTECH; Comrade Peter Ubi, Chairperson UNICAL; and Comrade Opeyemi Olajide, Chairperson UNIUYO. (Nigerian Tribune)

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