Fresh strike averted after lecturers meet Gov Bagudu
Barely two weeks after a threemonth-old nationwide strike action, lecturers in Kebbi State University of Science and Technology, Aliero, begun to press home unattended demands and threatened to embark on fresh industrial action should the state government fail to meet their demands.
The aggrieved members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the university might have shifted ground on their decision to embark on a fresh strike action as Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu promised to address the issues in respect of their allowances and other related demands
The governor, during a meeting with the union leadership at the government house in Birnin Kebbi, said the state’s academic institutions required sincere stakeholders that would guide government to the right path for the education system to run well in the state.
It would be recalled that the leadership of the academic staff union of the state university had threatened last month to embark on strike if government failed to meet their demands.
The chairman of the union, Dr. Ibrahim Garba Wawata, in a press statement made available to Daily Trust said lecturers would renew their plan to embark on a strike suspended in 2018 after a memorandum of understanding was signed between the state government and the union, if immediate steps were not taken to meet their demands.
He noted that the MoU was based on staff welfare, implementation and payment of promotion arrears, annual increments and arrears of Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) and staff contributory pension.
In his appeal to the aggrieved academic staff, Governor Bagudu said “You have to help us as stakeholders because this problem may continue after me if we don’t address it now. We need sincere stakeholders that will begin to put us in the right path for our education system to run well and competitive for our children.”
He said the state government was diversifying in agriculture especially in rice production and has been attracting investors and companies to the state to generate more revenue to fund the university and other academic institutions under the state.
During the meeting between the lecturers and the governor, Dr. Wawata urged the state government to look into the union’s requests to bring development to the university.
He said “Our issues have to do with the staff entitlements, academic allowances, promotion, annual increment of salary and funding intervention”.
He emphasised that the primary function of ASUU was teaching and research and the aspect of research had to do with installation of certain equipment to boost the productivity of the university and also to give a clear ground for collaboration with other universities within and outside the country.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Dr. Mukhtar Bunza, explained that the state government had included increment of salary, promotion and other demands of the union in this year’s budget which had been approved. He said the only pending issue was the academic allowances which government was trying to address.
“I have met the representatives of the university’s academic staff union on the issue of academic allowances which we know is a burning issue between the Federal Government and the national body of ASUU. It has been a lingering issue between government and the union since 2009 and the issue is still before the Federal Government,” he stated.