The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Niger Delta University (NDU) Chapter, has threatened to resume the strike they suspended six years ago over alleged Bayelsa State government’s attitude towards funding and welfare of lecturers of the institution.
The chairman of ASUU-NDU, Tonbara Kingdom, disclosed this yesterday while briefing reporters at the university’s campus on the Wilberforce Island.
Tonbara, who was joined by the chapter’s secretary, Ebi Baraka, and other officers, said the union had already taken the resolution at its congress meeting to initiate the processes that would lead to the resumption of industrial disharmony.
He said: “We are tired and frustrated by the uncooperative attitude of the Bayelsa State Government towards the funding and welfare of members of staff of Niger Delta University.
“We express dismay that the report of a committee set up by Governor Douye Diri in January 2021 ‘to solve some of the funding and welfare issues in tertiary institutions in the state’ has not been submitted to the governor more than 10 months after conclusion of the task.
“For the record, staff of the Niger Delta University are yet to enjoy the minimum wage signed into law in April 2019. While workers of the mainstream civil service and other MDAs, including Bayelsa Medical University established yesterday, are enjoying the minimum wage, NDU is left to suffer. What is our offence?”
Tonbara said promotion was not implemented in NDU between October 2015 and September 2019, neither was annual step increment implemented from October 2015 till date.
He also said there were unpaid salaries of some staff between October 2013 and December 2015.
He further said: “We also have unpaid study fellowships. The working conditions of staff are terrible. There are no residential quarters in the university more than 20 years after it was established. Who did we offend?”
Tonbara lamented that the state government’s policy of subvention to higher institutions was not only ill-advised but also poorly implemented as it had not captured annual promotions, step increments and pension.
He said the union should not be blamed if the suffering lecturers downed tools and shut down the university.
Tonbara also decried the refusal of the Federal Government to carry out the 2009 agreement it signed with the national leadership of ASUU and subsequent Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) and Memoranda of Agreements (MoAs).
He listed the outstanding issues as funding for revitalisation of public universities; renegotiation of 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement; earned academic allowances (EAA); adoption of home-grown software (University Transparency and Accountability Solution, UTAS) as credible alternative to risks-prone IPPIS; withheld salaries of union members and non-remittance of third-party deductions and proliferation of state universities without funding.
Tonbara lamented that several efforts by the ASUU and stakeholders’ interventions to make the Federal Government implement MoUs and MoAs had hit a brick wall.
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