UNIJOS ASUU Vows Not To Resume Academic Activities

unijos

The students of the University of Jos may be forced to still stay out of classes despite having to endure the six-month-old strike which was recently called off by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), following internal crisis in the school.

The university chapter of the union in a statement yesterday, said its members would not resume academic activities until all its members are paid their full allowances from what has been so far released to the university by the federal government.

The university had announced today, Jan. 6 as its resumption day.

The statement signed by the branch Chairman of ASUU, Dr. David Jangkam, explained that shortly after the commencement of the nation-wide strike by the union’s national body, the branch wrote and intimated the governing council of the university of seven local issues that agitated its members, and the need to address them during the strike period.

“In the course of the strike, the federal government in an attempt to resolve the problems, released the sum of N30 billion for the settlement of earned allowances owed staff of Nigerian universities, who had earned same from 2009 to 2012.”

Jangkam said the University of Jos got the sum of N1.16 billion as its share for onward payment to staff based on computation done in 2011 submitted by departments
and units.

He lamented that neither the initial computation in 2010 through 2012 nor the verified computation in 2013 was used by the university administration in disbursing the N1.16 billion it got from the federal government. “Instead, the university administration shared the money as it deemed fit without regard to whether staff earned same entitlement or not, thus resulting in some members getting far less than what they are entitled to and most members getting nothing at all,” he added.

The statement also stressed that others who are not entitled to the allowance got three to four times what those who are entitled to should have got, adding that members of the union have met and have written to call the attention of the university administration to the misapplication of their money but to no avail.

The union therefore vowed that despite the suspension of the strike embarked upon by its national secretariat, the chapter would not resume academic activities until the internal crises are resolved by the university administration.