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Some vice-chancellors are mismanaging the university system —ASUU

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ASUU President, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Saturday called on the Federal Government to send visitation panels to universities in order to douse tension and prevent breakdown of industrial relations in campuses.

ASUU President, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, made the call on Saturday while speaking with reporters.

According to him, the call became necessary because of continued reports of intimidation and harassment of some of its members in some universities in the country.

Ogunyemi added that the union was worried about the actions of some vice chancellors to suppress the union’s activities in campuses, noting that the visitation panels would promote industrial harmony.

“Some vice chancellors are actually mismanaging their system, we have written to complain about them and when you see crisis coming from the school, for us in ASUU, it is not unexpected.

“That doesn’t augur well for good governance, and that is why we continue to prevail on the government to look into our petition against some Vice Chancellors and address the issue we raised.

“We have many of these cases coming from some of these campuses, and that is why we are calling on the government, anytime we have the opportunity to douse tension and prevent further decline or breakdown of industrial relations in these campuses,” he said.

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Speaking further, Ogunyemi expressed the concern of the union about the non-inclusion of the university workers’ allowances into the 2019 budget, adding that he hoped it would be fully paid in the 2020 budget.

He said: “We are only hoping that the chance will not be missed in 2020, that is why we want to engage the government.’’

The ASUU president also called on the government to sort the issue of unpaid arrears of shortfall in salaries in universities that had been verified under the presidential initiative on continuous auditing.

He further called on the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, to intervene in the pending renegotiation of the 2009 agreement and call a resumption.

According to him, the issues for renegotiation are non-implementation of components of the 2017 memorandum of action, non-release of over N1 trillion arrears or revitalisation fund owed public universities from 2014 to 2018.

“As things stand, we have issues; because the negotiation has been stalled, but we are engaging with Government, hoping that the minister intervenes in the matter.

“We have issues with the government team that is negotiating with us, we have written to the minister about our complaints, hoping that in no time, he will intervene in the matter and our renegotiation will come back fully and be completed speedily,“ Ogunyemi said.

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