STRIKE: ASUU heads for crucial meeting with FG, attacks Gov Fayemi over salary claim

Leaders of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will this Thursday in Abuja engage in a crucial meeting with the Federal Government over its lingering strike since November 5.

ASUU, which will be led to the meeting by its national president, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, will meet with the delegation of the Federal Government to be led by the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

They are to review the September 2017 Memorandum of Action (MoA), it was learnt.

Recall that the academic union had during its National Executive Council meeting in Akure, Ondo State on November 4, said it asked its members to embark on indefinite strike due certain unimplemented areas in the 2017 MoA, which suggested the Federal Government’s insincerity to the demands by the lecturers.

Meanwhile, ASUU has attacked Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi for allegedly claiming that lecturers are faring better under the current administration in terms of welfare.

Fayemi was quoted saying in Paris during President Muhammadu Buhari’s interactive session with Nigerians living in France, that current government had done more for tertiary education in the country than the previous governments.

He had had gone on to claim that most professors in Nigerian universities earn N500,000 monthly like him as a governor.

But in its reaction the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), chapter of ASUU and its University of Ibadan counterpart on Wednesday attacked Fayemi for making such claims.

FUTA said in a statement by its chairman Dr. Bola Oniya, “Since the inception of the current administration, there has been several untoward interference by certain dramatis personae in the guise of ‘oversight’ functions in public universities and thus challenging the autonomy of universities in Nigeria.

“These ‘dictations’ from various quarters are unwholesome for the smooth running of the universities and against the global best practices. Since December 2015, workers in public universities (state and federal) have been plagued with shortfalls in salaries.

“For three years running, the same problem persists and the Ekiti State University will rank high on the list of state universities with the shortfall problem as the university is owning workers for five months. The governor may claim that the debt was inherited, but the clock is ticking.

“Where did the governor source his information? The basic salary of a professor at bar (to his family) is less than N300,000 monthly, and with his other allowances he earns about N500,000 till he retires at 70.”

Also in its statement, chairman of ASUU University of Ibadan, Dr Deji Omole, said that while the union would not be distracted in its struggle for the revitalisation of public education “by political opportunists like Governor Fayemi’”, it considered the governor’s claim as diversionary.

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He challenged Fayemi to publish salary and allowances that he collects monthly to back up the transparency and accountability claims of the ruling party All Progressives Congress (APC) government.

“A newly promoted professor in the slave enclave called Nigerian universities earns below N400,000 and will only be able to receive N500,000 monthly after 10 years of becoming a professor and this includes all allowances,” Omole said.

He regretted that “someone living on state resources with his family and countless aides with juicy salaries will not be circumspect in thought.”

Omole added, “Fake news and propaganda have been the trademark of the ruling APC. Fayemi’s utterances revealed the mental state of those ruling us.”

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