ASUU STRIKE: Unical Loses Over 21 Lecturers Blame FG

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The current strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, or ASUU, has resulted in MORE THAN 21 Professors and Senior Lecturers passing away at the University of Calabar.

This is because there are more fatalities every day at the nation’s institutions. Remember that on February 14 of this year, ASUU announced a one-month warning strike due to the Federal Government’s refusal to meet their demands. Since then, the public institutions’ gates have been closed.

ASUU and three other university-based unions had announced the strike over around seven demands they wanted the government to take into consideration.

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, and the National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, are the three university-based unions that took part in the strike but later suspended it after reaching an agreement with the government.

The renegotiation of the 2009 agreements, the purported inconsistencies caused by the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, the non-payment of earned allowances, the payment of arrears of the National Minimum wage, the revitalization fund, and the release of white papers on visitation panel reports are just a few of the demands made by the four unions that sparked the strike.

The two non-teaching staff unions of SSANU and NASU urged that IPPIS be replaced with the University Peculiar Personnel Payroll System, or U3PS, even though ASUU has built its preferred payment platform, the University Transparency Accountability Solution, or UTAS.

In an effort to break the impasse, the Federal Government met with the striking professors through the Minister of Labor and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, but to no avail.

This resulted in the government enforcing the “No work, no pay” policy and hauling the striking employees to the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, or NICN.

University instructors have requested a stay of execution following the court’s judgement last week on an interlocutory injunction brought by the Federal Government, which ordered ASUU to resume work while negotiations on their demands continue.

According to reliable sources cited by Bloomsmedia, while the strike is still ongoing, ASUU has suffered enormous losses as a result of the fact that many academics were unable to afford to take care of their immediate necessities, including their health issues.

Additionally, it was learned that several non-teaching staff members passed away as a result of failing to meet their financial responsibilities as a result of the suspension of their salaries. Realiable sources at the University of Calabar, UNICAL, gathered that more than 21 members of the university’s teaching staff had diede

We have lost over 21 teaching staff members at the University of Calabar alone, according to one of the individuals who talked to Vanguard on the condition of anonymity. Additionally, we lost non-teaching personnel.

“At the time that SSANU and NASU terminated their own strike, it was reported that 21 lecturers had died, and further deaths have been reported since then.

“Lack of money is the cause of this horrible development. The majority of deaths, with the exception of the young person who was killed by a gas explosion in his home, were brought on by a lack of funds to manage their medical issues.

“Most of them don’t have money to buy pharmaceuticals or take their meds because the government has ceased paying salaries due to the no work, no pay policy. In reality, the institution gave commendation services to a professor and a senior lecturer on two separate occasions within an hour of each other.

One of the individuals, who has intimate knowledge of university union matters, claimed that since the federal government implemented the no work, no pay policy, the University of Maiduguri had lost roughly 76 teaching and non-teaching staff members.

Dr. John Edor, the chairman of the ASUU, UNICAL Chapter, immediately revealed that they had lost between 10 and 15 members while confirming the passing of his colleagues. He said, “It is not up to that but we have lost some of our staffs,” after learning that sources within the academic community estimated the death toll at 21.

He added that the lecturers’ salaries had stopped being paid, which was a terrible event. According to him, the chapter has been helping members to the best of its ability.

A second senior union official told Vanguard that the SSANU just lost one of its National Vice Presidents, along with a Professor at the Federal University of Technology Owerri.

“I’m telling you that this strike has caused many of our members in the public institutions to pass away.

Even some of the employees whose strike had been suspended since August had not received their salaries for August and September, making it difficult for them to report to work. Campuses are sparse, and people lack the funds for transportation, the insider claimed.