Academic and other activities have been paralysed at the Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti (EKSU) following a total strike embarked upon by workers of the institution over non-payment of their earned allowances.
The workers, under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) vowed not to return to work until the salaries and allowances were paid.
The Chairman of EKSU Branch of SSANU, Comrade Kolawole Falade, said the decision was arrived at during a meeting of members of the four unions led by their chairmen: Prof Olu Olu (ASUU), Falade (SSANU), Comrade Tope Akanmu (NASU) and Comrade Jola Awogbemi (NAAT).
Falade said workers in the universities were groaning following non-payment of their salaries due to the state government’s non-payment of subvention to the university since August.
According to him, the workers are demanding payment of their salaries for two months, payment of excess work load since 2011 and responsibility allowance for non-teaching staff since 2008.
He said: “We want to implore Ekiti State Government to adequately fund the university as its owner. The government should pick up the total wage bill of the university and as well pay it capital grant yearly as done in other state universities”.
The SSANU leader, who said picking up the wage bill by the state government would enable the school to use its internally generated revenue for development of infrastructure, lamented a situation whereby the N260 million monthly subvention to the institution could not settle its about N400 million wage bill.
He advised the state government to respect the autonomy status of the university, saying “changing principal officers with new government is unhealthy because they are not politicians and they have specific tenure”.
Falade appealed to Governor Ayodele Fayose to visit the university and see for himself the deteriorating condition and dearth of social amenities, saying the need to rescue the university from imminent collapse could not be overemphasized.
“The merger of three universities into one (EKSU) was with the promise to make it a world-class university, but we have not seen that. Even the IGR is no longer coming as students are no longer coming to EKSU because of uncertainty of graduation period and uncertainty in the name of the institution”.
Falade, who said the university name should be reverted to University of Ado Ekiti because of everybody’s preference for it, added that since “the money for the name change has not been paid to the National Universities commission (NUC), UNAD should be left as the name.”
Credit: Tribune