Aggrieved non academic officials drawn from the Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) of the Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU), and other affiliate bodies including the Non Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASUEAI), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAATs), is set to embark on strike on 3rd January 2024, LEADERSHIP garthered in Uyo, the state capital.
The chairman of NASU in the institution, Comrade Mefiok Umana, who doubles as secretary of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the coalition, maintained that the strike action remains sacrosanct as the 14-days’ notice already issued to government since December 20, expires on 3rd January 2024, except government intervenes via dialogue.
Poor funding that has impinged negatively on academic infrastructure and welfare of workers, he explained, compeled the protesting workers to agree to down tool until government accept to address their grievances.
Lamenting what he described as gross underfunding of the institution and non-commitment to staff welfare as the driving force of the school, Umana expressed anger that while civil servants in the state are enjoying the yuletide season, AKSU workers are wallowing in crises situation in their homes due to lack of government largesse.
“All is not well with us at AKSU. Our workers are in sober mood in this Christmas and new year festivities,” he lamented, and listed some of the grievance areas to include non-implementation of petrol subsidy removal palliative at AKSU, no double salary to AKSU workers in December, as announced by Governor Umo Eno, and only N2,000 hazard allowance as against the N30,000 for senior workers and N15,000 for junior staff.
Other problem areas he listed bothers on lack of conducive environment for teaching, learning and research, explaining that only two hours (10 – 12 noon), are devoted to running generators to energize the school every day, and no leave allowance due to inadequate subvention.
Blaming absence of a properly constituted Governing Council for the noticeable administrative infractions, Umana, noted that if such body had been in place, the agitations by the workers’ union would have been well channeled for effective results from government and called for immediate action on the matter.
Successive governments, according to him, have not done anything to improve quality of teaching, learning and research, lamenting that 90 percent of structures on the campus were built by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
“Successive governments in the state has not done anything tangible in the school. 90 percent of structures on the campus are built by TETFUND. I don’t know whether if there was no TETFund, the students would have been learning under the trees,” he stressed.
