Union condemns reduction in funds for Nigerian universities

olamide oni

April 18, 2016 1:36 PM

"ASUU members should have their salaries and allowances paid in full."

ASUU President, Dr Nasir Isa

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Abuja Zone, has expressed displeasure over cut in allocation for personnel expenditure to Federal Universities by the Federal Government.

The Abuja Zonal Coordinator of the Union, Suleiman Muhammed, who briefed journalists on Sunday in Abuja, said that the cut had adversely affected the union.

He said ASUU, Abuja Zone comprised University of Abuja, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nasarawa State University, Keffi and Ibrahim Babangida University, Lapai.

He said that relevant authorities like the Federal Ministry of Finance and Budget Office seemed not to understand how the university system worked.

“With deeply worrisome concerns, ASUU-Abuja Zone wishes to bring to the notice of the general public the unilateral drastic cut by the Federal Government of Nigeria in the personnel expenditure allocations to Federal Universities across the country.

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“This ugly phenomenon began in December 2015; one of the federal universities which received allocation of a little over N336 million in Dec. 2015, has consistently received about N308 million for the months of January through March, 2016,” he said.

The coordinator said it was wrong for the federal government to implement unilateral pay-cut in university workers’ salaries being a signatory to most International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions.

He expressed concern that state governments, the proprietors of state universities, were waiting to copy the federal government, adding that this could lead to breakdown in industrial harmony across all public universities.

Mr. Muhammed said that for industrial harmony within the university system, ASUU members should have their salaries and allowances paid in full and not in percentages.

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