Sule Aliyu, Bauchi
Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi Chapter organized a peaceful protest today to demand for the complete implementation of the 2009 renegotiation agreement with the Federal government.
Krestnews reports that members of the union came out en masse at the ASUU secretariat in the University,chanting solidarity songs to press home their demands, a development they claimed was necessary in order not to plunge the Nation’s Public University System into another needless strike.
The ASUU members displayed placards with different inscriptions called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency conclude the 2009 renegotiation delayed for 15 years now.
Addressing Journalists at the main gate of the University at the end of the protest, the Chairperson of ASUU, Dr Ibrahim Ibrahim stated that the aim of the protest was to draw the attention of the government to their demands that are still lingering for a long time, stressing that government should resume negotiations with the union and do the needful.
Represented by the ASUU Vice Chairperson Muhammàd Muhammad, the Chairperson of the union listed the demands of the union to include conclusion of 2009 Renegotiation which was delayed for 15 years, payment of Academic Allowances, Release of withheld salaries, payment of promotion Arrears, Rejection of IPPIS, provision of adequate funding for public universities and Reverting the illegal dissolution of public universities governing council.
“Today, we are holding a protest at the zonal level, presently the Chairpersons of the zone are holding press conferences and in each of the branches, the Vice-Chairpersons are leading the protest on our issues with the government “
“We have been on negotiation for the past 15 years and uptil now the negotiation has not yielded anything positive.We are calling on the government to call us back so that we can resume the negotiation that we started long ago.
“We have our earned allowances that have been approved by the previous government and has been budgeted for, unfortunately, the implementation has not taken place.Also, there is the issue of our three and half month salaries that is still pending, uptil now, it has not paid” he said