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Tag: ASUU

  • ASUU alleges N2bn fraud at UNILORIN, petitions EFCC

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), alleging more than N2 billion fraud against the management of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN).

    The petition was jointly signed by the Ibadan Zonal Chairmen of ASUU, Dr. Ade Adejumo and Dr. Deji Omole, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

    Others are – Dr. Biodun Olaniran of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Dr. Dauda Adeshina, Kwara State University, and Dr. Kayode Afolayan of UNILORIN.

    ASUU, in the petition, said the former Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Isiaq Oloyede, and the incumbent, Abdulganiyu Ambali, were involved in a fraud totalling more than N2 billion.

    ASUU described the UNILORIN management as one of the most corrupt in Nigeria’s higher institutions.

    According to the petition, the institution has been operating under the pretext of keeping stable academic calendar to silence whistle blowers while perpetrating enormous fraud.

    The allegations listed in the petition included pension fraud, unremitted deductions, extortion from students, contract inflation and kick-backs, as well as unlawful payments to ex-principal officers of the university.

    Adejumo urged the EFCC to investigate the “monumental fraud perpetrated by past and present administrations at the university.’’

     

  • Fed Govt, ASUU get two-week deadline to resolve issues

    Fed Govt, ASUU get two-week deadline to resolve issues

    Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki yesterday brokered a two-week deadline for the Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to settle three outstanding issues.

    The three issues out eight are said to be outstanding.

    The resolution of the issues would avert a nationwide strike planned by ASUU.

    Saraki personally participated in resumed negotiation between the Federal Ministry of Education and the leadership of ASUU held at the National Assembly yesterday.

    Minister of Education Adamu Adamu took part in the negotiation.

    The three outstanding issues yet to be resolved include “Earned Allowances”, which ASUU is asking to be paid to its members.

    The Federal Government said N30 billion had already been paid for the purpose.

    The government delegation to the meeting was said to have insisted that the audit of the usage of N30 billion should be made before further fund are released.

    At their last meeting, the Senate Education Committee suggested that the government should give universities N1.5 billion monthly, which ASUU rejected on the basis that the amount was too meagre.

    Another issue the meeting failed to resolve was payment of the salaries and allowances of the staff of university primary schools.

    The payment of 15 per cent of the education budget for each year to the University Education Committees was another issue in contention.

     ASUU President Biodun Ogunyemi thanked Saraki and the Senate Committee on Education for their intervention.

    He assured that the three outstanding issues would be resolved within three days.

  • FG, ASUU get two week deadline to resolve issue

    FG, ASUU get two week deadline to resolve issue

    Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on Thursday brokered a two-week deadline for the Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to settle three outstanding issues.
    Three issues out eight are said to be outstanding.
    The resolution of the three issues would avert a nation wide strike planned by ASUU.
    Saraki personally participated in resumed negotiation between the Federal Ministry of Education and the leadership of ASUU held at the National Assembly on Thursday.
    Minister of Education, Mr. Adamu Adamu also took part in the negotiation.
    The three outstanding issues yet to be resolved are “Earned Allowances” which ASUU is asking to be paid to its members.
    The Federal Government however said that N30 billion had already been paid for the purpose.
    The government delegation to the meeting was said to have insisted that the audit of the usage of N30billion should be made before further fund are released.
    At their last meeting, the Senate Education Committee suggested that the government should give universities N1.5 billion monthly which ASUU rejected on the basis that the amount is too meagre.
    Another issue the meeting failed to resolve was paying of the salaries and allowances of the staff of university primary schools.
    The payment of 15 per cent of the education budget for each year to the University Education Committees, is another issue in contention.
    A source said that the Minister of Education Adamu, assured that the issues would be resolved in three days.
    Adamu was also said to have said that if the issues were resolved there may not be need to come to the Senate again.
     ASUU President, Biodun Ogunyemi thanked Saraki and the Senate committee on Education for their intervention assured that the three outstanding issues would be resolved within three days.
    It was also learnt that issues for resolution rose from six to eight because some of the issues had to be broken into subsets.
  • Between ASUU strike and TSA

    Between ASUU strike and TSA

    After the buzz generated by the just-concluded United States presidential elections, the Treasury Single Account (TSA) may very well be the most contentious issue discussed by policymakers and the public these days. It is rare to flip through the pages of newspapers without finding one or two references to the TSA, some positive but most negative.

    The TSA was also one of the issues the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) highlighted during its just suspended seven-day warning strike. Besides other burning demands such as increased funding, ASUU pressed for exemption from the TSA, with claims that the policy was infringing on its autonomy. I can understand the frustration of the lecturers. Time and again, they reach an agreement with the government over their entitlements, but the government always flouts those agreements and turns around to ask for their understanding. If the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement and 2013 MOU were pardonable mistakes, leaving the lecturers hanging in 2016 is simply inexcusable. Thankfully, both ASUU and the Senate announced the possibility of favourable compromise after their recent closed-door meetings, and we hope this will head off the possibility of an indefinite strike further up the line.

    But here is my problem with the lecturers. They cannot blame the TSA for delayed salaries, biased promotions, rundown university infrastructure and process inefficiency. The TSA is, after all, not an individual or entity. It is simply an account where all the taxes, levies and tariffs we pay to the government are lodged. Why is the TSA necessary, you may ask? Before now, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) operated as many as 17,000 accounts where revenue from taxes and other payments made by the public were deposited. But these accounts were left to yield interest for faceless individuals and groups. As such, government was unable to keep tabs on its income, and consequently starved of funds to execute developmental projects. Something had to give, and the government decided to collapse those multiple accounts into one managed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Of course, the process is two-way. There is a procedure for making payments and withdrawals into that account to ensure transparency. Those may be some of the process delays that ASUU has a problem with.

    So in practical terms, how does the TSA work? If you are a student, for instance, you would typically go to a designated bank to pay your school fees. After close of business, the commercial bank remits your payment, along with those of your friends, to the TSA and gets a commission for its services. The process works the same way across all government agencies, where they collect levies and pay into commercial banks for onward transfer to the TSA. So clearly, the TSA is not an organisation or a group of persons. In fact, the TSA is not managed by one distinct body. The account resides with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), while general management revolves around the apex bank, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) and the Ministry of Finance.

    In my own experience, change is constant. To ensure accountability, organisations sometimes put processes in place that might seem tough, but are ultimately for the common good. Recall that at some point, we could recover lost phone lines by simply walking up to the nearest call centre and making a request. But today, we must present any one of our voter’s registration card, driver’s licence or international passport to get this done. Trust me, this is not fun most of the time, especially when we don’t have ready access to those documents. But we are all willing to go through the process to avoid cases of identity theft and fraud.  I think it would do ASUU a lot of good to view the TSA in this light.

    We must understand that it would take us all some time to get used to the TSA. Meanwhile, what we should do is encourage the process and not blame it for everything under the sun that is wrong with our tertiary institutions. It is ridiculous, for instance, to blame the TSA when universities run out of letterhead paper for notification of results and other institutional documents. But that seems to be the general argument that ASUU is making. To be sure, universities have several autonomous TSA sub-accounts with the CBN meant for revolving funds such as this.  So the argument that they are financially handicapped doesn’t hold much water. Ordinarily, universities would have been exempt from the TSA. But in a mad rush to meet the September 15, 2015 deadline for compliance with the TSA, commercial banks mistakenly lumped their funds with the MDAs’ for onward lodgement with the CBN. But I’m sure that challenge is not beyond what a cordial parley with stakeholders can resolve rather than ineffective strike actions.

    The argument that the TSA is to blame for loss of grants from foreign institutions is also faulty. Following the TSA-stipulated closure of the universities’ domiciliary accounts, they have been experiencing systemic delays opening new accounts with the CBN. It is this challenge and not the TSA implementation that is delaying their access to grants and donations from foreign institutions. So FUNAAB’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Olusola Oyewole’s recent disclosure that the university has had over $2 million grants for a project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ‘trapped’ in the TSA does not exactly hit the nail on the head since the problem is mostly systemic. Good enough, Remita, the payment gateway to the TSA created by software giant SystemSpecs, can potentially plug this gap. However, all stakeholders must come to the drawing board and thrash out their grievances in an atmosphere devoid of rancour and threats.

    In the final analysis, our universities have always been grappling with funding issues and broken promises. I think ASUU should stick to the same line of argument and ensure it is resolved, else it will give us all the impression that its grouse with the TSA is because the policy leaves no room for mismanagement of funds.  If the TSA has anything to do with pay cuts in our universities like some argue, I’m sure it is because of the number of ghost workers discovered in the public sector since the policy was implemented. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said as much recently when he announced that over 40,000 ghost workers had been flushed out of the public sector since the policy was enforced.  These are some of the positives of the TSA policy we should be thankful for rather than throw the baby away with the bathwater.

    Okoroafor wrote in from Kaduna

     

     

     

     

  • ASUU strike: LASU lecturers resume work

    ASUU strike: LASU lecturers resume work

    Lecturers at the Lagos State University (LASU) resumed work on Wednesday after  the expiration of the one-week nationwide warning strike declared by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    ‎Dr Isaac Oyewunmi, the Chairman, LASU chapter of ASUU, told newsmen ‎in Lagos that the resumption of work followed the directives of the ASUU national body.

    “We have all resumed today (Wednesday) as directed by the national body because the one week strike elapsed on Tuesday by 11.59 p.m.‎’’
    ‎
    According to him,‎ academic activities have returned and will continue until there is a contrary directive from the national body.

    The chairman said the next line of action would be determined by the union’s national body ‎after it meets to review the outcome of the warning strike.

    ‎Oyewunmi said following the warning strike, negotiation would continue between the union and the Federal Government.

    “It is either the government is ready to meet our demands or face our next line of action as there is no going back on our demands,’’ he said.

    A NAN correspondent who visited LASU, confirmed that academic activities had resumed as students were seen across departments and faculties attending lectures.

    ASUU declared the one-week warning strike which began on Nov. 16 to press home their demands from the Federal Government.

    The demands include the implementation of the 2009 agreement as well as the exclusion of  universities from the Single Treasury Account.

  • We won’t allow govt to kill public varsities, says ASUU

    We won’t allow govt to kill public varsities, says ASUU

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Friday, said it would not fold its hands and watch federal and state governments kill public universities.

    The union asked parents, students and other stakeholders to direct their grievances against the ongoing one-week strike to the Federal Government.

    Speaking through its chapter in the Bayelsa State-owned Niger Delta University (NDU), ASUU insisted that the industrial action was for the best interest of development of tertiary education in the country.

    Addressing a press conference at the school’s auditorium, the NDU chapter Chairman of ASUU, Dr. Stanley Ogoun, said the union would resist any attempt by politicians, who had started the business of running private universities, to kill public institutions.

    He said the docility of stakeholders was the reason why state governments and politicians destroyed primary and secondary schools.

    Ogoun said: “We call on students, parents and the ordinary people of Nigeria to understand that our actions are geared towards resisting and frustrating the attempt by the ruling class to commercialize and privatize university education in Nigeria.

    “We will resist every attempt to kill the university system the way they killed primary and secondary schools. If we fail to stand on the side of truth, posterity will not forgive us.

    “Before now, we were receiving subventions to run the universities, but now they are withdrawing the subventions. Most state universities are almost grounded why political actors are floating private universities”, he said.

    He said the Federal Government jettisoned agreements it reached with the union adding that the 2009 agreement was to be reviewed every three years.

    Ogoun said: “The current state of the economy is manmade and the government of the day must live up to its responsibilities by initiating policy options that would move us out of our current economic state, except the government is bereft of ideas”.

    Explaining the series of strikes embarked upon by the union in 2009 and 2013, he lamented that most aspects of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) it signed with the government had not been implemented.

    He said: “For the avoidance of doubt, this current action is compelled by failure of negotiations and several entreaties from our union since 2004 till date and the current trend in some states where staff salaries are sacrificed on the altar of other exigencies”.

    He listed the reasons behind the strike as non-release of funds for revitalization of public universities; non-release of subventions to state universities by the visitors and non-payment of staff salaries and  refusal to issue license for the registration of the Nigerian University Pension Management Company (NUPEMCO).

    Others according to him were refusal to pay Earned Academic Allowances (EAA); shortfall in salaries leading to payment of fractions of staff salaries; non-payment of salaries of staff in the staff primary schools and exemption of universities from the Treasury Single Account (TSA).

  • ASUU strike: Kogi varsity threatens extension

    The Academic Staff Union of Union of Universities, Kogi State University (ASUU-KSU) chapter has vowed to extend the one-week warning strike issued by its national body, if the state government does not offset salary backlog of some of its members.

    Its Chairman, Dr David Aina, told journalists on Tuesday that the chapter might be left with no option then to embark on a total strike, having given prior notice to the government to that effect.

    He said the union had earlier informed the government that it would embark on an indefinite strike starting November 7, if the government failed to address issues militating against conducive learning in the institution.

    If their demands are not met within the warning strike period, Aina warned that members would be forced to go beyond the seven-day warning strike issued by the national ASUU leadership.

    He said: “We expect the Kogi State Government to settle all outstanding salaries of all our members within this period of warning strike to forestall further disruption of academic activities in Kogi State University.

    “The union will not continue to find its arms while our members suffer untold hardships in being able to feed , transport and fulfil their statutory obligations. We cry out once more; where the government that says it should be trusted? Where is the benefit of doubt?

    “We call on all well-meaning Kogites, influential and our royal father’s to please interface, so that university activities may continue unhindered. The continual delay in putting the University Council in place is worrisome and hampers proper functioning of the system. We therefore, call on the Visitor to set up the Council without delay”.

  • ASUU shuns Senate’s call to end strike

    ASUU shuns Senate’s call to end strike

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has tabled a number of demands before the Federal Government as condition to call off the ongoing warning strike.

    A meeting between the lecturers and a Senate team, led by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki yesterday ended in a deadlock.

    Among the demands listed by the lecturers is the implementation of the 2009 Agreement and the 2013 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ASUU and the Federal Government.

    The teachers are demanding an outstanding balance of N65, 833, 047,372.24 (2009-2013) plus N62,417‚645‚224.23 (2014-2016) amounting to an unpaid balance of N128‚250‚692‚596.47.

    This was in line with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Federal Government and ASUU while resolving the crisis of June-November, 2013.

    ASUU also stated that the initial N30bn paid university staff as part of EAA in 2013 was given to the Governing Councils and not the Union as presented by the Ministry of Education.

    ASUU also decried shortfall in salaries, leading to payment of fractions of staff salaries in the universities, starting from December 2015.

    The union also raised issues on the non-payment of salaries of staff in Staff Primary Schools since December 2015 contrary to provisions of 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement.

    “The Hon. Minister said the shortfall in salaries was due to delay in passing the 2016 budget and the problem would be resolved with the release of the budget. For all universities, the shortfall in salaries still persists even though the 2016 Budget had long been released.”

    “On the staff primary schools, the Minister agreed with ASUU that the Union did not take Government to court but noted that the Ministry would have to await the interpretation of the 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement in this regard”, the union’s position paper stated.

    The union pointed out that funding of universities for revitalization based on the FGN-ASUU Memorandum of Understanding of November 2013, was in arrears N660 billion.

    The teachers also said the Federal Government reneged on the MoU it signed with the union to the effect that 26 percent budgetary allocation recommended by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation ( UNESCO).

    Other issues raised by the striking lecturers include the failure of the Pension Reform Act 2014 to completely address aspects of the 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement which allow academics on the Professorial Cadre (i e. Professors and Associate Professors) to retire at 70 and also to retire with their salaries.

    That the PENCOM Management has sat on the application for licensing of NUPEMCO, which the union said was causing serious agitation in the system.

    They also complained about the Treasury Single Account (TSA), saying  “with the operation of TSA, federal universities find it extremely difficult to discharge their core responsibilities of teaching, research and community services as well as engaging in international academic networking due to inadequate access to budgeted funds.

    “TSA is incompatible with the autonomy of universities and universities should be exempted from its implementation on account of the peculiarities of the institutions.

    “Budgetary allocation to education dropped from 12% to 11% and 8% in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively. Hon. Minister explained that Government believed the capital and research grants to Universities were being handled by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).

    “He said allocation to universities had been enhanced in the revised budget and promised to make a copy of the revised budget available to the union. However, our union is yet to see any significant change in this respect.

    “Government reluctance to set up its Negotiating Team for the review of the 2009 Agreement, as consistently requested by ASUU since 2012, was getting our members worried.

    “The Minister said, in response to ASUU’s letter calling for the renegotiation of the 2009 Agreement, that a memo had been forwarded to Mr. President on the issue.

    “The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is concerned that, six months after the  meeting, there has been no meaningful intervention to assuage the feelings of our Union on the issues raised above.

    “The failure puts ASUU leadership in a severe difficulty responding to enquiries from members of the Union about the state of affairs on our engagement with the Federal government. Indeed, it is now generating increasingly worrisome discontent among our members throughout the country”.

    The chairman Senate committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND , Senator Barau Jibrin who briefed reporters shortly after the meeting with the lecturers said the the meeting was fruitful.

    Said he, “We have had a fruitful deliberation. And a way forward has been found by creating a sub-committee of this committee to sit and find out certain things in the Ministry of Finance which will bring us close to the resolution of this problem.

  • ASUU begins one-week warning strike tomorrow

    ASUU begins one-week warning strike tomorrow

    THE Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said it will begin a one-week warning strike tomorrow to protest the Federal Government’s failure to implement their 2009 agreement.

    The development is coming after months of industrial peace in the nation’s universities.

    ASUU accused the government of turning the establishment of universities into constituency projects to score political points, saying the union was opposed to such establishment.

    Addressing a news conference after its meeting in Abuja, ASUU’s National President Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi                                               said despite efforts to get the government to respect the agreement, the government failed, causing anxiety among lecturers in the universities.

    He listed some areas of disagreement as payment of a fraction of workers’ entitlement and denial of their entitlement in respect of earned academic allowance amounting to N128 billion, funding of universities for revitalisation, and refusal to register the Nigerian Universities Pension Management Company by the National Pension Commission (NPC).

    Others are introduction of Treasury Single Account, which the union said affects universities’ autonomy, reduced budgetary allocation to education and refusal by government to re-negotiate the 2009 agreement, due  since 2012.

    He said: “Our members are worried that six months after meeting the minister of Education and a series of letters on the need to respect the 2009 agreement and 2013 MoU, there has been no tangible results.

    “This failure puts ASUU leadership in difficulty in responding to enquiries from members about our engagement with the Federal Government.

    “Following nationwide consultations, the National Executive Council  rose from its meeting on Sunday, November 13, with a resolution to begin a one-week warning strike, from Wednesday, November 16, 2016.

    “The nationwide strike is total and comprehensive. While it last, there shall be no teaching, no examination and no attendance of statutory meeting of any kind.

    “We use this opportunity to call on education loving Nigerians and friends of Nigeria to prevail on the government to address ASUU’s demands. For us, we shall not surrender until the university system is repositioned.”

    On establishment of more universities, he said: “We are not against democratising university education by providing more opportunities. But we also believe that if government followed the path which we agreed on, universities will not be made constituency projects as we are seeing.

    “When you say every state must have a university without doing your homework and every governor thinks a university must be established in his constituency, it means we are not paying attention to quality, but using such to make a political point.

    “That is what we are against. In other places, what they do is to expand facilities, open space for more students, improve laboratories, library and offices. We are not seeing such happening here.”

    Prof. Ogunyomi said the union and Nigerians have not seen any relief in terms of the change promised by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government.

  • Crisis looms as varsity suspends ASUU leaders

    Barely three weeks after the AdekunleAjasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA), Ondo State chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) suspended its four months strike, leaders of the staff union have been suspended by the university management.

    The ASUU chairman, Dr Sola Fayose, his predecessor,DrBusuyiMekusi, Vice Chairman, Dr Dorcas Alese and Assistant Secretary, Dr. Sola Olorunfemi were, yesterday, suspended for what a management’s source described as “unruly behaviour”.

    Others suspended include Investment Secretary, DrAdedayoAfe, the Welfare Secretary, DrBoluOshodi and a non-executive member whose name could not be ascertained at press time.

    Some ASUU members claimed the management may have come after their leaders after the union called for the “democratisation of academic positions” in line with the regulations setting up the university.

    The union had on October 11, 2016 suspended its action over non-payment of their salary arrears and deductions. As part of the condition to call off the strike, the lecturers gave the Vice Chancellor (VC) a seven-dayultimatum to start the process of electing substantive deans of faculties in accordance with the extant laws setting up the university.

    The management confirmed the suspension of the ASUU leaders in a statement by the Head of Information, Protocol and Public Relations Unit, Mr Sola Imoru.

    The statement said the school Senate, during its emergency meeting after the suspension of the strike, directed all its academics to submit students’ scores and upload same on the university portal within one week.

    Imoru said: “In utmost disregard for the decision of the Senate, the highest academic organ of the university, some misguided academics disrupted the meetings called in some faculties and departments to carry out the Senate’s decision, assaulted their colleagues, including senior professors, and generally disturbed the peace of the university.”

    Imoru said the management had constituted a panel to investigate the matter in order to restore disciplineand peace in the institution.

    Efforts to get the reaction of the suspended lecturers were unsuccessful. Calls and messages put across to DrFayose were not picked nor replied at press time.