Posted by The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) leadership has denied knowing that President Bola Tinubu has ordered its members to get four of the eight months’ worth of arrears in wages that had been withheld.
This was said by Prof. Christopher Piwuna, the National Vice President of ASUU, in a press conference held at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Yelwa Campus, Bauchi, during the scholarship distribution to undergraduate students in the Bauchi Zone.
According to the Janescope, Tinubu authorized the partial waiver of the “No Work, No Pay” decree against striking ASUU members on October 20, 2023. The ASUU’s eight-month strike began on February 14, 2022, and ended on October 17, 2022.
ASUU insisted that it was ignorant of these occurrences, though.
When questioned about the current state of the four-month salary arrears, Piwuna stated that ASUU is not aware of any.
“As far as we know, nobody has received financial assistance from the government. We have no knowledge about this. We are not aware of that as a union,” he said.
Professor Nanmwa Voncir of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, ATBU, Bauchi, also spoke at the occasion and accused the student union representatives of failing to stop the hike in public university fees.
According to him, most students from low-income families are at risk of quitting school as a result of the recent hike in tuition prices implemented by public university administration.
He claimed that the federal government and administrators of higher education established anti-student policies as a result of the compromising stance taken by the student delegates.
The likelihood of dropout for economically disadvantaged pupils was highlighted by the former ASUU Chairman, ATBU, and Zonal Coordinator, Bauchi Zone, who questioned the federal government’s allegation of insufficient funding for education.
In doing so, he called on the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and other student organizations to work with ASUU to support legislation that is harmful to the welfare of students and to fight for adequate funding for universities.
“I find it disappointing that the student leadership has abandoned the struggles, leading to the recent arbitrary hikes in tuition at universities across the nation.”
Voncir remembers an earlier incident in which ASUU had first opposed an ATBU fee increase, but the student leadership had approved it.