By Timi Owolabi Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, ATBU, Bauchi branch, sta...
By Timi Owolabi
Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU,
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, ATBU, Bauchi branch, staged a protest on
Thursday, urging President Bola Tinubu to facilitate the immediate
implementation of the Prof Nimi Briggs Committee’s agreement on renegotiating
salaries for academic staff at federal universities.
The ASUU members marched from their secretariat within the
Yelwa campus to the main gate, holding placards with various inscriptions to
draw attention to their plight.
Addressing journalists, the branch chairperson of ASUU,
ATBU, Comrade Ibrahim Inuwa, stated that the non-implementation of the
agreement had denied academics a wage consistent with current economic
realities, and also led to continued poor funding of universities.
He lamented that ASUU members have remained on the same
salary system for 15 years, with all efforts at renegotiation failing, thereby
leaving them stagnant.
He further explained that the demand for renegotiation of
the pay package with the Federal Government of Nigeria is anchored on
International Labour Organisation, ILO, Convention No. 98, which provides for
the principle of collective bargaining.
“Following the FGN/ASUU 2009 Agreement, it was stipulated
that the agreement would be reviewed every three years. However, the union has
been without a renegotiated agreement for the past 15 years.
“Consequently, after much effort and pressure on the
government, a renegotiation committee was set up under the chairmanship of Wale
Babalakin in 2017. However, this committee failed to conclude its assignment
within the agreed time frame.”
“Two other committees, headed by Prof. Munzali Jibrin and
the late Emeritus Prof. Nimi Briggs, negotiated and produced draft agreements,
but the process was halted before finalizing the reviewed agreement. Since
2021, the document has remained in draft form,” he said.
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