UniAbuja ASUU declares strike over employment, promotion, others
We’re not part of it — Factional group Varsity actions in order — Management
The University of Abuja branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday declared an indefinite strike in the institution as a result of some unresolved issues between the management and the union.
The chapter chairman of ASUU, Dr Sylvester Ugoh, told Daily Trust that the union considered strike because the management seemed not ready to shift ground over the issues in contention which had been dragging for a while.
Listing the issues, Ugoh pointed out the last advertorial placed by the university on vacancy for the post of a vice chancellor while the governing council was not in place. He said the act establishing the university does not give power to any other person for such advertisement except the council.
He said the second issue was the refusal of the university administration to conduct elections into the office of deans of faculties and for the post of Provost of College of Health Sciences.
Another issue, according to him, is that of Microfinance Bank, where ASUU had been removed as shareholders against what the governing council had earlier communicated to the union.
Ugoh also disclosed that part of the reasons for the strike was the issue of massive employment of staff without due process.
“Also, the issue of promotion exercise, it is the council that promotes and it is not in place and the university has gone ahead to constitute an interim team, which is nowhere in our act to promote staff and for us, it is an act of lawlessness and we feel that should not be allowed to continue,” he said.
Strike is for sectional interest Factional group
However, a factional group in the union led by a former chairman of ASUU’s National Political Committee, Dr A. G. Kari, has rejected the declaration, describing it a misrepresentation that served sectional interest.
He said the process for the declaration of strike action was fraught with patterns strange to ASUU.
He said the vice chancellor has since released the timetable for the election of deans in manners that it will not cripple the university activities, especially the ongoing students’ first semester examination.
He said the description of recruitment process duly approved by the federal government as illegal came as a rude shock as it was not known at any time that the ASUU local executives endorsed appointments of deserving new staff into the system.
UniAbuja management speaks
Reacting to the issue, the university spokesperson, Dr Habib Yakub, told
Daily Trust that some of the issues raised by the union had been trashed.
He said the advert was placed by the university in the absence of the council, adding that the minister was the final authority that approved it. “If they have any grouse, they should settle that with the minister,” he said.
He said: “The council is not in place but the university is not going to allow its affairs to be grounded by the absence of the council and it has taken certain responsibilities to move the university forward.”
On the promotion, he said some ASUU members benefitted from it and had not come out to reject it, adding that there was nothing illegal about the promotion and the employment being talked about.
“The university has not employed for a long time but the management took its time to engage different bodies and authorities before it started and the employment started with adjuncts. The employment the varsity has done is not illegal because it has also gone through due process as relevant bodies are involved in it including the character commission,” he said.
“You cannot say because the council is not in place, every action taken by the university becomes illegal.”
On the issue of Microfinance Bank, he said: “Members of ASUU were part of Microfinance Bank and I don’t know at what point they felt they had been sidelined.”