ASUU ATBU organizes town hall Meeting to proffer solution to incessant strike problem in public universities
By Suzan Edeh, Bauchi
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi Chapter has convened a town hall meeting to interact with stakeholders in the state to proffer a holistic solution to the issue of recurring ASUU strike that disrupts academic activities in public universities in the country.
This meeting, which was organized by the ASUU ATBU Bauchi chapter, was held at the 1000 seater Lecture Theatre at Yelwa campus of the university.
During the meeting, Dr Ibrahim Ibrahim Inuwa, the Chairperson of ASUU ATBU Chapter, said that the aim of the meeting was to inform stakeholders about the current situation of Public universities in the country and discuss ideas on how to address the rot university system of education.
The ASUU Chairperson said that the Town hall meeting was a directive of the National Executive Council meeting held in Bayelsa state hosted by Niger Delta University, to go and sensitize members of the public on the current situation of public universities, the efforts of ASUU in improving education and also get feedback from stakeholders.
He stated that another objective of the Town hall meeting is to correct the wrong impression the public has about ASUU, pointing out that the proxy of ASUU struggle is to improve the condition of learning in the university education system.
Dr Ibrahim said that throughout the 90’s to 2001, ASUU has called out on the government to address the rot in public universities in the country which include dilapidated infrastructures and inadequate staffing of public universities amongst others, adding that despite the various diplomatic means ASUU used to get the government to address the rot in university education system of the country, it has not yielded any result.
According to him, despite the suspension of strikes on the promise of fulfilled agreements, nothing has been done by the current administration.
“In this Town Hall meeting, we want the public to proffer solutions because all the solutions that are within our means, have been exhausted. Whenever we go on industrial action, people are quick to say that we should explore other avenues of negotiation and for more than one year, we have been trying to do that with this new administration, but unfortunately, there is no meaningful commitment to address these issues,” he said.
He listed some of the outstanding issues ASUU has with the government to include conclusion of Federal government and ASUU agreement of 2021, release of the withheld salaries in account of the 2022 strike action, release of unpaid salaries of staff on sabbatical part time and adjustment of appointments due to IPPS, release of outstanding third party deductions such as check-up dues, contributions and Cooperatives.
The other issues according him are funding for the revitalization of public universities, release of earned academic allowances as captured in the 2023 budget, proliferation of universities by federal and state governments, implementation of reports of visitation panels to public universities, illegally dissolution of governing councils and deployment of UTAs in place of IPPIS.