UniAbuja ASUU declares strike over ‘illegality’ in employment, promotion, others

The University of Abuja branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared an indefinite strike as a result of some unresolved issues between the management and the union.

Chairman UniAbuja ASUU, Dr Sylvester Ugoh, told Daily Trust that the issues in contention are many and have been pressing over time with the university administration.

Listing the issues , Ugoh pointed out the last advertorial placed by the university on vacancy for the post of a Vice Chancellor as there is no governing council in place, saying, the act establishing the university does not give power to any other person for such advertisement except the council.

He said: “The university administration went ahead to do that despite the earlier warning by the union and drawing its attention that it should not be done as it is an act of illegality and they university went ahead to do it and we requesting that the advert be withdrawn.

“The second is the refusal of the university administration to conduct elections in to the office of deans of faculties and for the post of Provost of College of Health Sciences. These are issues that have been with the administration of the university over time because the act of the university stipulates that position of deans and provost is by election but that has not been done and some of those acting have been there for more than two years and the university has refused to do what is lawful,” he said.

Another issue according to him is that of micro finance that is in formation, saying, in 2017, the governing council gave ASUU a position to be a member of the board.

“We had our investments, which we paid over N4 million there from 2017 and the last letter we got from university administration was that we have been removed as shareholders and we don’t have a place in the board of directors and we feel it is against what the governing council had earlier communicated to the union,” he added.

Ugoh also disclosed that part of the reason for the strike is the issue of massive employment of staff without due process.

He said the act made it clear that on employment, “you have to advertise it on the national daily and it can only be done by the governing council but in the last couple of months the current administration has employed not less than 300 staff into the university without due process and we feel it is an act of illegality , it is impunity, not giving regards to any law.

“Also, the issue of promoting exercise, it is the council that promotes and it is not in place and the university has gone ahead to constitute interim team, which is nowhere in our act to promote staff and for us it is act of lawlessness and we feel that should not be allowed to continue.

“We cannot embark on strike without the trustees and principal officers of ASUU giving the permission, so having fulfill that process they gave us permission to proceeds on an indefinite, comprehensive and total strike and that is why we declared the strike,” he said.

He however urged the federal government to constitute the governing councils for universities as their absent is creating a lot of problems in the university system.

The university management is yet to officially react to the situation.