DETAILED INFORMATION ON ASUU-IMSU , SALARY PALAVER AND SO ON SO FORTH.
From Imsu Google.
In fact I was called by a staff of an FM Radio station in Owerri to speak on this. I promptly told the caller that the issue of payment of salaries in IMSU is not what should be discussed in the press but rather for the relevant authorities to duly and faithfully engage ASUU-IMSU with a view to solving the problem.
- What does it mean to say “verified staff”
There are many members of staff who were not paid during the staff BVN submission exercise. And when the exercise was over, the government started paying some staff from a period to the exclusion of other periods to date.
When ASUU-IMSU contacted the Government Data Centre, ASUU-IMSU was informed that the report containing details of those not paid was before the Governor for consideration. That was in February, 2022. To date, the salaries of staff for those missed periods have not been paid to the affected staff.
There is also the pathetic case of some staff who were given command appointments on account of their outstanding academic performance. The last time we checked, these workers have not been included in the pay roll which is now in the Government Data Centre.
Talking about salary payment, it is common knowledge that the annual salary increments for staffers of IMSU have not been reflected in the payment schedule in past couple of years. This is also an aspect of salary payment which the claim that “lecturers have received their salaries till date despite ASUU strike” did not take into consideration.
It should also be pointed out that the salary of February 2020 is still outstanding in IMSU. Is this not a part of the salaries that were claimed to have been paid to date? This claim is false, fictitious and vexatious.
ASUU-IMSU is strike on account the issue of renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement and the adoption of UTAS as a payment platform.
In terms of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agrerment that is overdue for renegotiation, there are some aspects that are to date not yet implemented in IMSU. In terms of payment platform, IMSU is still under the burden of the Treasury Single Account! Please go, check and report!
It is hollow and indefensible to argue that “the agitation for which the strike is on has direct bearing on Federal Universities…”
This argument is off the mark!
The strike is not on the basis of the ownership of public universities but rather on the irreducible minimum standards to ensure that we do not take the universe out of the public tertiary universities in Nigeria.
The Minister for Education “cannot sign off for State Governors who are visitors to their various State owned Universities”, however , the Governors should be concerned with the image, rating, and the conditions of teaching and learning in their State Universities when put on the weighing scale of the NUC minimum benchmark, African University average and world class university standards.
The welfare issues at IMSU cannot be effectively resolved through nameless and faceless social media posts but rather through constructive engagement with ASUU-IMSU in good faith.
Clearly, the current strike action is beyond monthly payment of staff salaries. Meaningful engagement with ASUU-IMSU will go a long way towards a collectively bargained resolution.
Comrade Odinakachukwu Ejiogu
Chairperson ASUU-IMSU
2 September, 2022
