By Beatrice Gondyi Bauchi
The Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has decried its frustration over the Federal Government’s failure to pay their June salaries, leading to a withdrawal of services by the union.
This was stated by the Chairperson of ASUU, ATBU branch, Dr Angulu Haruna, yesterday during a press briefing at the union’s secretariat.
Dr Haruna, explained that the union sees the continuous delay in payment as deliberate, citing that other federal agencies are regularly paid on time, while federal universities like theirs are consistently sidelined.
“Usually, our salaries always span into the first week of the next month. While other government organisations are being paid, the federal universities would be left out.
“Whenever we asked, they’ll always tell us that it is because of our migration from the IPPIS, and we see that there is a preferential treatment against us but in favour of other organisations,” he said.
He emphasised that the current action is not a full-blown strike, but a directive from ASUU’s National Executive Council aimed at compelling the government to meet its obligations.
“During one of our National Executive Council meetings, it was resolved that if the government fails to pay our salaries between the 1st and 3rd of the next month, the branches should activate the ‘Active Non-Compliance (ANC)’.
“This is the ANC. This means that we will come to work but we will withdraw our services; we will not enter the classrooms to teach. We will not attend to our primary duties and that is the situation we are in at the moment.”
The ASUU chairperson explained that what the union is doing is not a strike action but carrying out a directive of its National Secretariat to push the government to fulfill its obligations towards the university lecturers.
“This action will continue until the Federal Government does the needful and pay us our salaries. As I speak with you, if our salaries are paid at this moment, we will return to the classrooms to teach,” he said.
Also, the branch’s immediate past chairperson, Dr Ibrahim Inuwa, criticised the persistent delays, calling them a punitive response to the union’s withdrawal from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
“There was a month we spent up to two weeks into the next month before we were paid our salaries. If they pay us, we will resume our work but for now, we are not entering the classrooms to teach but we will definitely go to work,” Inuwa added.
“It is becoming a tradition that the lecturers are not paid when they are supposed to be paid. Going by what is happening, it looks as if they are trying to punish us for pulling out of the IPPIS and this is very unfortunate.
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