The president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities,
Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, has explained why the union refused to
hold meeting via Zoom platform with the Federal Government’s
representatives, saying such meeting would not yield any tangible
result as it would be difficult to control.
He gave the reason in an exclusive interview with
Tribune
Education[1] on
Tuesday.
According to him, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris
Ngige, invited the union to a meeting in Abuja, the Federal Capital
Territory, as a response to their last official correspondence to
him where the union rejected submission of their Bank Verification
Numbers as a condition for payment of lecturers’ outstanding
salaries.
“But we could not go because of the current lockdown due to the
raging COVID-19 pandemic in the country. And the minister then
suggested that we should meet via Zoom platform. But we know that
such meeting cannot yield any positive result when most of our
physical meetings in the past ended in stalemate,” he said.
While noting that the union is waiting for normalcy to return in
the country to enable them hold the physical meeting, Ogunyemi
acknowledged that government has indeed paid salaries of some
members of the union, but not all.
“Many of our members are yet to get their salaries as of Monday,
and some of those who had even been paid were not paid in full. We
are collating data to enable us know those affected,” he said.
He said though that salaries are not their major demand from the
government but implementation of the last Memorandum of Action to
re-engineer the nation’s public university education.
VDO.AI
The ASUU president said no member of the union submitted BVN before
payment of their salaries.
“We knew submission of our BVN would lead to our forceful
participation in the Integrated and Personnel Payroll Information
System (IPPIS) of the Federal Government and we still stand against
the policy,” he declared.
Ogunyemi, who teaches at the Olabisi Onabanjo University,
Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, said the bursary department of each
university handled the payment of their salaries using the existing
records, and therefore could not understand why total compliance
with the unconditional directive by President Muhammadu Buhari (to
pay outstanding salaries) was not carried out.
The president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities,
Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, has explained why the union refused to
hold meeting via Zoom platform with the Federal Government’s
representatives, saying such meeting would not yield any tangible
result as it would be difficult to control.
He gave the reason in an exclusive interview with
Tribune
Education[1] on
Tuesday.
According to him, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris
Ngige, invited the union to a meeting in Abuja, the Federal Capital
Territory, as a response to their last official correspondence to
him where the union rejected submission of their Bank Verification
Numbers as a condition for payment of lecturers’ outstanding
salaries.
“But we could not go because of the current lockdown due to the
raging COVID-19 pandemic in the country. And the minister then
suggested that we should meet via Zoom platform. But we know that
such meeting cannot yield any positive result when most of our
physical meetings in the past ended in stalemate,” he said.
While noting that the union is waiting for normalcy to return in
the country to enable them hold the physical meeting, Ogunyemi
acknowledged that government has indeed paid salaries of some
members of the union, but not all.
“Many of our members are yet to get their salaries as of Monday,
and some of those who had even been paid were not paid in full. We
are collating data to enable us know those affected,” he said.
He said though that salaries are not their major demand from the
government but implementation of the last Memorandum of Action to
re-engineer the nation’s public university education.
VDO.AI
The ASUU president said no member of the union submitted BVN before
payment of their salaries.
“We knew submission of our BVN would lead to our forceful
participation in the Integrated and Personnel Payroll Information
System (IPPIS) of the Federal Government and we still stand against
the policy,” he declared.
Ogunyemi, who teaches at the Olabisi Onabanjo University,
Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, said the bursary department of each
university handled the payment of their salaries using the existing
records, and therefore could not understand why total compliance
with the unconditional directive by President Muhammadu Buhari (to
pay outstanding salaries) was not carried out.