ASUU raises alarm over pay cut in varsities

The Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) has raised an alarm o the shortfall in salaries paid to its members across all federal universities.
Addressing the media at the weekend, Dr Theophilus D. Lagi, Zonal Coordinator, ASUU-Abuja Zone said on the 15th of April, 2016, ASUU-ABUJA ZONE (comprising University of Abuja, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nasarawa State University, Keffi Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai and Federal University, Lafia) briefed the media on what it called the ugly and worrisome unilateral drastic cut by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) in the personnel costs allocations to Federal Universities across the country.
“Today, almost a year after, we again sadly invite you for briefing on the same issue of shortfall in salaries paid to our members across all federal universities. This ugly phenomenon began in December, 2015 and it has become a pattern employed by FGN to debilitate the workers movement in the country, especially ASUU.
“It is very unclear what informed the FGN decision to callously and brazenly indulge in this inimical practice of unilateral pay-cut. One thing is clear however and that is, the extant authorities like the Ministry of Finance and the Budget Agencies have no inkling how the University system works; this is the most probable reason for the pay-cut.
“It does appear that the Finance and Budget and Planning Ministries have failed to realize or refused to accept and correct their mistakes in the figures they project as appropriation for tertiary education, particularly the University education sub-sector”.
According to ASUU, the issue of salary shortfall was one of the cardinal points that led the Union to embark on a one-week warning Strike in November 2016.
“Further to the intervention of the Senate President in the week-long warning strike, some understanding was reached, virement was made and funds were released to clear up some of the accumulated salary shortfalls.
“One would have thought that the right thing to do was to sustain the temple and maintain the drive to clear all outstanding shortfalls and to put mechanisms in place to forestall any future reoccurrence of any form of shortfalls. Sadly, this was not done.
“In January 2017, the personnel cost released by the government to the University of Abuja, for instance, was a little above 359 million naira. This amount could only pay about 91% of the salaries of staff in the University for that month. However, in February 2017, the same government released a little above 302 million naira to the same University of Abuja for the same purpose, when there was no reduction in the workforce at the University. This dipped the pay-cut further down.
“While the staff of University of Abuja received 81% of their total salaries in February, their counterparts in the Federal University, Lafia received only 45% of their total salaries for the same month of February2017. At the Federal University of Technology, Minna, the story is also not different, as the University experienced over 21 million naira cut in salaries each for the months of January and February, 2017.
“This is now the norm, with no end in sight. The most worrisome part of the problem is that in the 2017 Appropriation Bill submitted by the Executive arm of FGN to the National Assembly for consideration and possibly passed into law, the agencies responsible for budget preparation have maintained the figures they used for personnel costs projections for 2015 in almost all Federal Universities.
“The implications of this are many. First, this gives the impression that none of the Federal Universities was expected to recruit any staff from 2015 through 2017. Not just that; the same Universities were not expected to promote any staff as well, for even if the appropriation for 2015 could be sufficient to pay salaries for 2015, it certainly would not be sufficient to pay 2016 salaries, if one or two staff was promoted in the universities. Rhetorically, one would ask if the intention of the Federal Government was to stop recruitment and promotion in the federal universities while student enrolment increases yearly, putting more excess workload on the academic staff.
“Government would want to predicate this shortfall on the so-called recession that they claim the country is in. Technically speaking, recession means quarterly back-to-back negative economic growth for consecutive quarters of a year. In meeting with the 2016 appropriation, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) was expected to generate 4.2 trillion naira from taxes; taxes on economic activities. It is common knowledge that as at the end of November 2016, FIRS met this target of 4.2 trillion naira. If FIRS, which generates revenue from taxes on economic activities met its target, when or at what point did economic growth contract and even went into negative as to warrant the claim of recession and existence of same? In fact, it could be proven that the nation recorded budget surplus in 2016. Therefore, the Federal Government has no reason whatsoever, other than deliberate intent to inflict pains and misery on the citizenry, to hype the gimmick of recession and in that garb, decide to unilaterally cut the earned salaries of the academic staff. It is imprudent for a democratic government like the Federal Republic of Nigeria to implement unilateral pay-cut in workers’ salaries knowing that such an action is against its own policy thrust, being a signatory to most of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions. This is condemnable in every sense.
“Myriad consequences could cascade from this action of FGN. Foremost and most disturbing is the fact that State Governments who are the Proprietors of State Universities are waiting to copy this style adopted by the FGN to manage Federal Universities. Yes, with the benefit of hindsight, the State Governments will follow suit and this would precipitate a breakdown of industrial harmony across all public Universities in the country. Therefore, this singular action of the FGN is a recipe for the death of public university education in Nigeria. This implies that the masses shall no longer have access to university education in Nigeria and therefore, Nigeria shall continue to be under-developed.
“Unfortunately, this unacceptable practice which started in December 2015 has continued unabated. World over, salary is sacrosanct and payment of full salary (including all earned allowances) is the lubricant of the wheels of industrial harmony within the university establishment. ASUU insists that her members have rendered their duties in full (100%) and as such, they should have their salaries and allowances paid in full and not in percentages or decimals.
“It is on this note that ASUU unequivocally demand an immediate restoration of releases of the full personnel costs (including arrears thereof) to all Federal Universities in Nigeria, in order to forestall the infliction of consequential damage to public university education in Nigeria”.