THE NASARAWA State Government has appealed to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK), to call off its ongoing strike, assuring the lecturers of its commitment to paying outstanding earned allowances.
The government said its commitment remained firm despite the absence of a formal written agreement on the payment of the arrears.
Mr Labaran Magaji, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), made the appeal on Tuesday in Lafia when he received the leadership of NSUK Alumni Association, led by its National President, Mr Nuhu Egya.
Magaji, who served for six years on the NSUK Governing Council, said he had always advocated staff welfare and urged ASUU to trust the sincerity of Gov. Abdullahi Sule’s administration and return to the classrooms.
He said the administration had demonstrated its commitment to workers’ welfare through several interventions carried out without formal written agreements.
According to him, these include the payment of gratuity arrears up to 2013, implementation of the new minimum wage, payment of 50 per cent of the 13th-month salary, as well as the payment of entitlements to former deputy governors and development area administrators.
The SSG recalled that following the commencement of the strike, the state government held a meeting with the university community at the Government House, where an understanding was reached that the lecturers would suspend the strike after the government made the agreed payment.
He, however, expressed concern that the lecturers, after confirming receipt of the payment, subsequently presented another demand.
“The Governor is a man of honour; he is a sincere and principled man who keeps to his word. What is happening now has a semblance of betrayal,” he said.
Magaji commended the alumni association for intervening in the dispute and promised to convey its position to the governor.
He also urged ASUU to continue engaging with the government in good faith, stressing the need to protect the interests of students and the future of the institution.
Earlier, Egya said the alumni association visited the SSG to appeal to the government to make a firm commitment to pay the outstanding months of earned allowances in tranches.
He said that the prolonged strike had affected students’ accommodation, new admissions and preparations for the planned National Universities Commission (NUC) accreditation of the Faculty of Medical Sciences.
“We cannot afford to miss such a faculty. This is a faculty that the university has been fighting for over 20 years, and we are about to lose this golden opportunity,” Egya said.
He added that ASUU had indicated its readiness to suspend the strike if the government provided a written commitment to settle the outstanding arrears.
“The union has agreed that if there is a written commitment by the government to pay the remaining arrears, they are ready to call off this strike based on our intervention,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the ASUU NSUK chapter embarked on an indefinite strike on Aug. 10 over unpaid arrears, including Earned Academic Allowance. (NAN)
