The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has decried the reduction of the monthly overhead of the Katsina State-owned Umaru Musa Yar’Adua University (UMYU) from N16 million to N7 million by the state government.

The ASUU Chairperson of the institution, Murtala Kwara, while briefing journalists at the UMYU students’ centre Monday, said the institution is faced with severe financial challenges.

He said the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua University, like other public institutions in the country, could no longer sustain itself with the meagre funds allocated to it by the state government.

Kwara said: “To compound matters, the monthly overhead it receives from the government has shrunk such that the university now receives around N7 million monthly. This is a far cry from about N16 million it used to receive in the past when its programmes and needs were considerably less.”

He called on the state government to review the university’s overhead in order to enable the institution to meet its ever expanding obligations.

The ASUU chairperson, however, said despite the paucity of funds being allocated to the varsity by the state government, the institution strived in executing meaningful projects for the sustainability of education in the state.

In a related development, the ASUU branch of the  Federal University Dutsinma (FUDMA), Katsina, has given the Federal Government a 21-day ultimatum to address the union’s demands or face industrial action.

The Chairperson of the union, Ahmed Omeiza, while addressing journalists, said the ultimatum followed the Federal Government’s refusal to meet its demands despite consistent appeals.

He urged the government to tackle the contending issues enshrined in the FGN/ASUU 2012, 2013, Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and the 2017 Memorandum of Action (MoA).

Omeiza said the Federal Government should release three and a half month withheld salaries of lecturers, unpaid salaries of ASUU members on sabbatical and adjunct due to IPPIS inadequacy and inefficiency, as well as third party deductions by the IPPIS.

While lamenting what he termed illegal dissolution of the Governing Councils in the federal and state universities, Omeiza said the government should adopt the union’s UTAS and ensure payment of Earned Academic Allowance (EAA).

He said unless the Federal Government acts fast and addresses the pressing demands of public universities, ASUU would have no choice but to mobilise its members on the next line of action.

According to him, the government has failed in all its agreements with the union to make life good for the universities’ lecturers despite the harsh socio-economic realities in the country.

He said: “In line with the national directives, we resolved to hold a press conference to let the general public and all stakeholders know about the lukewarm attitude of the government towards the lingering issues in the educational sector and the complete failure of the government to address these protracted problems. In the next three weeks, the union will mobilise its members on the next line of action.”

He called on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), religious leaders, parents and students to prevail on the government to tackle the ASUU demands to “avert any further damage and disruption of the university system”.

Culled from ThisDay