Some vice chancellors of universities in Nigeria have been accused by the Academic Staffs Union of Universities over mismanagement of funds in schools and requested for immediate set up of visitation panel to each institution by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
According to The Nation reports, the President of the union, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi disclosed that the government has been paying lip service to the issue of visitation panels to the universities as contained in their terms of agreement.
The ASUU president said that sending visitation panels to the universities will douse the tension in the universities and prevent further breakdown of industrial relations and promote industrial harmony.
Ogunyemi disclosed that the union has written to the minister complaining about the activities of the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, in Ekiti State, adding that “when you see crisis coming from the school, for us in ASUU, it is not unexpected.
“The man has not developed capacity to manage that institution very well. The Vice Chancellor of the Federal University Lokoja has also been working to suppress the union’s activities and that doesn’t augur well for good governance. That is why we continue to prevail on government to look into our petition against the vice chancellors and address the issue we raised.
“We have many of these cases coming up in some of these campuses, and that is why we are calling on government, anytime we have the opportunity, asking them to send visitation panel to these universities and all other federal universities to douse tension and prevent further decline and breakdown of industrial relations on these campuses.”
On the implementation of the agreement signed between government and the union, Oguyemi said, “as things stand, we have issues; because the negotiation has been stalled. But we are engaging with government, hoping that the minister will intervene in the matter.
“We have issues with the government team that is negotiating with us and we have written to the minister, placing our complaints on the table, hoping that in no time, he will intervene in the matter and our renegotiation will come back fully and be completed speedily.
“As for the aspect that has to do with payment of our allowances, we are still tracking them. They paid part of the entitlement, but we expect them to have mainstreamed the balance into the 2019 budget. But that did not happen. We are only hoping that the chance will not be missed in 2020. That is why we want to engage the government.’’
The ASUU president also accused some vice chancellors of trying to suppress activities of the union on their campuses, saying the union will not take it lightly with such vice chancellors as they were prepared to confront them.
Speaking on the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, Ogunyemi said there was the need for intervention of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, as the process has been stalled.
He said the issues for renegotiation are non-implementation of components of the 2017 memorandum of action, non-release of over N1 trillion arrears or revitalisation fund owed public universities from 2014 to 2018. “As things stand, we have issues; because the negotiation has been stalled, but we are engaging with government, hoping that the minister intervenes in the matter.”
He called on government to resolve the issue regarding the unpaid arrears of shortfall in salaries in universities that have been verified under the presidential initiative, on continuous auditing.
