ASUU resumes indefinite strike.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Taraba State University chapter, on Wednesday, resumed indefinite strike to press home its demands. The union had embarked on a strike in 2018 but suspended it when the Taraba government promised to meet its demands which included the payment of earned academic allowances from 2014 till date, and the provision of required infrastructure to enhance teaching and learning. Dr Samuel Shikaa, the branch Chairman, and Dr Atando Agbu, the Secretary, in a statement shortly after the Executive Council Meeting with the national officials in Jalingo, said that the teachers would remain at home until the demands were met.
The union said that the law establishing the university, which specified adequate funding for the institution, had been abandoned by the state government.
Law no 4 of 2008 specified that five per cent of the state allocation, five per cent of the Local Government allocation and two per cent of all contracts will be used in funding the university, but all of these have been neglected. If you go round the university, you will discover that apart from the library and senate building which are still under construction, every other building you will see are constructed and furnished by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund. If you refer to this university as TET Fund University, you will not be wrong because the few infrastructures here are provided by the fund, he said.
In reaction to the strike, Mr Ande Boyi, President, National Association of Nigerian Students (NASS), Taraba State University chapter, appealed to Gov. Darius Ishaku of Taraba to meet the union’s demands to enable students continue with their studies. Now that the strike has been declared, the student body is appealing to Ishaku to immediately meet the demands of ASUU to ensure that students don’t stay at home for long,” he said. He lamented that students had just resumed from the nationwide strike only to be confronted by another round of strike.
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