Not more than 279 staff of Akwa Ibom State University, Ikot Akpaden in Mkpat Enin council of the state, on Tuesday, September 18, 2018, have an issue to settle with the management of the state varsity following the non-payment of their 16-month salaries arrears, running into several millions of naira.
The distraught staff under the aegis of Concerned Akwa Ibom University Staff accused the Vice Chancellor of promoting the culture nepotism, bad administration and being insensitive to their plight despite the fact that the State Government had directed him to defray the backlog.
They have vowed to take their protest to the governor’s office, the Nigerian University Commission and other relevant government agencies to press home their demand for the payment of the salaries’ arrears. ‘’Some of the staff are ready to protest at the Government House for their entitlements.
In fact, some of our staff have died without receiving their pay. This VC has hijacked everything and he is not addressing the grievances of the staff.
The welfares of teachers and students have been negated. He wants to cripple the university and does not want all the academic staff to belong to ASUU.
‘’ The house we were paying six thousand naira, he has increased to twenty thousands. Acceptance fees used to be five thousands, he took it N25, 500. UTME used to N2, 000, he took it to N10, 500, so JAMB wrote to him to refund the money to parents.
This is exploitative’’, a management staff of the institution told Vanguard on condition of anonymity.
But Prof Eno Ibanga, the Vice Chancellor of the university, has blamed the delay in offsetting the backlog on paucity of funds, saying that the institution was not receiving sufficient subvention from the state government.
The Vice Chancellor, however described the agitation by the aggrieved staff as politically motivated and carpeted the former management headed by Prof Okon Eminue of overshooting the employment limit as directed by the former governor, Godswill Akpabio, thereby creating the huge problem.
He said: The agitation is political. How did these people come in? Was there approval for them to be appointed abinito? They should bring their letters and we should look at it.
What is the substance? These are people who were arbitrarily appointed. ‘’Governor Akpabio gave approval for the employment of 120 staff, but the former management went ahead and employed 279 staff. So, when I came in, we wrote to the government and the 279 staff were captured in the budget.
We started paying them in August 2015, since then I have not gotten one kobo’’. Reacting to the simmering issue, the state government expressed dismay over the poor handling of the issue and management of the staff welfare, as government had increased subvention to the school so that it could resolve the log jam.
Unyime Usoro, a former state chairman, Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, and Special Adviser to the Governor on Labour Matters, said Governor Udom Emmanuel was confronted with the issues as soon as he took over the reins of governance which he brokered and also jacking up allocation to the institution to pay the affected staff.
He said: ‘’I was involved as NLC Chairman when the issue began. Akwa Ibom State University is an autonomous institution unlike othe government agencies.
But when Governor Udom Emmanuel came in, he was confronted with the issue and he sorted that out with the management.
The governor asked how much they needed to accommodate the staffers that were recruited in 2014.
It was believed that with the increase in subvention, they should have paid the staff and the matter would have died a natural death, it would have not lingered on till now. I am surprised the matter is still lingering’’
