By Sam Kayode
The Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) University of Maiduguri (unimaid) branch Dr Habu Mshelia has said that over 100 of his colleagues paid the supreme sacrifice during the eight months strike of 2022.
He regretted that most of them died because they could not afford the urgent treatment of themselves during the 2022 strike carried out by asuu under the late President Muhammadu Buhari.
Responding to a question by this reporter during an exclusive interview, Dr Mshelia posited that the union has a comprehensive list of members buried during the eight months strike of 2022 under President Mohammadu Buhari adding that 50 was a mere understatement of deceased colleagues during that sad period of its existence.
“I can tell you we buried not less than 100 of our members and these are committed academics, Professors, PhD holders who have been serving the nation in this University.
“They all perished within the eight months of the last strike and the government is still indignant about our demands.” Said Meshelia.
Speaking on the recent loan the federal government dangled to members of ASUU to accept as an alternative to what they are being owed, he dismissed the offer as a mere distraction to their focus of getting what is rightly theirs.
” Let me tell you this. In the history of Universities globally, no where have we heard that academic unions are dragged into matters of loans by the central government of that nation.
“Also to the best of our knowledge, that has never happened in the history of this country but it came up under this federal government and one thing we must tell you is that, we have our unpaid benefits with them.
“We also have salary promotion arrears and three and a half months salaries unpaid yet all of a sudden, the same government is saying we should come and take loans. Loans for what”
“It means they have the money to pay our withheld salaries, promotion arrears and also to sign into law our agreement on the review of salaries of members but they refused to put pen to paper but decided to putting all our demands aside.
” In view of this we reject their loan offer because it is just a method to further impoverish out members. We reject it vehemently. We are already indebted in many ways by our corporative and other sources so this will further compound issues
“We just told you in the news conference that a retired Professor is given a paltry N150,000 after 40 years of service to a rich country like Nigeria. Is that not absurd?
“The average take home of Professors in other climes is around 3,000 to 5000 dollars monthly. Therefore, if you convert our own take home of 450k at the bar, and divide by 1500, what will be left with will shock you. The Prof is left with nothing. And this is why we are vehemently rejecting this loan of a thing they brought before us.” Maintained the chairman.
On the 35 percent wage award pronouncement made by the late President Buhari at the peak of the crisis to Professors, Dr Mshelia maintained that it was a tactical distraction against the focus of the agreement adding that “we don’t want to put so much of our weight on that and miss our focus.”
He emphasised that the agreement was paramount to asuu because it would shake the foundation of most of their pending challenges and the future of the entire University system.
Hear him: “what we are saying is that, we have come to an agreement with your subjects you sent to us, and before we discussed, we examined and confirmed that they really came from you. We have negotiated our wages and you refused to sign the agreement.
“We are talking about increments that are our statutory rights. If they have done that to every one in the nation they can’t exclude us, the increments must be extended to our members, that is what we are saying.”
On security of his colleagues living on campus which is at the fringes of the deadly Sambisa forest, Meshlia went on: “Our security first starts with our wages. If you give us a very good wage, then you are guaranteeing our security. If you don’t give us what is expected, that means you are overworking our members who are staying long hours where they are not supposed to be trying to meet up with extra work to take care of their families and that itself is overworking them
“But if i must speak on insecurity, I would say it is a nationwide issue not only in unimaid. Universities were shut down in other parts of the country due to insecurity.
“But one thing you must give to us here is that throughout the insurgency this university has not been shut down but the govt has shut it down by itself by not meeting the demands of our members. The action of government is gross insecurity itself.” concluded the chairman.
The unimaid branch of asuu recently went on a massive campus enlightenment campaign aimed at calling the attention of their proprietor the Federal government to their unpaid salaries and numerous matters arising from the unsigned 2021 agreement they had centrally.
