By Johnbosco Agbakwuru, ABUJA
OVER 21 Professors and senior lecturers have lost their lives at the University of Calabar as a result of the ongoing strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
This is as the death toll increases on daily basis in different universities in the country.
Recall that ASUU declared a one-month warning strike on February 14 this year over the inability of the Federal Government to address their demands and the public universities’ gates have remained locked since then.
ASUU, alongside three other university-based unions, had declared the industrial dispute over about seven demands that they wanted the government to address.
The three university-based unions that joined in the strike but later suspended it after reaching an agreement with the government are the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, and the National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT.
Some of the demands of the four unions that led to the strike include the renegotiation of the 2009 agreements, the alleged inconsistencies occasioned by the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, the non-payment of earned allowances, payment of arrears of the National Minimum wage, the revitalization fund and the release of white papers on visitation panel reports among others.
