Benue State University witnessed a disruption in academic activities as lecturers initiated an indefinite strike to advocate for their demands.
The institution’s branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), in a statement by the Chairman and Secretary, Comrade Kwaghfan Tarnongo and Terrumun Gajir respectively, on Friday said that the strike which was declared on Thursday after its meeting was going to be “total, indefinite and comprehensive”.
The union accused the university management of refusal to address its welfare concerns, despite series of engagements and cited a tripartite agreement reached in January 2023 between the Benue State Government, BSU Administration and Governing Council and ASUU-BSU.
The agreement, according to the union, was increased funding to the university to address the issues of promotion and annual increment, describing it as a road map to industrial harmony in BSU.
The union noted that the state government had kept its part of the agreement and had continued to sustain the additional funds to the university for the specific purposes of implementing promotions and annual increment and to defray the accumulated arrears thereof.
It, however, regretted that the university management, having collected the additional funds, had refused to pay their entitlements.
Consequently, the union in the statement, itemised reasons for embarking on the indefinite strike, among them are; “implementation and payment of accrued arrears of 2021, 2022, and 2023 promotions.
“Implementation and payment of accrued arrears of annual incremental step, April 2023 salary arrears, shortfall in the salaries of staff of the College of Health Sciences.
“Others are payment of Earned Academic Allowance, payment of sundry allowances (PG, GST, EPS, SANDWICH etc), non-enrolment/implementation of National Health Insurance Scheme amongst other issues.
“ASUU BSU issues this statement to inform the public about the reasons for the current strike and the efforts the branch had made to avert it through dialogue with the BSU administration. We regret that our efforts at dialogue have not achieved the desired expectations.”
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the University, Tse Vanger, who confirmed the notification of strike by ASUU, said that management was meeting as of the time of filing this report.
