The Vice-Chancellor of Federal University Wukari, Professor Abubakar Kundiri has hailed both the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for working hard to resolve the protracted strike action by the Union which crippled not only academic activities but almost all forms of activities in the nation’s ivory towers.
Recall that after a series of meetings regarding the eight to nine months strike the leadership of the union held with the government team led by the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, the government promised to pay the withheld salaries of lecturers ranging from four to eight months.
The government also said it would release N70 billion for the revitalisation of the system and the payment of Earned Academic Allowances. Though ASUU is still constituting with her members to consider calling off the strike.
Professor Kundiri made the commendation in an Interview with Journalists on a wide range of issues on his five-year eventful sojourn and stewardship as the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University Wukari.
Professor Kundiri who is recognised as one of the few Vice-Chancellors in the country that are Unions-friendly commended the ASUU Negotiation Team and the federal government for shifting grounds on their positions in the best interest of the country and in their patriotic and laudable commitments to save the Public Universities from total collapse.
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Professor Kundiri regretted that even though the strike took too long to be resolved, the successful and final clinching of the deal between the FG and the Union is seen by all discerning members of the nation’s academic community as a good and welcome development that must be commended by all and sundry.
The Vice-Chancellor however called on the National Assembly to expedite action, and as it promised, to capture without further delay, all the financial demands of the Union in the nation’s subsequent budgets as agreed upon between the federal government and the Union in their recent negotiation, to
avoid the country from witnessing another round of unfortunate strike action by the Union.
Professor Kundiri, is on record as the first Vice-Chancellor that supported all
academic, non-academic and students of Federal University Wukari to form
their respective Associations or Unions to struggle and engage his management, in line with universal laws of industrial Unions’, to press for the demands of their members.
“I believe that Universities all over the world support the existence of responsible Unions on Campuses because with their constructive criticisms,
meaningful and patriotic engagements, University administrators are put on their toes and check, and hardly derail, because they must always try and do the right thing for the collective good of the system”.
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