From Pwanagba Agabus, Jos
In its efforts to ease the infrastructural deficit at the permanent site of the University of Jos (UniJos), the institution’s branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Friday commissioned and handed over a 1,000 capacity twin lecture halls to the management of the University.
The Union equally said the building cost of the project was N63.2 million, and the funds came from the deductions from its members monthly salaries over the years.
Chairperson of ASUU University of Jos Branch, Dr. Lazarus Maigoro, disclosed this during the handing over ceremony of the project to the school management held at the Naraguta campus where the project was constructed.
Maigoro maintained that “one of the reasons why our Union is on strike today is due to lack of adequate infrastructures for the purpose of quality teaching and learning.”
He stressed that, “We decided to embark on this project also because government has not lived up to its responsibility of funding education. The situation is so bad that it is lecturers that in the University who are erroneously perceived as strike mongers and very recalcitrant people that are now using their salaries to built classrooms to assist the government and students while Nigerian public is keeping quiet,” he so lamented.
The Branch Chairperson added that the Union have been issuing scholarships to 5 indigent students every session in the University by paying their tuition fees in support of those who can’t foot the bills of their academics.
He added that they have so far produced 2000 bottles of hand sanitizers before now as well as 1000 awareness hand bills and shared to organizations at no cost as part of it’s contributions in the fight against the novel coronavirus in Plateau State.
In his address, the National President of the Union, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, said ASUU University of Jos has raised the bar of trade Union patriotism in the country. “UniJos has today added a fresh perspective to addressing the infrastructural deficit on our campuses that would go down in history as unequalled.”
According to him, “We cannot pretend that we have all it takes to solve the problem. Our members are stressed and distressed.
“Our salary structure has been stagnated for 11years. And the forceful migration to discredited integrated Payroll and Personal information system (IPPIS), has further distorted and devalued the take home pay of our members.
“As such, what we take as salaries is fast losing in values and our capacity to embrace the path of philanthropy is rapidly diminishing”, he further lamented.
In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Sebastian Seddi Maimako, represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor Academics, Prof. Tanko Ishaya, said the survival development of public Universities in Nigeria has been the shared struggles of ASUU.
Maimako thanked the Union for coming to the aid of the institution.
The Vice Chancellor also promised that the University will make good used of the structure.
