Teaching and non-teaching staff of the Delta State University (DELSU), Abraka, have threatened showdown with the state government over the delay in the payment of their two months salaries and promotion arrears for the past two years.
Besides salaries being owed which is only happening in the present government of Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, the university staff also said the promotion arrears of the non-teaching staff who were promoted between 2014 and 2015 have remained unpaid while the state government has paid deaf ears to their demands.
Consequently, the various unions in the university in a joint media conference gave one week ultimatum to the state government beginning from Monday, July 4, to pay the staff salaries of May and June 2016 with the 2014 and 2015 promotion arrears, failing which the institution would lose the peace it has enjoyed over the years.
The university unions include Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) and Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU).
Chairman of ASUU in the university, Prof. Abel Diakparome, said the government’s refusal to pay staff salaries of May and June and the non-payment of the 2014 and 2015 promotion arrears was threatening the flow of academic activities in the university which has three campuses.
He said the non-availability of funds at the disposal of the staff was a drawback to the institution, noting that “at present, staff are no longer able to effectively attend to their duties because the job motivation is now very low because their salaries and promotion arrears have remained unpaid.
“It should also be noted that there are no sufficient accommodations for the staff on campus, thus many of them travel long distances to work daily. Being a multi-campus institution, DELSU lecturers shuttle between Abraka, Asaba and Oleh campuses and the University Teaching Hospital at Oghara to attend to their day-to-day activities. All these activities require money which sadly is not available to them.”
Diakparome warned that the non-payment of salaries and arrears was capable of disrupting the forthcoming examination as the staff had no place to borrow money to conduct the examination, while expressing sadness that the university staff are singled out for this deliberate financial strangulation by the Delta State government.
The ASUU boss wondered why the state government was showing nonchalant attitude to the welfare of university staff, saying in other institutions, university lecturers are treated with utmost care due to their intellectual contribution to development of society.
He said the delay in payment of salaries could lead to brain drain as many lecturers and other workers have threatened to relocate to universities abroad in search of conducive working conditions, stating that,
“many staff in the institution are already being lured to several universities outside the country, especially Southern African countries of South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Swaziland amongst others.”
Diapkaromre also disclosed that the participation of staff in the general university examination slated for next week as well as members going to work could no longer be guaranteed by the unions if salaries are not paid within stipulated period.
He added that: “We wish to categorically state that in the event of members inability to participate in the examination or to discharge other responsibilities, the unions will protect their members against any attempt by either the university administration or government to prefer charges against them for dereliction of duty because nobody can work on an empty stomach and the Bible enjoins the employer to pay employees because the laborer deserves his wages.”
Prior to the administration of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa which came into effect on May 29, 2015, civil servants in the state were receiving salaries between 25 and 30 of every month as former Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan made it mandatory to pay workers before the end of every month.
But in a recent stakeholders meeting in Warri, Governor Okowa said the vandalisation of oil installations by the Niger Delta Avengers has reduced earnings from oil, hence the decline in oil production, a development which has affected the federal allocation accruable to the state.
Following the development, Okowa said the state would no longer be able to pay workers’ salaries regularly any longer.
According to him, “the larger Nigerian government has been in financial crisis over the fluctuation of oil prices. Increased production would have helped cushion the impact but instead we are faced with destruction of oil assets.
We are now producing just half of our quota. And we are all really worried because of the greater effect is on Delta State”.
He said prior to the destruction of oil installations, the state had been receiving N20 billion from federation account monthly but with the impact of oil pipeline vandalisation, the state allocation has fallen from N20bn to N3bn.
“We now get 1/7th of what we use to have. Going by the current financial position, the state is no longer in a position to pay salaries regularly. We met a wage bill of N7.4 billion. Our workforce has been unchanged. With the situation we have in our hands, we are not in position to pay workers regularly anymore.”
Following the revelation by the state governor, the university challenge may linger as the state government seems unable to meet the need of the weeping lecturers.
