Asuu Says Tsa Has Turned Lecturers To Beggars

Source: thewillnigeria.com

SAN FRANCISCO, November 17, (THEWILL) – The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, on Thursday declared that the Treasury Single Account, TSA, implemented by the Federal Government has turned lecturers to beggars as salaries are not paid in full for several months. It described the innovation which governs transactions in public institutions including universities as a new form of slavery.

This was made known to reporters by the Chairman of the University of Calabar, UniCal chapter of ASUU, Dr Tony Eyang, who pointed out that TSA is stifling the universities, stressing that it was not designed with the running of the universities in mind.

“By the peculiar nature of universities it is difficult for them to operate without hitches based on the TSA. The TSA has made it very difficult for funds to be assessed. It has made it very difficult for academic programmes to be conducted. So that is the problem. As a union we are not opposed to the introduction and operation of the TSA, but its application to the university system is stifling the smooth running of the universities. That is where our problem is,” he said.

Eyang stated that ASUU, which embarked on a warning strike on Wednesday to press home its demands, will not surrender until government does the needful by addressing the union's demands.

He stated that government has not indicated any intention to address any of the issues being agitated by the union including those that do not involve money like the low subvention to the universities and the TSA.

According to him, “There is a new form of slavery where university teachers are not given what they are entitled to which implies that the federal government has unilaterally reached a decision to reduce the entitlement of academic staff of universities which of course is against the labour law”.

“In the past ten months because the subventions to the universities have fallen, it has increasingly made the universities unable to pay the full entitlement of its workers. In the University of Calabar for example, what we are being paid is 90% of our salaries since February 2016,” the ASUU chairman said.