By: Ighomuaye Lucky. O
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma Chapter, has alleged that not less than 25 members of its association has dead due to suffering occasioned by no money to take care of their health.
Dr. Cyril Oziegbe Onogbosele Chairperson, ASUU, AAU, Ekpoma, disclosed this while briefing newsmen in Benin City on what he tagged “Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma: How not to manage a University – A call for Rescue.
According to him “within the period of focus, from that date to present, we have lost not less than 25 members from our records.You see, we are in distress, we are in crisis.
“It is even more critical when you are ill and you don’t even have the means, the financial well-withal to take care of your health. In that cases, it has been revealed that there is a connection between non payment of salaries and death.
“We have the information of our members of what they have been passing through that even getting money to buy drugs, they could not get and in the end point, is death.
“So, there is a relationship between non regular payment of salaries and death or the state of health of members. It can even create ill health and when there is an ill health, the end point is death
He said for no just cause, many academic staff have been denied payment of salaries for 26 months since January 2022.
Onogbosele said the affected staff in the University have been working in pains without pay adding that they were not tried, or found wanting in violation of the University’s Law or Rules and Regulations to warrant denial of their salaries.
He said slave trade was abolished hundreds of years ago, but the Special Intervention Team (SIT) and University Administration have re-packaged slavery and foisted it on workers of AAU, Ekpoma.
The ASUU-AAU Ekpoma chairman said it is slavery to make a human being work without pay and that even in modern wars, it is criminal to use hunger as a weapon.
He said the SIT/Government’s repeated announcement that it does not owe staff of the University any salary is not true but a ploy to distract the public from the sordid reality of pains, hardship and poverty facing the staff of the University.
While blaming the SIT for the woes befalling the institution, Onogbosele said the prospective students seeking admission in the university have dropped from 14,000 in the previous years to barely 3000 in 2024.
While decrying the state of the institution further, added that the repositioning of a university does not translate to infringement on workers’ rights, denial of wages and lack of improved welfare for workers.
The ASUU-AAU Ekpoma boss added that the constitutional right and freedom of workers to unionize should be respected and protected just as he said that without further delay, there should be restoration of the ideal form of university governance in the University with the immediate constitution of a Governing Council for the University.
He said also that without further delay, the problem of selective/outright denial of payment of salaries of staff in the University should be resolved with payment of all outstanding salaries to staff of the University and that anything short of this is an open invitation to industrial crisis, restiveness and an unwholesome university environment.
