The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has rejected the Federal Government’s newly launched Tertiary Institutions Staff Support Loan Scheme (TISSLS), describing it as a “slavish” distraction from the real issues bedevilling the nation’s ivory towers.
The scheme, unveiled by government as an empowerment initiative, offers academic and non-academic staff of tertiary institutions interest-free loans of up to N10 million.
But addressing journalists in Uyo yesterday, the Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Calabar Zone, Comrade Ikechuku Igwenyi, dismissed the gesture as an insult on lecturers who are being owed backlog of entitlements. He spoke in company of the zone’s eight chapter chairmen and the immediate past zonal coordinator, Comrade Happiness Uduk.
“How can a government that has consistently refused to implement the 2009 agreement, or even pay arrears of promotion and third-party deductions, now turn around to dangle an interest-free loan before lecturers?” he queried. “This so-called welfare scheme is nothing short of a poisoned chalice.”
According to him, rather than stabilise the workforce through improved wages, the government had chosen to “cage” both lecturers and their students with loan arrangements. He recalled that students were already trapped in what he called a “slavish NELFUND loan,” and now their parents were being lured into another debt trap.
The ASUU leader insisted that funds earmarked for such loans should instead be channelled into revitalising universities, paying outstanding salaries and upgrading decrepit infrastructure across campuses.
“Our members still earn salaries based on a structure adopted 17 years ago. Government has repeatedly set up renegotiation panels, signed Memoranda of Understanding and Agreements, only to abandon them,” Igwenyi lamented.
He listed other grievances to include obsolete teaching facilities, proliferation of underfunded universities, intimidation of unions by state visitors, and the misuse of TETFund for non-academic purposes.
The union, therefore, called for the immediate signing and implementation of the renegotiated 2009 agreement, domestication of the pact in state universities, payment of three and half months’ withheld salaries, release of third-party deductions, arrears of promotion, and full mainstreaming of Earned Academic Allowances into salaries.
ASUU also demanded a comprehensive review of the NUC Act and an end to what it described as the serial abuse of TETFund.
“The government cannot continue to blackmail us with distractions like IPPIS, salary awards, palliatives and now this loan scheme. What we want is genuine engagement and fulfilment of promises,” Igwenyi declared.
