Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State in Nigeria’s south-east has proscribed all unions in the state university, except the Students’ Union Government (SUG).
Consequently, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and others have been banned from operating at the Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki.
The State Government announced the proscription on Thursday, saying: “The decision was taken in order to ensure that academic and non-academic unions’ activities do not negatively affect the resumption of EBSU and commencement of academic/ non-academic activities in the state-owned university.”
Meanwhile, the state Commissioner for Education, Dr Onyebuchi Chima, said approval had been given for the release of N500m for the payment of staff salaries.
He added that the institution was also granted a loan of N300m for the commencement of SMEs towards boosting its Internally Generated Revenue, while the state’s mushroom and the citrus farms were also donated to the school.
Chima said, “All teaching and non-teaching staff members are encouraged to resume normal university activities immediately. All teaching and non-teaching staff shall be paid 80 per cent of their monthly outstanding salaries except those who refused to immediately commence work. Accordingly, EBSU management and SUG are encouraged to keep records of staff that resume for work.
“In order to ameliorate the hardship of parents/students in the payment of school fees, the Visitor of EBSU/Governor of Ebonyi State University, Dr David Nweze Umahi has approved that EBSU University Management should implement ‘staggered school payment’ system.”
