NASU strike: Admission seekers stranded as varsity shelves screening

Many admission seekers into the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom state were Monday frustrated and stranded as the university failed to conduct its earlier admission screening exercise.

The development followed the strike embarked upon by the Non Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) which has crippled academic and administrative activities in federal universities nationwide.

Our correspondent who was at the main and town campuses of the university saw hundreds of candidates waiting hopelessly at various faculties of the institution yesterday.

UNIUYO chapter chairman of NASU, Comrade Ime Edigheyong Edet, explained that the warning strike became necessary following Federal Government’s refusal to pay areas of Earned Allowances since 2013.

According to him, the warning strike, which is expected to end on Friday, was a prelude to the total strike that would commence soon after the review of the action on Friday, “if the Federal Government fails to heed to our demands”.

He disclosed that the Federal Government was owing non-teaching employees over N30billion in all the Federal Universities in Earned Allowances between 2013 to 2016, adding that the remaining arrears were yet to be computed.

He listed the cumulative debt arising from these earned allowances to include over time, travel allowances and other entitlements, saying “the refusal of the Federal Government to listen to the voices of reason has forced NASU at the national level to call members out on this warning strike”.

The NASU UNIUYO chair, who also expressed worry over the Federal Government refusal to review and implement the 2009 agreement on Earned Allowances, explained that “this agreement was supposed to be reviewed upward every three years”.