KSU strike update

Kogi state legislature wades into KSU unions/management impasse

If you are among still wondering why students of Kogi State University, Anyigba, are not yet in their homes as a result of much recently publicized threats of strike action by the unions of the institution, it is because members of Kogi State House of Assembly have waded into the matter.

The Chairman of the institution’s non-academic staff union, NASU, Comrade Yusuf Audu made this revelation in an exclusive interview with yabagionline.blogspot.com at his office in Anyigba at the weekend.

According to him, members of his union have resolved to ensure that management meets their demands or they shut down the institution, describing agitations as legitimate.

He said members of the state house of Assembly became concerned because the recent media coverage that their demands got, result in the lawmakers setting up a nine-man committee to look into the matter with the aim of amicably resolving the problems that have arisen so far on the matter.

Comrade Audu who is also a Kogi State trustee member of NASU informed that what members of his union are demanding are not unusual, saying that the issue of hazard allowance is something that all universities in the country pay except Kogi State University.

“Kogi State University is the only institution in the country, including federal universities, that has refused to pay the allowance to its staff because of the dichotomy that they have introduced into the payment of the money.”

He said the prevailing situation where the Vice Chancellor and other Principal officers take hazard allowances while the staff under them are not allowed any such grant amounts to double standard and asked: “what kind of danger are they (the principal officers) exposed to that the staff under them are shielded from?”

He challenged anyone claiming that their demands are not legitimate to take them to court for a judicial interpretation on the matter.

The NASU chairman however called on his members to be law abiding at all times, saying that the leadership is doing everything within its powers and within the armpits of the law to ensure that their entitlements are given them.

He also appealed to the visitor to also wade into the matter as the father of the state so as not to allow the students of the institution suffer an unnecessary break in their academic pursuit.