ASUU members threaten to boycott UNN convocation
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by hilary akalugwu2 the nationwide strike embarked upon by academic staff of public universities in the country will continue until the federal government meets the demands of the union he said1 the chairman of the chapter dr ifeanyichukwu abada made the announcement in nsukka on thursday at a news conference after a congress to update members of the union on the ongoing nationwide asuu strike1 he said the union agreed at the congress to write the vice-chancellor of unn prof. benjamin ozumba to suspend the 2018 convocation of the university billed to start on nov. 26 and end on dec. 21 one of the resolutions reached at this congress is that ozumba should suspend arrangements for the 48th convocation of the university until the ongoing asuu strike is suspended1 if he refuses and decides to go ahead with the convocation academic staff of unn will boycott all the activities lined up for the convocation1 i wonder what the convocation will look like in the absence of lecturers heads of departments directors and deans of faculties who have the responsibility of presenting graduating students to the university during convocations1 the university of nigeria nsukka unn chapter of the academic staff union of universities asuu has announced that its members would boycott the 2018 convocation of the university1 asuu executives in nsukka zone who attended this congress are in support that the convocation should be cancelled since the ongoing asuu nationwide strike is total and comprehensive1 serious sanctions will be placed on any academic staff who participates in the convocation if unn decides to go ahead with it1 if some universities in the country can cancel their convocations because of ongoing asuu nationwide strike i see no reason why unn will not do same1 the unionist said the congress was happy with the compliance of unn workers with the ongoing strike of the union urging the members to keep it up1 the congress is happy that the strike since it startedhas been total and comprehensive in unn1 the total compliance has paralysed academic activities at both the nsukka campus and the enugu campus of the university1 abada said that severe sanctions would be imposed on any academic who might sabotage the union by participating in the convocation if the university decided to go ahead with it1

FG releases N1.3bn earned allowances for UNN lecturers
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by hilary akalugwu2 they said this would make lecturers to be more dedicated as well as stop future strikes in government owned universities in the country1 abada spoke to newsmen on friday in nsukka at the end of an emergency congress of the union1 he said the aim of the emergency congress was to inform union members that unn has received n1.3billion from government as part of earned allowance arrears for 2009 to 2012 to asuu members1 abada explained that the vice-chancellor prof. benjamin ozumba who informed the union of the release this week said government would be paying the arrears of earned allowance in batches1 he added that another batch of earned allowance was expected to be released next week1 i commend ozumbas efforts to ensure that earned allowance owned workers of the university is paid by government1 while n1.3billion was leased for the academic staff about n400million was released to non-academic staff of unn he said1 dr ifeanyichukwu abada chairman academic staff union of universities asuu university of nigeria nsukkaunn chapter says the federal government has released n1.3 billion as earned allowances of members of the union1 i advise university workers to always cross-check their facts to avoid circulating unfounded and baseless information against an innocent person1 rumour peddlers even said that ozumba gave me n20 million to seal my mouth that is why am not talking as asuu chairman in unn1 abada commended government for releasing the first batch of earned allowance of unn academic staff and urged it to ensure that remaining amount were released as promised1 government should after paying the remaining arrears of earned allowances consider build-in the earned allowance into workers monthly salary1 this will help to stop backlog of arrears and incessant strike by university workers as a result of non-payment of earned allowance which disrupt academic calendar of government owned universities he said1 mrs ginika nwannani and mr canice anyachukwu secretary and internal auditor respectively of asuu-unn were present during the press briefing1 some lecturers who spoke to the news agency of nigeria nan expressed happiness that government released the money for payment of earned allowance1 the asuu boss described ozumba as a good leader noting that in spite of rumour that the federal government had paid the money and his administration diverted it he was not deterred1