The president of the Ekiti State University Universities Academic Staff Union, Ado Ekiti, Dr. Kayode Arogundade, said on Thursday that the huge arrears in salaries and allowances owed to the institution’s professors had been pushed against the walls, necessitating an all-out strike.

Arogundade, who said it was necessary for the university’s stakeholders to sit down and find ways out of the woods to prevent calamity at the institution, also called on the alumni association to follow through on what they promised while seeking support for the Governor, Biodun Oyebanji. , a former student, during the election campaign.

The ASUU president, speaking in Ado Ekiti after the union congress, said the speakers had given the state government until January 17 to bring together critical stakeholders “to sit down and discuss and tell us how they will pay for what we are being. owed to avoid the strike”.

Speaking about the decision in congress, the ASUU leader said: “After a thorough evaluation of the New Year’s message from the governor, who incidentally is a former student, the members have appealed that for the honor of the governor and the strength of your message, we should only give one more week, so that on January 17 we meet again to make a decision.

“Something drastic must happen at this university, otherwise the institution will go down in history. We remain firm to the date of January 17 when a decision will be made, but I can assure you that we cannot stay hungry and decide to go to work on an empty stomach.

Arogundade said: “At the end of December, we were paid 50 percent of the salary for August 2022; we have 12 months of half salary pending between 2016 and 2018; in 2018, we have three full months left; we are owed unremitted cooperative deductions; while our retired members are due a 36-month pension deduction. They have made us so poor and dehumanized as academics.

“We know what the governor inherited, but we want someone to sit down with us and tell us how these things are going to be paid for. It must be recorded that the monthly grant of N260 million can no longer support this university. Our school fees can only increase wages for just five months.

On Tuesday, Oyebanji, during the New Year prayer and thanksgiving program organized by the state government, appealed to the EKSU workers’ unions against the industrial action, saying: “Strike threats will not solve any problem. We acknowledge the fact that there are problems and we promised that we will address these problems. We are committed, the government needs time to solve the problems”.