The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has insisted on negotiating the salary of its members with the Bola Tinubu-led administration, thereby rejecting the N35,000 wage award.

ASUU’s national president, Emmanuel Osodeke, stated this in Ibadan on Thursday at the inauguration of the secretariat of the University of Ibadan (UI) branch of the union.

Mr Osodeke stated that the union had agreed that whatever was legally sent to members’ accounts should be spent but not taken as the negotiated salary.

“We told them we should negotiate our wage, but they said we are giving you an award of N35,000; we have told them that it is not our own,” said Mr Osodeke. “We still insist that there has to be a negotiated salary.”

He identified the renegotiation of the existing agreement, payment of withheld salaries, earned academic allowance, and release of the Needs Assessment Funds as some of the pending issues with the federal government.

While commending the UI ASUU branch for the edifice it built using the expertise of its members, Mr Osodeke decried the use of external or foreign consultants to handle projects in the country.

He said the government should instead hire experts within the country, especially from within Nigerian universities, as consultants.

Earlier, the vice-chancellor, UI, Kayode Adebowale, represented by Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, Innovation and Strategic Partnership, Yemisi Bamgbose, had commended the union.

Mr Adebowale said the secretariat would serve as a hub of intellectual discussion, collaboration, and solidarity among the union members “as it strives for a better future for our universities and our nation.”

The UI ASUU chairman, Ayo Akinwole, said the secretariat was built without donations from external people or bodies.

He commended members of the union who gave in cash and were kind enough to see to its completion.

(NAN)