By Kelvin Obambon
Aggrieved staff of the University of Calabar (UNICAL) recruited between 2019 and 2020 on Tuesday staged a protest on campus over the university management’s continuous failure to place 266 workers on its payroll, despite explicit directives from the National Assembly and the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation (OHCSF).
The affected staff, who claim to have gone unpaid for seven years while performing their duties, expressed frustration that the university leadership has stalled their integration while allegedly initiating fresh employment drives.
Speaking on behalf of the protesters, Nesta Akpama, recounted that they were officially employed during the administration of the former Vice-Chancellor, Professor Zana Akpagu. However, their documentation process was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently halted under the leadership of Professor Florence Obi.
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“We received our employment letters and started documentations within the period. Majority of us completed the documentation,” Akpama explained. “When the former Vice-Chancellor stepped out and Professor Florence Obi stepped in, she halted the documentation process. She formed a committee, and the committee brought up a resolution that there is nothing found wanting on this employment and that we should continue. But she kept skipping the inclusion of our names on the payroll.”
Faced with ongoing delays, the workers petitioned the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions. According to Akpama, after a series of hearings involving UNICAL management and federal agencies, both the House of Representatives and the Head of Service of the Federation directed the university to immediately absorb and payroll the 266 affected staff – a standard already applied to similar cases at other federal institutions like the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) and Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK).
According to Akpama, the ongoing protest was sparked after routine visits to the Vice-Chancellor’s office revealed what he described as new, ongoing recruitment exercises taking place while their long-standing mandate remained ignored.
“Yesterday, during our routine visit, we came again to meet with the VC and discovered a group of persons filing into the office, and we discovered that there is an employment going on,” Akpama stated. “We have come out in our numbers to let the VC address us, to know why he has not, up till now, respect or implement the resolution coming from the House of Representatives and the directives coming from the Head of Service of the Federation.”
He declared that the aggrieved employees stand firmly on the National Assembly directive, noting that many affected staff possess valid assumption of duty forms signed by their respective Heads of Departments.
“The House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria said the 266 sent to the school should be captured and be paid. That is where we are, and that is our stand,” he added. “For seven years, we have not been paid at all.”
The protesters appealed to the university management to demonstrate integrity and respect the directives of the Federal Government by resolving their payroll status without further delay.
The protesting workers carried placards with various inscriptions such as “VC Payroll 2019/2020 Non Teaching Staff As Directed by the Head of Civil Service of the Federation”, “UNICAL Management Comply with National Assembly Directive to Payroll 2019/2020 UNICAL Staff”, among others.
During the protest, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Offiong Efanga Offiong declined to address the protesters, as they were denied access to the administrative block by the University’s security.
