Universities across the country are on a five-day recess following an industrial strike, which started yesterday, report Okodili Ndidi, Owerri; Bolaji Ogundele, Warri; Kolade Adeyemi, Kano; Bassey Anthony, Uyo; Rasaq Ibrahim, Ado Ekiti; Rosemary Nwisi, Port Harcourt and Sampson Unamka.
SSANU President demands N30 billion
Senior Staff Union (SSANU) National President Samson Ugwoke has accused the Federal Government of complicating the implementation of its agreement with the union and the Non-Academic Staff Union (SANU). He said the government’s failure to agree to their demand for the payment of N30 billion would lead to what he described as ‘mother of all strikes’.
Speaking on Monday at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) where he coordinated the implementation of the two unions’ five-day warning strike, Ugwoke said the earned allowances the government was owing would not have accrued if the agreed time table was followed.
Ugwoke, who is also the chairman, Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the two unions, also said the Committee set up by the government was yet to meet eight months after.
He said: “We are demanding N30 billion now as part of our old earned allowance. This is part of our earned allowance from 2009 to 2018. Bring N30 billion and pay our members in NASU and SSANU, when they bring it, we will pipe down. The other one is the renegotiation. The agreement says the one of 2009 should be renegotiated every three years. In other words, if the government had complied with that section of the agreement, it implies that the agreement would have been renegotiated three times from 2009 till date. It is over 10 years now, it ought to have been negotiated or reviewed but we are still in one. They have set up a committee good and fine but the committee has not called for a meeting and we are in the 8th month of the year which is august, so are you considering that as a serious committee?
“On the 7th of this month, we came up with resolutions and up till now those resolutions none of them had been addressed, by then we had already given a 14-day ultimatum; we were expecting that at least some letters referring to aspect of some of these actions must have come to us, in other words, nothing has come to us. It means that the government has not taken any action and that is why we are giving only five days warning strike Monday through Friday. We would come back and reappraise the situation and know whether there should be a need for the mother of all strikes. It will result in an indefinite strike.”
On some members of the union who were sacked, Ugwoke said the government had the power to recall them.
“It is a government that is complicating the matter; it is straight forward. If the government wants to recall our people, a circular will come up, the same circular that disengaged them from the school is the same circular that can come and reengage them again and then pay them their arrears of 2013, 2014 and 2015 when they were disengaged, you pay them their arrears of the salaries, those due for promotion within 2014 and now they should also be given opportunity for their promotion. The government can do this, it is simple,” Ugwoke said.
Ugwoke told NAN in an interview that members of the unions had been fully mobilised to ensure total compliance to the five-day warning strike.
“We are fully ready for the strike, and there is no going back on that. The strike is going to be total from Monday, Aug. 19, to Friday, Aug. 23.
“We had given the Federal Government a 14-day ultimatum to meet our demands, but it elapsed with nothing coming forth from the side of government.
“From Monday, therefore, we shall embark on this warning strike, and if nothing meaningful comes out of it, we will strategise to embark on an indefinite, comprehensive and total nationwide strike,’’ the unionist warned.
According to him, our members are still open to further negotiations with the government before the end of the warning strike.
Ugwoke, also the President of the JAC, appealed to education stakeholders to prevail on the Federal Government to meet JAC’s demands.
“We have got judgment over the staff school issue in our favour. This judgment was got since Dec. 6, 2016, but up until now, none of our members who were affected has been reinstated. This is not going to continue,’’ he said.
NASU Chairman, UNILAG chapter, Comrade Ajibade Kehinde, told The Nation the strike was to draw the attention of the Federal Government to some unresolved issues.
“If nothing is done, our national body will call an emergency meeting and review the warning strike and take decisive action,” said Kehinde.
FUTO SSANU joins strike
The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) yesterday commenced a five-day warning strike to press home their demand of N30 billion as Earned Allowances.
The FUTO branch Chairman of SSANU and JAC, Franklin Matthews, said the strike “is expected to be total and comprehensive involving the school bursary, drivers, cleaners as well as security operatives of the school who are members of the union”.
The NASU branch chairman, Samuel Iwuala, said a task force has been set up to ensure strict compliance.
Partial success in DELSU, FUPRE
The strike was partially observed at the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun (FUPRE), as some members of the unions were at work yesterday.
A member of one of the unions, who spoke to The Nation in Warri yesterday, under anonymous conditions, said: “All non-academic staff of Nigerian universities are meant to be on strike now, but as you can see, we are still in the office.”
On the reason for the non-compliance by the institution, he said: “Our university is a special one and a lot of political considerations are factored into how things are done here”.
The Secretary of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), FUPRE chapter, Comrade Dan Ijeh, said: “The effect is not that felt here because we don’t have NASU. Instead of NASU, we have NUPENG and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), you remember this is not a regular university. However, the SSANU has joined the strike.”
At the Delta State University (DELSU), Abraka, the fact that students are on vacation weakened the effect of the strike.
Attempts to get to speak to the DELSU chapter chairman of SSANU, Comrade Monday Izu, was unsuccessful.
AAU, UNIBEN in total support
Members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) in the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma and the University of Benin joined in the nationwide warning strike.
At the University of Benin, the monitoring team of labour unions made sure offices were not closed.
The offices that were already opened were shut down. Some of the university employees were seen at various places in the institution.
Only one gate at the main campus of the university in Ugbowo was open for vehicles to go in. This caused heavy vehicular traffic that stretched into the Benin–Lagos road.
At UNIBEN Ekenwan campus, the situation was the same as many offices were locked. The Chairman of the UNIBEN chapter of NASU, Comrade Anthony Igbinosa, said he was satisfied with the compliance level.
“So far, so good, it has been successful. We expected our members to comply and they did. If you go round the campus, you will see that everywhere is sealed up and this will continue till Friday 23rd of August 2019, until we get directives from the national. So far, if we have a hundred, I would rate it ninety-nine per cent,” he said.
Some students complained of lack of water in their hostels because there was no one on duty to pump the water.
Academic activities were on in AAU but the concerned labour leaders ensured their members stayed away from work.
BUK students allay fear
The Bayero University, Kano arm of the NASU yesterday joined the one-week warning strike. The SSANU, Bayero University, Kano branch also joined its non-teaching staff union counterparts.
The Chairman of SSANU, BUK branch, Comrade Haruna Aliyu, said the strike followed a directive given by the JAC of the two non-teaching staff unions.
“The strike is total and comprehensive as all our members are directed to comply, even the health centre is not spared,” said the Chairman.
Students were, however, told not to panic. According to a statement by the Public Relations Officer of the Students’ Union Government, Mahraz Muhammad, said: “We wish to let BUK Students know that it is just a warning strike and as such there would not be a total shut down of the system.
“During this one week of warning strike, power and water supply will be given to various halls of residence as usual while academic activities will continue at our various faculties. BUK students are therefore enjoined to disregard any speculation telling them to go home.”
The statement added: “Members of the union, heads of various halls of residence and security personnel will be fully on ground to ensure students are okay. If there is any new development, it will be communicated to everyone by the union. Let us, therefore, stay calm as we hope for the best.”
Many stranded as UNIUYO shelves admission screening
Many admission seekers into the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State were stranded yesterday as the university failed to conduct the admission screening.
The development followed the strike embarked upon by the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), which has crippled academic and administrative activities in federal universities nationwide.
Our correspondent, who was at the main and town campuses of the university, saw hundreds of candidates waiting hopelessly at various faculties of the institution yesterday.
UNIUYO chapter chairman of NASU, Comrade Ime Edigheyong Edet, explained that the warning strike became necessary following the Federal Government’s refusal to pay arrears of Earned Allowances since 2013.
He listed the cumulative debt arising from these earned allowances to include overtime, travel allowances and other entitlements, saying “the refusal of the Federal Government to listen to the voices of reason has forced NASU at the national level to call members out on this warning strike”.
UI records 95 per cent compliance, says SSANU chair
The Chairman, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), University of Ibadan, Mr Wale Akinremi, has said there was 95 per cent compliance on the five days warning strike directive by its national body.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Akinremi made this disclosure in Ibadan on Monday while speaking on the resolve of SSANU and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) determination to get government attention on their three points demand.
“The non-teaching staff in the federal universities in Nigeria are on strike because of the failure of the government to listen to our plea and our position on the welfare of staff as well as the development of the universities.
“Specifically, we have three issues that we are dragging; one is on our agreement with the government since 2009 on the monetary aspect, but the government has not been attending to our request.
“Secondly, on the issue of the university staff school teachers, they were erroneously sacked by the government; we protested at that time, the government took us to court and we got a judgement in favour of the teachers but till date, the government has yet to implement the judgement.
“These teachers are languishing in penury; the pupils don’t know what becomes of their future. The staff schools have produced ministers, senators and professors among others. The onus is on us to make sure that our institutions thrive.
“Thirdly, in that agreement, it is stated that we should be meeting every three years to review the position to know how far we have gone or if we are not moving at all and what we can do to move forward.
“It is not all about money, the whole world should know that we are not only asking for money”.
Also, Mr Malachy Etim, the NASU chairman UI, said all members of NASU are eager to comply because their welfare needs to be improved upon.
“If there is any lecture going on, it is the work of the lecturers as teaching is not our responsibility. We have locked some classrooms but some lecturers have the key, so they can open them.
“But offices are under lock. We are telling the federal government that failure to call us to a roundtable, we will declare an indefinite strike and close down all the universities,” he said.
NAN reports that the University of Ibadan gate was heavily guarded by security agents both by the men of the Nigerian Police Force and that of the Department of State Services.
NAN also reports that there was no vehicular movement into the campus as the gate was partially barricaded with mats spread across the road by the unions on strike.
No strike in RSU
The chairman, Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), Rivers State University (RSU), Port Harcourt, Barry Jonah, yesterday said his members will not be part of the strike.
He spoke when he featured on a radio programme.
Jonah said his Institution did not receive the circular from the national office, informing them to join the strike.
Activities in the institution were not disrupted yesterday, although they had just concluded semester examinations last week.
The chapter leader said: “Our union is not part of the nationwide strike. We did not receive any formal letter to that effect from our national secretariat, Abuja, so we held a congress and our members decided not to be part of the strike.”
Need for industrial harmony
A former Minister of Education, Prof. Chinwe Obaji, and the Second Deputy National President, National Parent-Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN), Chief Adeolu Ogunbanjo, have called for a lasting industrial harmony in universities.
They made the call as the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Unions (NASU) began a nationwide warning strike on Monday.
Obaji said universities, together with the Federal Government and the general public, must seek ways to ensure production of quality graduates to boost the country’s economy.
“I think this infighting between labour unions and the Federal Government must be reviewed now to give room for serious work in re-engineering and repositioning academic activities in our ivory towers,” he said.
According to her, it is high time the `embarrassing’ quality of graduates churned out annually by universities should bother education stakeholders.
“We should stop all these back and forth issues and concern ourselves more with how to produce quality graduates that will one day be leaders of this country.
“Quality education remains the key driver of any country’s economy, and this can only work if we come together as a people and find a way of achieving this, rather than this strike all the time.
“Perhaps it should worry us the more that it was discovered recently that some persons who ought to be mobilised for the NYSC were allegedly unable to read the English alphabets,” she said.
Obaji told NAN that Nigerians must task themselves on quality service delivery in their various capacities.
Ogunbanjo said strikes in the university system had become too many, urging urgent interventions to save the system from collapse.
According to him, the Federal Government should adequately tackle issues relating to strikes in the education sector.
He said strikes had impacted negatively on the entire university system, noting that students were at the receiving end.
“The moment it tries to seek a way out to reach a common ground with one labour union in the system, it is only natural that the other one will feel cheated, and so tries to make its demands.
“So, if the government feels that only a certain labour union in the system deserves something, it should come out and defend its action, and if not, it should tell them as it is, once and for all.
“Should there be the need for a negotiation, it should be done with parties concerned, with all commitment and sincerity of purpose,’’ the NAPTAN boss said.
