THE striking non-academic staff of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) have accused the institution of threatening them to end the action.
But the university denied the allegation, saying it is working with the workers for the betterment of the school.
The joint action committee (JAC) of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) alleged that since the school resumed in December, the management had been using the police to harass them.
In a telephone chat, former SSANU Chairman Joseph Adefolalu, who is mediating the crisis, claimed that the Vice Chancellor, Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, directed that he and other union members be arrested.
Adefolaju said: “At present, the unions do not have anything against the university’s management. It is because of the way he (Ogundipe) is handling the issue that is why there is commotion everywhere. I do not know who advised the VC to get me and other union members arrested. He is terrorising the unions with security. We get calls from police, Department of State Services (DSS) and even the Commissioner of Police. The school management is always calling for meetings at odd hours – 5 or 6pm – asking security men to ambush us”.
The unions on December 3 embarked on an indefinite strike over the “unfair” allocation from the N23 billion allowances released by the Federal Government to universities last year.
NASU Chairman Kehinde Ajibade accused Ogundipe of acting contrary to the agreement they held last December 28.
“We started the strike on December 3 and on the 28, the unions had a meeting with the VC during which we stated that we do not want any academic staff to take up our duties. Even while on strike, we still have the right to protect our jobs. But we realised that the management is doing otherwise, so we went round the school and stopped them. You can imagine a professor doing clerical job.
“The VC and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are using their members to petition the JAC. We have consulted our lawyers and we have written to the national body of the JAC. The threat and intimidation are not going to yield any result for them. It will not deter us to continue the strike until our allowances are paid,” he said.
The Nation learnt that before the new year, the DSS visited the school to quiz some union leaders.
A source claimed that the VC told the DSS that “the protesters were incited by those that contested the VC position with him. But our leaders explained to the DSS that we are only fighting for our right.
In a statement, the unions have advised their members to remain resolute.
It reads: “Due to the participation of the UNILAG branch in the ongoing industrial strike called by the national body of the non-teaching staff unions of universities, as a result of the imbalance and injustice in the sharing of the money released to the universities by the government for the payment of the staff earned allowances, there has been series of intimidation, harassment, blackmail and threats to the lives of leaders of the unions by the management.
“It has come to our notice that the management, in its attempt to frustrate the ongoing peaceful national strike at the local branch has employed coercion by way of intimidation of members of the unions, especially those in Admission Office, School of Postgraduate Studies, Students Affairs, to go back to work; thereby infringing on their rights. The management, having failed to get majority of the staff members in other units back to work, has decided to see to the arrest or abduction of the unions’ leaders, believing that doing so will put an end to the strike in the university abruptly.
“Hence, the management has embarked on uncivilised approaches to conflict resolution, like use of blackmail of the union leaders and subsequent employment of the police whom they have furnished with the contact numbers of the union leaders, and who are now on the prowl of the leaders whose numbers are being tracked for possible arrest.
“We have been reliably informed that the management is attempting to force members of our union to call off the strike that was called by national JAC (SSANU, NAAT and NASU). Our members should further take notice that it is only the national JAC (SSANU, NAAT and NASU) which called for the strike ab initio, has the authority to call off the strike’’.
Describing the allegations as untrue, the university’s Principal Assistant Registrar (PAR), Information Unit, Mrs Taiwo Oloyede, said the school and the workers were partners in progress.
The management, she said, appealed to the unions at a meeting to sheathe their sword, adding that the VC is interested in staff welfare.
The PAR said the VC was in support of the workers’ cause.
Oloyede said the school was running skeletal operation because of the strike, explaining that students’ registration is being done by lecturers assigned the job.
