CLEMENT IDOKO writes that except urgent steps are taken by the Federal Government to address the demands of the non-teaching staff of universities, the nation’s Ivory Towers may be heading for another prolonged industrial crisis.
THE Nigerian public universities’ workers acting under the umbrella of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) appear set to throw the university system into another round of prolonged strike, unless the federal government urgently resolves their longstanding issues – and that may be anytime from Monday July 4, 2018.
All the three non-academic staff unions – Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) have accused the federal government of insincerity and unnecessary prevarication in implementing agreements reached with them.
They have already given the government up till July 4 to address their demands, failing which they have vowed to resume their suspended strike and withdraw their services from the system.
Tribune Education recalls that some of their key demands border on backlog of unpaid earned allowance, the issue of universities staff primary schools, fractional salary payments, corruption in university system, and release of white paper on visitation panels to universities.
SSANU president and chairman of the Joint Action Committee, Comrade Samson Ugwoke, told Tribune Education that nothing tangible has been done by the federal government to implement the content of an agreement signed before an earlier strike was suspended.
Ugwoke said the JAC had held various meetings with the federal government team, led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige; and the latter made strong commitments to address the issues – some of which he said date back to the 2009 agreement reached with the staff unions.
The general secretary of the Non-Academic Staff Union, Comrade Peters Adeyemi, also said it was unfortunate that more than 12 weeks after signing the agreement that led to the suspension of the strike, the government has not considered it necessary to implement it, and that members of the unions were becoming impatient, especially when the focus of government and politicians is now on the 2019 general elections.
He said the three unions would meet before the expiration of the ultimatum to decide whether or not to resume the suspended action and when, if nothing is done to avert it before then.
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The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, on his part, restated the commitment of the government to the agreement, insisting that there was no need for the university workers to resume the strike as the government was looking for the money to pay them while some other aspects of their demands were already being implemented.
Tribune Education also gathered that the delay in the passage of the 2018 budget was one key issue that had delayed the implementation, as some of the funds required to implement some aspects of the agreement were captured in the budget.
Although President Muhammadu Buhari signed the budget into law last week, how fast the resources will be released or mobilised is a different ball game.
Comrade Adeyemi said: “The strike was basically on the fact that government reneged on its agreement with us on a number of issues. When our members insisted, we had to resume the suspended strike which lasted for six weeks. We had a meeting with government and we were promised.
“They asked us to allow them finalise some of the contacts they were making and for the presidency to release some funds. They pleaded that we should give them five weeks; but as we speak right now, it is about 12 weeks and nothing has happened.
“It is most likely that the suspended strike will have to be restarted. We prevailed on our members after the expiration of the five weeks to give government more time. We have been moving around talking to those concerned, but there has been nothing positive from government. It is a very sad development.”
Also, the national executive council of SSANU, at its 33rd regular meeting held on Thursday 10th and Friday 11th May, 2018, at Bayero University, Kano, deliberated extensively on critical issues affecting the union, the educational sector, university sub-sector, and the nation as a whole.
Some of the resolutions as contained in the communique issued at the end of the meeting said that the federal government had continued to disobey the National Industrial Court judgment of December 5, 2016 on University Staff Schools.
“NEC notes that it has become the penchant of government to choose which court judgments to obey and which to disregard. In cases where an attempt is made to obey court judgments, implementation is done selectively and at whim.
“NEC decries a situation where the union followed legitimate processes to correct an anomaly and after judgment was given, government chose to treat it with contempt and implement it in the breach, as is the case with University Staff Schools where various offices of government have issued circulars which run contrary to the decision of the court.”
The NEC-in-Session also expressed disappointment at the failure of the federal government to implement some aspects of the 2009 Agreement and other Memoranda of Understanding it freely entered into with university-based non- teaching staff unions.
It warns that “Nigerians should not blame the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of NAAT, NASU and SSANU if it resumes the suspended nationwide industrial action, because seven weeks after the last Memorandum of Understanding signed by government and the unions, government has failed to honor its own part of the bargain.”
SSANU then called on well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the federal government to implement all agreements it freely signed with JAC of NAAT, NASU and SSANU to avert another round of industrial crisis in the universities.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Education Rights Initiative (ERI), Mr Udah Ode, said it was unfortunate that Nigerian tertiary institutions have not gone over strike, which he said should be the last weapon.
He lamented that the innocent students would bear the brunt of any prolonged strike in universities this time, which he said would further aggravate the already tense security challenge the nation is currently faced with.
Ode called on the federal government to expedite action in addressing the demands of JAC, as well as other outstanding issues with staff unions of universities.
He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to personally intervene now to ensure that the institutions have unbroken peace so as to concentrate on how to improve the quality of the products of the system.
A president of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Comrade Kadiri Aruna, also warned that the student body would no longer tolerate another round of incessant strikes in the university system, saying that students are usually the only that are most affected when such strikes are called.
He appealed to both the federal government and JAC to show understanding in finding lasting solution to the lingering issues, and urged the federal government to take urgent steps to address the demands of the workers.
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