Members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU), Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), on Tuesday, staged a peaceful protest to press home their demands with the Federal Government.
Addressing newsmen during the protest held within the university campus, at Alabata area of Abeokuta, in Odeda Local Area of Ogun State, the branch chairman, Comrade Rotimi Fasunwon, and vice-chairman, Comrade Adewale Ojoye respectively, urged the FG to implement all the agreements reached between the JAC of NASU and SSANU in November last.
The protesters, who carried various placards which reads “Government, restore our legitimate allowances as 75 per cent of Earned Allowances for one union, 25 per cent for others is daylight robbery,” “Shift duty allowance is our right” and “We say no to academic headship of non-teaching units,” urged the FG to address all issues raised by the unions to prevent another disruption in the university system.
The union members were protesting against discrepancy of the payment of salaries through the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), non-payment of the 13 months arrears of the new minimum wage, non-payment of Earned Allowances (EA), none payment of full salaries and non-implementation of the Federal Government NASU and SSANU 2009 agreements, among others.
He accused the FG of tactically relegating non-teaching staff as far as the Earned Allowance is concerned.
“The Federal Hovernment reneged on the MoU signed with JAAC of SSANU and NASU in November 2020.
“We have continued to cooperate with the government believing that the government is reasonable enough and will keep to its promise.
“We have kept our own part of the agreement by staying at work even while Coronavirus was so serious, we stayed at work, but right now we can no longer take it and we are saying no more slavery treatment.
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“If they want peace in the universities, they must implement our Earned Allowance alongside with the payment of our salaries. We are sick of asking for the payment of the minimum wage arrears,” Fasunwon added.
Ojoye in his submission described the IPPIS as contentious and fraudulent.
Adewale said: “Government continues to play hide and seek with non-teaching staff and that is one of the reasons we have decided to come to say that government is not sincere, the government is not interested in promoting access to education for children of the masses.
“We are being owed arrears of the earned allowances as far back as 2013 and government releasing funds to cater for the payment of these backlogs of arrears coming up with this obnoxious rule of allocating 75 per cent of the allowances to one union and then asking the three other unions to make do with the remaining 25 per cent, we regard that as daylight robbery.
“The new national minimum wage which was assented to by President Mohammadu Buhari on the 18th of April, 2019. December 2019 civil servants and many other unions employees of the federal government got the arrears paid but up till today we are still here begging government our entitlements.”
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