The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian universities (SSANU) has called on the Federal Government to uphold and speedily implement the agreement that occasioned the suspension of the protracted strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to avoid another agitation and industrial disharmony in the education sector.
SSANU also decried what it described as “extreme poor funding of Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun Ogun State; Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa, Ondo State; Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba, Akoko, Ondo State; Kwara State University, Malete; Plateau State University, Bokkos; Abia State University, Uturu; Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki; Cross River University of Technology, Calabar and Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti.”
In a communiqué signed by SSANU’s National President, Comrade Mohammed Haruna Ibrahim, at the end of its special National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja, last week, the union urged the Federal Government to expedite the process of upholding its part of the terms of agreement on which the strike action was suspended.
On government’s “No work, no pay” policy against the unions that embarked in the recently called off strikes,SSANU said, “The recent industrial action embarked upon by the Joint Action Committee of NASU and SSANU was the failure of the government in honouring previous Collective Bargaining Agreements entered into with the unions. The action of the government to therefore withhold the salaries of members of the union is totally unnecessary and has brought about untold hardship to hapless Nigerian citizens
“NEC therefore requests the government to rescind this decision of “No work, No pay” and release the withheld salaries of members of the Joint Action Committee of SSANU and NASU.”
The union lamented the poor funding of state universities in Nigeria, saying, “NEC expressly rejects the current trend in most states in Nigeria where state governments that are unable to meet the financial, structural and capacity building needs of state-owned universities, neglect already established universities and approve the establishment of new ones.
“Some state governments now own more tertiary institutions than the financial capacity of their states. This unfortunate situation has brought about the gross under funding of most state-owned institutions.
“The resultant effect is the depreciation of the quality and standard of education that is acquired in such institutions. Service delivery in such institutions is constantly nose diving because most staff are owed their legitimate payments for services rendered.
“NEC therefore urges state governments to conduct a needs assessment of their existing universities with a view to ascertaining deficiencies within them. The findings and recommendations of the needs assessment will guide the state government to allocate adequate funds to such institutions to enable it meet international best practices and save their universities from imminent collapse.”
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SSANU further condemned the recent cases of proscription of trade unions. The union said, “NEC notes that it has become a trend for governors or even Vice Chancellors to proscribe trade unions at the slightest provocation. The case of the proscription of trade unions at Bamidele Olumilua University of Education Science and Technology, Ikere, Ekiti and the actions of the Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, in the state-owned Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma are vivid examples.
“A situation where the state governor is owing staff their legitimate wages but goes ahead to proscribe the unions is not only illegal, antidemocratic, wicked, but barbaric. Proscriptions of trade unions do not lie within the powers of state governors or university authorities and as such any declaration of proscription is an illegality which cannot stand the face of the law.
“NEC therefore urges the Federal Government to call state governors to order to prevent them from towing the path of dishonour.”
Concerning the recent ravaging flood cases in Nigeria, the communiqué said, “NEC calls on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the affected states as 33 out of the 36 states of the federation are currently devastated by the floods. The Federal Government should also, as a matter of urgency, put in place measures that would bring an end to future occurrence of perennial flooding in Nigeria.”
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