Following the recent threats by the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) to go on strike if a meeting with the Federal Government failed to grant their demands on the payment of Earned Allowance and rejection of the NEEDS Assessment Report in the university system, students in various institutions of higher learning have pleaded with both parties to consider the fate of students.
Rising from its NEC meeting held at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho, last week, the President of SSANU, Comrade Samson Ugwoke, said the varsity workers may have no option than to commence a nationwide strike after the meeting with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), slated to hold on the 19th April, fails to address the relevant issues such as the Payroll and Personnel Information System.
File Photo: Confusion on campus: Students of Federal Ploytechnic, Mubi, Adamawa State, vacating school after the massacre of over 40 students of the school.
He also hinted that the National Association of Academic Technology (NAAT) and the Non-Academic Staff of Universities and other allied institutiona (NASU) – under the Joint Action Committee (JAC) had also got the support of their members to commence strike on the issues.
Ugwoke said the unions have delayed the strike due to the intervention of members of the House of Representatives who advised the Executive to raise a Supplementary Budget to cover the payment of Earned Allowance.
“But despite the various meetings, dialogue and discussions under the Implementation Monitoring Committee, over the last two years and promises from the government, the money needed for the payment was not captured in the 2013 budget, and this is an affront on the workers, the unions and their leadership.
“All the unions at JAC, SSANU, NASU and NAAT were together at a meeting on the invitation of House Committee on Education, which was very robust, interesting and successful. At the end, and as regards the NEEDS Assessment, IPC and Earned Allowance, the House suggested that the Executive should raise a Supplementary Budget covering the Earned Allowance.”
Vanguard Learning sampled the opinions of students on the looming strike and most of them pleaded with the various union members not to allow students spend longer time than necessary in school.
Oluwa Latifa, a student of Lagos State University, LASU, said even if they insist on going on strike, let only the affected parties go while other staff that aren’t affected remain in the classrooms so that academic calendar would not be disrupted.
For Susan Eru, a student of the University of Benin, “Though it is the students that would suffer for it, but the lecturers should go on strike if they deem it fit because working without adequate pay will not make them effective.”
Calling on government to honour its part of the agreement, Blessing Eze from Abia State University said; “Why won’t the government honour its agreement with the lecturers who have families they need to take care of? Going on strike will cause the government to remember that lecturers still exist.”
Source: Vanguard
No comments:
Post a Comment