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NASU, SSANU and NAAT Strike: What really is the bone of contention?

Three months into their nationwide strike action, the members of the Non-teaching Staff of Universities are preparing to storm the Ministry of Education and National Assembly, Abuja, to register their grievances and decry the neglect of the Federal Government since the beginning of their strike.

The Spokesperson for Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Abdussobur Salaam, disclosed in an interview that the rally would commence at Unity Fountain, Abuja and proceed to the Ministry of Education and then berth at the National Assembly, where they will be seeking audience with the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, on how to resolve the lingering crisis.

Members of the Unions embarked on an indefinite strike on the 4th of December, 2017, accusing the government of violating an agreement it had with them on the formula for sharing the N23 billion it released to the universities as earned allowances.

According to the Union, the Academic Staff Union took the lion share of the released funds which was supposed to be shared among the various bodies and the government has not done anything to rectify the situation.

Recall that in January 2018, the Federal Government threatened to invoke Section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act of the labour law against the three non-teaching staff of universities, who have been on strike since December 2017.

Speaking on behalf of the Federal Government, Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, stated that the strike was illegal and that the unions went contrary to the agreement reached by the two parties. He said:

“They are on strike and it is an illegal strike because you go on a strike, reach a collective bargaining agreement and then you were not quick in accessing the money and the other union, ASUU accessed plenty of it, about 70 per cent or 80 per cent of it, I don’t know, and then you return and say you are going on strike, it is illegal.

“We don’t want to bring hardship to homes but I am inviting them to come back because if they don’t come back, I will invoke Section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act, but I don’t want them to be the first group of unions that I will invoke that because if I do so, the story will not be palatable.”

On his part, the Chairman of Joint Action Committee (JAC) and National President of SSANU, Comrade Samson Chijioke Ugokwe, has revealed that the non-academic bodies are still on strike because of a foul play that was committed against them by the money sharing process. He explained that out of the N23Bn that was released to the Universities bodies, only a paltry N4.6Bn (11%) was allocated to the three bodies under the umbrella of non-teaching staff.

“As people of honour and considering that a document was signed to that effect, we had no reason to doubt the authenticity of their written commitment.

“To our consternation and utter dismay, the N23 billion has clearly been shown to be a payment for the Academic Staff Union of Universities five their so called ‘Earned Academic Allowances’,   while the three (3) non-teaching staff unions were allocated a paltry N4.6billion (11%).

“On sighting the allocation table, the obvious anomaly and lop-sidedness was observed and a demand for expiation or justification of how the allocations came about was made via a letter to the Honourable Minister of Education dated 14th November 2017.

“In the letter,   we drew the attention of the Honourable Minister to the disproportionate and skewed allocation of the Earned Allowances and demanded explanation. We went further to immediately reject the allocations as made, except we got a convincing and satisfactory explanations and justification for what we consider to be an irrational and subjective ‘sharing of booty.”

In a letter to all branch Chairmen titled “Directives to immediately resume the suspended strike” signed by Comrades Samson Chijioke Ugokwe, SSANU, Chris Ani,   NASU and Sani Suleiman, JAC officially resumed the strike action.

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