Varsities unions brace for battle

•ASUU alleges inaction

Universities seem to be bracing for another Industrial action.

The four unions in the universities are not happy that the government has failed to implement an agreement which led to the suspension of their strike.

Non-academic staff unions have scheduled their National Executive Council meeting for this week to consider the next line of action. Leaders of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are likely to meet between November 10 and 12.

The government had promised to provide a certain amount of money to bridge the shortfall in salaries, pay Earned Academic Allowances, promotion allowances and fund of the universities, among others.

ASUU suspended its strike on the promise that the government will make the money available on or before the end of October. Other unions also suspended their strike.

Although there have been reports that the government has approved an unspecified amount of money to meet the obligation to the workers, ASUU President Biodun Ogunyemi said until they see the payment being effected, the union would not join in the speculations.

He said: “People may report that something is approved but until our people are paid, we don’t want to speculate anything. We have made our submission and we work with government officials, but whether it is approved or not, it is not for us to speculate.

“We have something we submitted that we worked on together with the ministry’s officials. So we expect that they pay, it is when they pay we can believe they have approved.”

A source spoke of how the government agreed to pay a certain percentage after verification.

“At the last count, about 15 universities have been verified and we learnt that the inter ministerial committee recommended to the minister that the 15 universities so far cleared should be paid. We also learnt that the minister has also made a recommendation to the Ministry of Finance for the payment. But we are yet to see or hear anything from them,” the source said, adding:

“Even the N23 billion that was supposed to be meant for ASUU, we learnt that they decided that money will now be for both Academic and Non Academic staff. So, we rejected that, saying that the money must be for ASUU alone and that they should look for money for the non academic staff.

“They have agreed to that, assuring that we were going to get the money last week. But up till now, we are yet to see the money.”

Our leaders will be meeting this week and the first item on the agenda will be whether to resume the suspended action. We are very angry because they have turned the whole thing into a propaganda.”

The chairman of the Joint Action Committee, comprising Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU), Non Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), Comrade Samson Ugokwe, told The Nation that the agreement had not been implemented.

The unions will be holding their National Executive Committee meeting at the University of Port Harcourt “before the end of the week” to review the situation before taking a decision on the next line of action.

But the Director of Information in the Federal Ministry of Education, Mrs Chinyere Ihuoma, is confident that the government will honour the agreement.

She said a committee had been set up to work with all stakeholders, but she was not sure if the committee had submitted its report.

Minister of Labour and Employment Dr. Chris Ngige could not be reached for comments. He was said to have travelled for a meeting of the Governing Board of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva.

The government promised to release of about N220 billion to the universities not later than October 2017 to fund the revitalisation of federal universities and the payment of the shortfall in their salaries as well as payment of earned allowances.