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.