The Western Zone of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, has rejected the sharing formula of the ‘Earned Allowances between the Academic Staff Unions of Universities, ASUU, and other Unions as proposed by the federal government.
The union, at its Zonal Executive meeting held at the weekend at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, described the proposed formula as ‘provocative, divisive and highly iniquitous’.
Addressing journalists after the meeting, the National Vice President of SSANU, Dr Abdusobur Olayiwola Salaam, noted that “the statement by the federal government had indicated that the about-to-be-released sum of N22.7 billion should be shared between ASUU and other three unions, which include SSANU, NAAT, and NASU in the Nigerian public universities at the ratio of 75% and 25% respectively, saying that it considered the formula as unjust, and a veritable recipe for disharmony on campuses”.
Salaam disclosed that “the N22 billion in the pipeline for release was the original money meant for SSANU and NASU, as agreed upon in February this year and now being shared using a satanic formula of 75% to 25%, against the original owners of the funds”.
He said, ” we are not oblivious of the antics and arm-twisting tendencies inherent in the shambolic release. We are only concerned that government should know better that these are not the best of times to cause chaos on our campuses, but a time to strengthen the university system in the efforts to re-building the Nigerian economy disrupted by the onslaught of COVID-19 and other global malaise”.
“SSANU is particularly piqued that ASUU could sit in a meeting with the government to determine ratio or percentages of allowances to be paid to other unions within the system. Apart from this being tantamount to shaving a man’s head in his absence”.
“For a union that prides itself as being the conscience of the system, we expect them to know better, that this is a ploy by members of the political elites to continue to decimate the quality and standards of public universities through the ensuing chaos of imbalanced Earned Allowances payment while empowering their private universities which are in abundant numbers to continue to thrive.
“We expect our sister union, which we respect so much, to have seen through this ploy and not allow university Unions to be swept away by the divide and rule tactics adopted by government to continue to destroy public universities to their own benefit”.
“This is a time we expect ASUU to lead the way in uniting and binding all unions in the university system rather than jumping into the melee as reflected in a statement credited to the ASUU President in a national daily”.
“Let it be clear to the ASUU President that we reject their negotiations on our behalf because it is anything but altruistic. We wish to point out that ASUU should not see itself as a victor because they are about to benefit from an unjust sharing formula, but as a victim of the wicked shenanigans of those who seek to destroy the Nigerian university system, using all forms of divide and rule”, Salaam said.
While berating the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba for justifying the skewed ratio for Earned Allowances, who said that non-teaching unions are made up of just a small population of librarians and laboratory workers who cannot equate to the larger number of professors in the university system, Salaam noted that with the Minister deliberately watering down the membership of SSANU and ignoring the fact that registrars, and administrators, bursars and accountants, lawyers, medical doctors pharmacists, nurses, architects, engineers and people from almost every profession form the fulcrum of SSANU shows the hypocrisy of a Minister whose status supposedly earns him the tag of honourable.
Source: Vanguard
