The Federal Government on
Wednesday in Abuja assured of the full implementation of its 2009 agreement with the non-academic staff unions of Nigerian
universities.
They are National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), Non – Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated
Institutions (NASU), and Senior Staff
Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU).
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen.Chris Ngige, gave the assurance at a reconciliatory meeting with The Joint Action
Committee (JAC) of the unions.
The unions had jointly declared their intention to embark on a five – day warning strike effective Jan. 16, 2017.
Ngige said the issues in contention were not different from those of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), adding that government was handling the issues holistically.
“The essence of this meeting is for us to agree to suspend your strike; we are doing so because, we know that you are very patriotic citizens of the country.
“You will understand that man hours lost in any industrial disputes is never easily recoverable. You know that a lot of the issues in disagreement and in contention are being addressed by the Ministry of Education.
“But what was just lacking was that you were not communicated that a formal meeting where these issues will be discussed as par social dialogue as recommended by the
International Labour Organisation (ILO), did not take place.
“I want to assure you that I have no doubt that after we have discussed the issue in contention; you will find that it is very necessary for you to suspend the strike as the
issues raised by your unions are being addressed.
The issues raised by the unions are poor governance and administrative lapses in the university system, poor funding of universities,shortfall in payment of staff salaries and
increasing corruption in the university system.
Also listed were inadequate physical
infrastructure and abandoned projects, lack of adequate teaching and learning facilities and the non-payment of Earned Allowances being
product of the 2009 Agreement, among others.
Mr Sani Suleman, Acting Chairman of JAC said that the unions decided to embark on the strike because “we have written letters to the Ministry of Education but no response or
acknowledgment.
“The last one we wrote was on Dec. 8; we gave 35-day ultimatum so as to allow them to have enough time and even call us for a meeting but to no avail.
“So, after consultation with our principals, we decided to express our displeasure to government by declaring a five-day warning strike.
“We also want to express our displeasure on what was allocated for education in 2017 budget, it has continued to drop.
“It is our responsibility to ensure that we have resources for education so that our universities can be recognised worldwide”, he said.
He called on the minister to ensure that all issues in the 2009 agreement were fully implemented.
Mr Peters Adeyemi, Deputy President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said the strike declared by the unions was to draw government’s attention to issues in the university system.
Adeyemi said that the unions were willing to collaborate with the Federal Government in ensuring that the issues were resolved.
The representatives of Ministry of Education and National Universities Commission, among others, attended the meeting.
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