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Another strike looms in varsities as unions kick against FG agreement with ASUU
The feeling of relieve that greeted the suspension of the over nine months strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may be short lived as three other workers’ unions in Nigerian universities are poised for war with the Federal Government over the sharing formula of the N40 billion Earned Academic (EAA), The Nation has reported.
The unions, the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities, (SSANU); Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), are aggrieved that the government is allocating about 75 per cent of the N40 billion EAA to ASUU, leaving the three other unions with only 25 per cent to share among their members, threatening to ensure that their members don’t resume when the universities reoreopen in January except the “imbalance’ is corrected.
The National President of NAAT Ibeji Nwokomma, in an interview said anyone thinking that the non-teaching staff unions in the universities would resume with the recent development was day-dreaming, adding that the discrepancy in the sharing of the N40 billion contradicts the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Federal government and NAAT on November 18 during a conciliatory meeting called by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.
Read also: ASUU may withdraw services in February 2021 if…
Nwokoma said: “My union is rejecting the sharing formula of the Earned Allowances as it is being done by the government. Government has allocated 75 per cent to ASUU and 25 per cent to all other non-teaching unions in the universities. This is grossly inadequate”.
Similarly, the President of SSANU, Comrade Mohammed Haruna Ibrahim, said his union would not take the lopsided sharing formula.
He said: ”I believe that this remains a rumour even though I know it could be true, I have seen 75 per cent and 25 per cent. But if that is it, we have stated in no uncertain terms that we will not take this kind of lopsided allocations again because what is the scientific measurement used to give this money. We have stated before now that the least we can take is 50-50, they are not more in numbers”.
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