Thee coalition of non-teaching staff in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions on Wednesday warned the federal government not to create another round of problems in the institutions with alleged imbalance in the sharing formula of the about N40 billion Earned Allowances (EA) it is about to release.
This warning given by the the unions – 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), came few hours after the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) announced the suspension of its nine-month-old strike.
The workers, who vowed not to go back to their respective duty posts until the government corrected the imbalance, alleged that the government gave ASUU about 75 percent of the Earned Allowances, leaving 25 percent for the other three unions.
Part of the agreement between the government and ASUU at Tuesday’s meeting was to release N40 billion as the Earned Allowance and N30bn for the revitalization of the university system, bringing the total payment to N70 billion.
Reacting to the sharing formula of the N40 billion, President of NAAT, Comrade Ibeji Nwokoma, said anyone thinking that the non-teaching staff unions in the universities and other tertiary institutions would resume with the recent development was day-dreaming except the government corrected the imbalance.
He said the union was making frantic efforts to reach Directors and Permanent Secretary, Ministries of Education and Labour and Employment to draw their attention to the fresh brewing crisis.
In the same vein, President of SSANU, Comrade Mohammed Haruna Ibrahim, said it appears the government does not want peace in the university systems, insisting that his union would not take the lopsided sharing formula.
He stated, “Honestly, I believe that this remains a rumour even though I know it could be true, I have seen 75 percent and 25 percent. But truly if it is that, 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. And even if they want to do something like that, maybe this is my own personal opinion, I may not insist on 50-50 but at least something reasonable. We have so many numbers.
“If they give for example 60-40, do you think the noise will be there? Government does not want peace if it is giving 75 percent to only one union and giving 25 percent to three unions, does it make sense?”
Copyright Daily Trust
