Academic and social activities at the premier university, University of Ibadan ( UI) came to a halt on Monday morning as the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union, (NASU) University of Ibadan chapter , commenced a three-day protests to demand N30 billion earn allowance .
They are also protesting against Federal Government’s alleged refusal to obey court judgment on staff school salaries.
TheNation reports that security architecture in university community was placed on alert with the movement of security patrol teams around the community.
The peaceful protest which drew scores of affected workers to the main gate of the institution, also affected smooth vehicular movements in and out of the school premises.
The protesting workers were armed with placards with inscriptions like: “we demand N30 billion to pay part of our earned allowance now”; FG stop provoking inter union crises in Nigerian universities”; FG, please obey court judgment on staff school,” among others.
The Chairman, UI, SSANU, Wale Akinremi, flanked by other union leaders, said any nation that treats teachers the way “we treat ours in Nigeria will never be destined for greatness.”
Akinremi said the 3-day protests would be followed by a branch protest and the ‘mother of all protests’ at the national level which would shake the corridors of power to its foundation.
Last week, the national bodies of both unions had frowned at the alleged preferential treatment extended to ASUU by the Federal Government as seen in the allocation of 80 percent of monies released leaving the non academic staff with 20 percent.
In a resolution reached after its meeting, read by the Chairman of JAC and National President of SSANU, Comrade Samson Ugwoke, the non teaching university workers rejected the 20 percent Earned Allowance allocated to the three non teaching unions.
JAC called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency, release N30 billion Earned Allowance of non teaching staff within the period of 2009 to 2016.
Ugwoke who stressed that the protest was aimed at sending a notice of strike to the Federal Government, called on its members to ensure full compliance with the directive in order to show its relevance to the university system.
He said, “The recent sharing of money where the money collected from the ministry of education signed by the director of tertiary education, allocating 80 percent of the money to ASUU and only 20 percent to the three non teaching staff unions is not acceptable to us.
“We reject in total the 20 percent allocated to our members, rather we demand from the federal government the sum of N30 billion as part of the earned allowance of non teaching staff from 2009 to 2016 and we call on government to hasten the audit of university earned allowances so that we will know how much is paid to who and how much remains.
“The way and manner the money is being shared contrary to any known accounting procedure, any known international best practice should be condemned by all, it is rather a fraud. This house calls it a fraud and calls for investigation.
“We call and demand that government should release as a matter of urgency, N30 billion for non teaching staff
“JAC has approved protests from the branches, protests at the zonal levels of our unions and mother of all protests in Abuja for three days, before a deadline is given to the government for the mother of all strikes that will follow. The protest will commence on Monday 15th July 2019,” he said.
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