Non-teaching staff in tertiary institutions in Nigeria — comprising Non-Academic Staff Union of Education and Associated Institutions (NASU), National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) — have implored the Federal Government to dump its Memorandum of Understanding with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
According to the unions, implementing would lead to another round of crisis. Instead, they argued that the 2009 agreements between FG and unions of tertiary institutions should be honoured.
President of SSANU who doubles as spokesperson of NAAT, SSANU and NASU, Samson Ugwoke said the unions sympathise with ASUU but believed that the MoU is against the interest of the education sector.
“We sympathise and solidarise with our sister union, ASUU over their long-drawn-out struggle for the welfare of their members,” Ugwoke wrote in a statement released to the media on Friday.
“We urge the government to build more confidence in governance, at all times, by respecting agreements it freely enters into with unions.
“However, we caution that any settlement of the current dispute must take into account the interests of all the university-based unions (NAAT, SSANU, NASU and ASUU). The three Non-Teaching Staff Unions of NAAT, SSANU and NASU are opposed to any extraneous demands by either ASUU or any group in the university, which are prejudicial to the welfare of our members.”
He said that the stand of the unions is that government should jettison the so-called Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) of ASUU and concentrate on full implementation of the 2009 FGN/Unions agreements, which border on staff conditions of service and welfare, and increased funding to universities.
“The MOU being referred to by ASUU is for their selfish end and it is bound to generate more crises in the university sub-sector. The Non-Teaching Staff Unions in the universities will stoutly resist any attempt to ‘sell’ the universities to ASUU,” he added.
“All university-based unions signed agreements in 2009 with the government; it is therefore advised that all contentious issues in all the agreements be settled holistically to avoid a ‘relay race’ in strike actions in the universities.
“The implementation of any union’s MOU should not come in between the period of implementation of signed agreements. Rather, such items in the MOU should wait to be renegotiated in another agreement(s).”
