Another round of strikes is brewing in the Nigerian university system as the National Association of Academic Technologists has issued a 14-day strike notice to the Government.
The technologists’ threat is based on their disagreement over what they describe as a disparity in the sharing of N40 billion earned allowances released to the four unions operating in the universities.
The four unions are the Academic Staff Union of Universities, 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.
Recently, ASUU ended a nine-month strike with an agreement with the government that 75 percent of the N40b should be paid to its members, with the remaining 25 percent going to the other unions.
NAAT is also demanding the release of 50 percent of the N71 billion accrued allowances being owed members of the union based on the 2009 agreement with the government.
Ibeji Nwokoma, NAAT President, said in Abuja on Saturday that the association had written to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, informing him of the association’s plan for a strike over the disparities.
“We have written to the government that NAAT as a body ought to have been given a specified percentage of the N40bn. You must define it; you can’t just say ASUU 75 percent and others 25 percent. Let us know the specific percentage you are giving to NAAT as a union.
“In the MoU we entered with the government on November 18, in item number 2b, we demanded that in sharing the N40bn released, that government should clearly define what is going to be allocated to each union and government agreed to the genuineness of our demands and said NUC (National Universities Commission) and Federal Ministry of Education will work it out in conjunction with the union and what they have done negated completely the spirit of that MoU.”
He said NAAT members would not resume work if the government failed to respond to their demands.
“We have given the government an ultimatum of 14 days. We wrote to the government on 30th December and we have given 14 working days and if at the end of the 14 working days our demands are not met, we resume our suspended strike.
“Definitely, we will close down the schools. If anybody thinks that ASUU has called off their strike and that schools will reopen, then let the person dare us. Let us know how effective or how possible it is for schools to reopen when technologists are on strike.”
According to him, the 2009 agreement ought to have been renegotiated, but lamented that it has not been fully implemented.
“We demanded that the government should release N100bn because if you go to all the universities, you will discover that the laboratories are dilapidated. We asked the government to release N100bn to bring the laboratories to international standard and then release another N20bn every year for the next five years for the revamp of the laboratories.”
