OAU: NASU, SSANU Continues Protest as Negotiation with Management Fails
Adeniji Mayowa
Non-Academic workers of Obafemi Awolowo University have promised to continue their protest against the non-payment of owed allowances and other irregularities of the university authorities.
On Monday, members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) left their respective offices for freedom park, a spot situated in front of the university senate building, to make their demands known.
This grounded academic activities in some departments, particularly those whose course of study has something to do with practical in the laboratory.
OAU KILONSHELE gathered that the protest was to call the attention of the public to the “injustice of the management against students and staffs of the institution and to request for the full implementation of a 2004 agreement with the school management.”
The school SSANU branch chairman, Oketunde Ademola, in an Interview with our correspondent noted that the action is meant to show the non-teaching staffs' displeasure toward the injustice of the school management towards staffs and students.
He explained that the civil disobedience is to reject the "illegal deduction of 7.5 percent of staffs' salary" and to request for full implementation of the "earned allowance" agreement that was reached in 2004.
"We are in this struggle because there are lots of frauds and we are protesting against it. We have complained to the federal government. We have written to the EFCC, nothing has been done. We have also written to the director of State Security Service (SSS), nothing has been done. We have written to many agencies," he said.
"It is even beyond the issue of earned allowance. If they implement earned allowance today, we want government to set up a very powerful panel to investigate OAU," Mr. Oketunde said.
The NASU chairman, Wole Odewunmi, in his address, stated that despite the approval of the earned allowance by the school governing council, has not been fully implemented.
While addressing the members, he said that only the parts of the agreement which relate to the University's big officers were being implemented, and that the parts which deal with the generality of staffs, such as Hazard allowance, has never been implemented.
He noted that the issue had once been raised in 2015 which led to chaos in which the University's non-teaching staffs' body was sued to court.
"The body has deemed it fit to re-raise the issue as it was realized that the University employed Over 140 staffs in December, 2018, unknown to the federal government, without following due process and despite the fact that salaries of new staffs can only be paid after two to three month succeeding employment. The new staffs' salaries payment has continued unabated since December which disproves the management's claim that there is no fund."
"There are lots of things they have been doing which we have been enduring. But following this struggle that has been started, we'll start inviting the press to raise other ones. Our argument is that there is enough fund to ensure the implementation of the agreement, they shouldn't say there is no fund," he asserted
Meeting Ends in Deadlock
NASU Secretary, Ajagbe Olajide, after narrating how the school reneged in its promises, informed this paper that a meeting with the agenda of salvaging the situation was fixed with the school management by 4pm on Monday.
However, in a telephone conversation with OAU KILONSHELE on Monday night, the SSANU Chairperson, Mr. Ademola, explained that the outcome of the meeting with the University management was not positive and asserted that the protest continues on Tuesday.
"The meeting was not that favourable. The management was unable to meet our demands. The struggle will still continue tomorrow because we have to report to the Congress. So, I don't see us resuming tomorrow" he said
Meanwhile, when the school spokesperson, Abiodun Olanrewaju, was contacted for the school's reaction and the outcome of the meeting, he said "it's an affair I would not want to discuss on the pages of the newspaper. It's a family affair, we'll sort it out."
When quizzed about the threat it poses on the academic calendar, he assured that the issue will get sorted on the round table.
Non-Academic workers of Obafemi Awolowo University have promised to continue their protest against the non-payment of owed allowances and other irregularities of the university authorities.
On Monday, members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) left their respective offices for freedom park, a spot situated in front of the university senate building, to make their demands known.
This grounded academic activities in some departments, particularly those whose course of study has something to do with practical in the laboratory.
OAU KILONSHELE gathered that the protest was to call the attention of the public to the “injustice of the management against students and staffs of the institution and to request for the full implementation of a 2004 agreement with the school management.”
The school SSANU branch chairman, Oketunde Ademola, in an Interview with our correspondent noted that the action is meant to show the non-teaching staffs' displeasure toward the injustice of the school management towards staffs and students.
He explained that the civil disobedience is to reject the "illegal deduction of 7.5 percent of staffs' salary" and to request for full implementation of the "earned allowance" agreement that was reached in 2004.
"We are in this struggle because there are lots of frauds and we are protesting against it. We have complained to the federal government. We have written to the EFCC, nothing has been done. We have also written to the director of State Security Service (SSS), nothing has been done. We have written to many agencies," he said.
"It is even beyond the issue of earned allowance. If they implement earned allowance today, we want government to set up a very powerful panel to investigate OAU," Mr. Oketunde said.
The NASU chairman, Wole Odewunmi, in his address, stated that despite the approval of the earned allowance by the school governing council, has not been fully implemented.
While addressing the members, he said that only the parts of the agreement which relate to the University's big officers were being implemented, and that the parts which deal with the generality of staffs, such as Hazard allowance, has never been implemented.
He noted that the issue had once been raised in 2015 which led to chaos in which the University's non-teaching staffs' body was sued to court.
"The body has deemed it fit to re-raise the issue as it was realized that the University employed Over 140 staffs in December, 2018, unknown to the federal government, without following due process and despite the fact that salaries of new staffs can only be paid after two to three month succeeding employment. The new staffs' salaries payment has continued unabated since December which disproves the management's claim that there is no fund."
"There are lots of things they have been doing which we have been enduring. But following this struggle that has been started, we'll start inviting the press to raise other ones. Our argument is that there is enough fund to ensure the implementation of the agreement, they shouldn't say there is no fund," he asserted
Meeting Ends in Deadlock
NASU Secretary, Ajagbe Olajide, after narrating how the school reneged in its promises, informed this paper that a meeting with the agenda of salvaging the situation was fixed with the school management by 4pm on Monday.
However, in a telephone conversation with OAU KILONSHELE on Monday night, the SSANU Chairperson, Mr. Ademola, explained that the outcome of the meeting with the University management was not positive and asserted that the protest continues on Tuesday.
"The meeting was not that favourable. The management was unable to meet our demands. The struggle will still continue tomorrow because we have to report to the Congress. So, I don't see us resuming tomorrow" he said
Meanwhile, when the school spokesperson, Abiodun Olanrewaju, was contacted for the school's reaction and the outcome of the meeting, he said "it's an affair I would not want to discuss on the pages of the newspaper. It's a family affair, we'll sort it out."
When quizzed about the threat it poses on the academic calendar, he assured that the issue will get sorted on the round table.
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