The ongoing nationwide warning strike by the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) would degenerate to an indefinite one unless Federal Government implemented the agreement it signed with the union.
Mr Taiwo Arobadi, Chairman, SSANU, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) branch, made this known in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Ile-Ife.
“If the FG does the needful within the two weeks warning strike, we would go back to our offices and work immediately, but failure to comply would lead to an indefinite strike,” he said.
He said that the ongoing two weeks warning strike was to press for the payment of their entitlements by the federal government.
Arobadi said that Federal Government had in Oct 2020 and Feb 2021 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Memorandum of Action (MoA), respectively, with the association without implementing them till date.
The Chairman explained that hazard allowance, responsibility allowance and some other issues, which its members were agitating for, we’re agreed to in the MoA allowance.
Arobadi said that SSANU also re-negotiated the 2009 agreement during which they rejected the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) introduced by the government.
He noted that accepting IPPIS would have an adverse effect on all federal universities’ staff salaries because it would culminate in their being underpaid.
According to him, by implication, IPPIS would for instance be paying N45,000 to staff who are earning N70,000 monthly.
The chairman urged the federal government to refer them back to their former payer or other option which SSANU introduced to the government for the payment of their salaries.
He, therefore, appealed to the federal government to release some funds for the revitalization of all universities, “in order for the children of the masses to have hope in Nigeria’s educational sector”. (NAN)
