SSANU warns of another strike in varsities

University workers may embark on another strike soon should the government fail to honour its agreement with the workers unions, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has warned.

SSANU, which blamed the Presidency for the incessant strikes, said if the Federal Government failed to do the right thing, workers in the universities would down tools again.

The Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Alike ÊkwÍ (AE-FUNAI) chapter of SSANU gave the warning while presenting its memoranda to the school’s visitation panel.

Presenting the association’s memoranda to the panel’s Chairman, Usman Sariki, the AE-FUNAI SSANU Chairman, Emma Chigbata, said the university system was dying.

He identified poor funding and divide and rule system by the Federal Government in its dealings with unions in the universities as some of the reasons for rot in the system.

“The Federal Government has no respect for agreements. Many agreements it entered into with unions, none of them have been fulfilled,” Chigbata said.

He said if the situation was not properly handled, it could lead to a breakdown of law and order in the universities.

“Very soon, students will rise against workers and lecturers because of incessant strikes,” he said.

Chigbata however expressed pessimism in the ability of the visitation panels set up for federal universities to solve the problem.

He lamented that workers’ salaries were slashed following the introduction of the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS) by the Federal Government.

“IPPIS slashed the salary of workers. It is now peanuts. University workers cannot afford to feed and pay rents. They now borrow to feed and take care of their needs,” he said.

Sariki said the panel was not an investigative panel, but a fact-finding one.

He said, “We are not here to witch-hunt anybody but to find out the true situation of things and advise the government on how to improve the university system.”