Comrade Samson Nwoke, the National President of the Senior Staff Union, SSANU, has accused the Federal Government of complicating the implementation of its agreement with the union and the Non-Academic Staff Union, NASU, and causing confusion.
Speaking on Monday at the University of Lagos, UNILAG, where he coordinated the implementation of the two unions’ five-day warning strike, Nwoke said the earned allowances the government was owing (out of which the unions are now demanding N30 billion) would not have accrued if the agreed time table was followed.
He said: “We are demanding N30 billion now as part of our old earned allowance not all. This is part of our earned allowance from 2009 to 2018.
“Bring N30 billion and pay our members NASU and SSANU members in the universities, when they bring it we pipe down.
“The other one is renegotiation, the agreement says the one of 2009 should be renegotiated every three years.
“In other words, if government had complied with that section of the agreement it implies that that agreement would have been renegotiated three times from 2009 till date.
“It is over 10 years now, it ought to have been negotiated or reviewed but we are still in one.
“They have set up a committee good and fine but the committee has not called for a meeting and we are in the 8th month of the year which is august, so are you considering that as a serious committee?”
Regarding some members of the union that were sacked, Nwoke said government had power to recall them.
“It is government that is complicating the matter, it is straight forward, if government wants to recall our people, a circular will come up, the same circular that disengaged them from the school is the same circular that can come and reengage them again and then pay them their arrears of 2013, 2014 and 2015 when they were disengaged, you pay them their arrears of the salaries, those due for promotion within 2014 and now they should also be given opportunity for their promotion. Government can do this, it’s simple,” Nwoke said.