By Joan Nwagwu
THE NON-ACADEMIC Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) have expressed displeasure over the inauguration of the committee to re-negotiate the contentious 2009 agreement between the federal government and university-based unions.
The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of both unions said this in a statement jointly signed by Comrade Peters Adeyemi, General Secretary of NASU, and Comrade Mohammed Ibrahim, SSANU President on Wednesday in Abuja.
The re-negotiation committee was inaugurated on Tuesday by the Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman.
The JAC said that the unions were not given due recognition.
According to the statement, the JAC of NASU and SSANU hereby strongly expresses its displeasure at the inauguration of re-negotiation committee of the 2009 agreements with university-based Unions on Oct. 15.
“Firstly, the reference on the letters of invitation to NASU and SSANU indicated ASUU, implying that the letters originated from ASUU’s file rather than from the files of our two Unions.
“The event appeared to have been primarily focused on ASUU with the other unions seemingly included as an afterthought.
“The minister of education’s inauguration speech centred almost entirely on ASUU, with only brief and cursory mentions of the other unions,” it said.
It said that the preferential treatment given to the ASUU leadership at the inauguration was unfair to the other unions.
“To confirm our fears, at the venue of the inauguration, the two unions witnessed a most humiliating experience.
“The President of ASUU was placed on what was referred to as the “responsibility table” and the presidents of other unions looked on from their positions of “irresponsibility” from the proceeding,” it said.
It said that it was also obvious that NASU and SSANU were only invited as mere spectators to give a semblance of legitimacy and acceptability to an already concluded renegotiation exercise.
It further said that the President of ASUU alone was invited to give a response on behalf of other unions without consultation.
“He ended up speaking on behalf of his union, this clearly showed that the opinions and experiences of other Unions do not matter in the re-negotiation.
“The proceedings of the entire inauguration have clearly shown the imbalance of relationship and the obvious unfair treatment that would be meted out to NASU and SSANU if the renegotiation process continues in this manner.
“Consequently, the JAC of NASU and SSANU hereby condemns the entire inauguration process.
“It signals a potential bias in favour of academic staff in the upcoming negotiations, to the detriment of non-teaching staff,” the statement said. (NAN)
