*** Demand payment of 12 months minimum wage arrears of members
ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi chapter under the umbrella of Joint Action Committee, have rejected the proposed sharing formula of their earned allowances by the Federal Government.
The two Unions staged a three day peaceful protests which began Wednesday and ended on Friday, to express their dismay over what they described as unfair treatment by the federal government to them, particularly the sharing formula for their earned allowances.
SSANU and NASU who berated the federal government for proposing to give the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) 75 percent of the earned allowances while SSANU and NASU will jointly get only 25 percent, described the sharing formula as “evil, demonic and provocative.”
The protesters carried placards with various inscriptions such as: “Earned allowance sharing formula is demonic”, “75% – 25% sharing formula is evil”, “Pay us arrears of minimum wage”, “N22.172 billion belongs to JAC”, “FG has no business sharing money to unions”, “No to provocative sharing formula of earned allowances”, among others.
They marched within the Yelwa Campus to the main gate of the school, disrupting the free flow of traffic in and out of the institution.
The JAC Chairman, Sulisma Jatau, told journalists that the two Unions entered into an agreement with the federal government since 2009 and some of our allowances have not been paid up to date.
“We went on strike in February this year to demand the payment of these allowances, we were informed that the money was not included in the 2020/2021 budget, and we agreed and shelved the strike, with a promise that they will give us the money in the supplementary budget which was signed in August.
“Just last week, we heard that the money was released for that purpose but it was hijacked by ASUU. The money we demanded for was N30 billion, but the federal government release N22.172 billion.
“But to our dismay, we saw a circular that that the money is to be shared with 25 percent to the non-teaching staff and the remaining 75 percent to the academic staff. We feel this sharing formula is evil, demonic and provocative.
“What we are saying is that government has no business in sharing money to unions. We have a statutory officer who is in charge of interpreting financial regulations in the universities.
“The government should give the money to the universities and the bursar will now share the money according to the agreement. But for the government to share money to us, we will never take that,” he vowed.
Jatau said that the federal government promised to begin payment of the 11 months minimum wage arrears of some of their members but up to till moment, such has not been done. He demanded the immediate payment to those concerned without delay.
On their next line of action, he said: “we have been fully mobilized to hold these three days protest nationwide as directed by our national body. If government does not honour this, we will know what to do next.
” We demand that the federal government should release our earn allowances now and the arrears of our national minimum wage without any further delay.
“We demand that the federal government should do away with that sharing formula. We are not saying they should not give money to other Unions but the money that belong to us, should be given to us because that was why we went on strike in February.”
Also speaking, a protester, Yusuf Hussaini, the federal government has humiliated the two unions for too long despite the patience they have shown.
“The federal government has not taken SSANU and NASU to be anything. We have gone on strike many times and they will plead with us and call us back and we will do so. They will give us time within which to meet out demands and when the time comes, they will renege on that agreement.
“We have understood that the federal government only fears ASUU. The government does not fear us and that is why they do to us what they feel like doing and that was why we came out to protest.
“All my life, I have never seen a deceptive and lying government like this one. What they do to us is not right. And anybody who feels bad over any injustice will definitely protest or express it.
“How can money be released and then you join SSANU and NASU on 25 percent, and then ASUU gets 75 percent? And personally, I don’t want us to go into any discussion again with the government over these issues, it is either they pay us or we go on an indefinite strike because we realize that there is nothing other than lies and deception that is in this government,” he stated.
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