From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
The new Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Kayode Adebowale, yesterday, officially assumed office, promising to administer with the fear of God.
But he was welcomed into office with a protest by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Education and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) over 75:25 percent sharing formula of the just-approved N22.127 billion for payment of earned allowances for university staff by the Federal Government.
According to the Federal Government, ASUU is to take a lion share of 75 percent of the total sum while the other three unions, SSANU, NASU and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) will share the remaining 25 percent.
The resumption of the the new vice chancellor was earlier kicked off with a church service at the Chapel of Resurrection, UI, which was presided over by Kayode Oyelade, the chaplain of the chapel.
The protesters staged the peaceful protest after a congress held at the Theatre Arts Department of the institution, and passes through the base of the vice chancellor’s office to the frontage of Trenchard Hall, Mellamby Hall, Tedder Hall, and Students’ Union Building (SUB) before they converged on SSANU secretariat and dispersed.
They said the protest was not targeted at the new vice chancellor, but Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu; Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige; and the Executive Secretary, National University Commission (NUC), Abubakar Rasheed, on their purported stance on the 75:25 percent sharing formula of the N22.127 billion for payment of earned allowances in favour of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The JAC of SSANU and NASU, however, told the new vice chancellor that the N22.127 billion should not be shared until the Federal Government reviewed the sharing formula, threatening that any attempt to share the money would throw the institution to another round of industrial actions by the non-teaching staff.
In his address, Adebowale said: “By the special grace of God, we will run an administration that is God-fearing, and administration that seeks and pursues the welfare of everyone, not minding their ethnicity, faith and creed. Only an administration that is fair, even and just in leading people, can bring glory to God’s name.”
The peaceful protest, which took off from the Department of Theatre Arts and ended at the main gate of the premier university, was preceded by a joint congress of the unions, following a two-week ultimatum that the JAC of national bodies of the SSANU, NASU AND NAAT gave the Federal Government to reverse the sharing formula.
Speakers during the congress and the protest include Chairman of SSANU, Abiodun Omisore; Chairman of NASU, Malachy Etim; former SSANU chairman, Wale Akinremi; and former national vice chairman of SSANU, Alfred Jimoh.
“We want to educate our members on the strike that is coming up, because we are going to take our destiny into our hands. At the same time, we want the public to warn minister of education. We know he is an academician. The NUC executive secretary is an academician. If they think they can use the non-teaching staff money to pay academicians, which they will benefit from, we will not accept that. We are sending a signal to them that very soon, we will close down all the universities, except they retrace their steps. The government is pushing us to go on strike,” he said.