Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
Members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), have called on the Federal Government to obey and implement the court judgement delivered in favour of teachers of the university’s Staff School.
FUNAAB SSANU made the call during its congress held on the university campus, noting that the future of the staff school teachers remained uncertain particularly with the Federal Government’s alleged unwholesome attitude towards the plight of the teachers.
The FG had sent a memo to the vice chancellors of public institutions asking them remove staff school teachers from their payroll stating government could no longer bear the cost of running staff schools.
This directive which affected about 2000 staff forced SSANU to approach the court and equally went on indefinite strike arguing that the directive contravened the 2009 agreement between the government and the union.
The court in a judgement delivered in December 2016, asked the Federal Government to reinstate the sacked staff school teachers.
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But addressing the congress, the FUNAAB SSANU chairman, Rotimi Fasunwon, disclosed that every university in the country had been managing to pay the teachers’ salaries without receiving a dime from the FG.
Fasunwon explained that the staff schools were established to take care of children of varsity workers, reiterating that the non-implementation of the judgement had adversely affected the teachers.
“SSANU FUNNAB is today making a passionate appeal to all those concerned to implement the judgement so as to bring back hopes to our staff school teachers. The teachers are integral part of the university system. They are the ones in charge of our children’s education.
“Most of the staff schools have increased their fees so as to pay these staff. This is not good enough. Government should consider them as staff of our universities and should be paid accordingly”. He appealed.
The union, however, called on the government to release the sum of N8b agreed to pay it immediately.