From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Crisis is brewing in the education sector again as the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has issued a stern warning to the Federal Government over the sharing formula of the Earned Allowance meant for varsity workers.
It said it had been patient and mature in its dealings with the government but its peaceful disposition is not being reciprocated evidence by the “nefarious sharing formula of the Earned Allowance”
The SSANU South – south zone stated this position at the end of its meeting held at the Federal University Otuoke, Bayelsa State over the weekend.
The zone in a communiqué endorsed by delegates and read by the Vice- President, SSANU South-south zone, Azumah Cheta, declared that the union would not partake in sharing the Earned Allowance if the sharing formula is not revisited by the government to reflect equity and justice.
“Suffice to say that SSANU been a mature, patient and discipline union, had always hoped that for peace and progress to be achieved in the work environment, dialogue and negotiation with government would be the best way to go but in recent dealings with government it has become clearer that government has failed woefully both in character and content.
“SSANU as a union sincerely frowns at the nefarious sharing formula of the Earned Allowance for the tranche which is about to be released by the Federal Government that is poised to invoke provocation among staff which is geared towards creating division within the University community between campus based unions. The said N22.7 billion earned allowances which is about to be released to the different campus based unions that represents the workload at the evil percentage of 75 percent for ASUU and 25 per cent to other unions: SSANU, NASU and NAAT on campus is a sheer disrespect and very unreasonable. SSANU as a union totally rejects and condemn in very strong terms this evil in all seriousness.
“Let it be on record that SSANU South- south zone and its entire organs of the union totally condemn this skewed formula and call on Government and all relevant agencies concerned to retrace their steps in order to place things in the right perspective. We will not partake in such sharing formula”
“We want to state empathically that we do not have any issue with what is given to ASUU, our concern is that, what the Federal Government is owning members which can only be calculated by our various bursary departments, continues to accumulate. Recall that this is the fourth tranche of the Earned Allowance to be paid with such skewed formula. We are saying that sharing 25% of N22.7 billion to SSANU, NASU and NAAT only increases what the Federal Government owes our members. We demand that monies should b released to the universities to allow the bursary departments to calculate who gets what.”