Non-teaching Staff Unions of Nigerian Universities have begun a 3-day nationwide protest to press home their demands for an equitable share of the N40 billion ‘Earn Allowance’ to university-based unions, among others.
The Non-Teaching Staff Unions of the Nigerian Universities include the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non Academic Staff of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU).
Mr Hassan Makolo, National President, NASU, addressing newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja, said the unions were not happy about the sharing formula of the N40 billion Earn Allowance.
“There are issues on the ground and we have been taken for granted. We are looking at what we called earn allowance, which everybody in the system is entitled to.
“The Federal Government gave us N30 billion and we said that the N30 billion should be defined; that who and who are qualified for it.
“The Federal Government then said all the unions on campus are qualified to enjoy it; and we agreed. We said that all the unions must be called upon to see how the sharing formula should be done,” said Makolo.
According to him, the government suddenly added another N10 billion, making the total money N40 billion, “and before we knew what was happening, they said 75 per cent of the total sum is for one union, while 25 per cent is to the other three unions.
“We will not accept a sharing formula of 75 per cent to Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU) and 25 per cent to three non-teaching staff.
“This thing was done with impunity, and we feel that we have to protest for three days and we are going to appraise it after the three days, and if nothing happens we will decide the next line of action,” he said.
Makolo noted that the government was yet to meet some demands of the union, which included the use of Integrated Payroll Personnel Information Systems (IPPIS) as payment platform.
He said other demands were non-payment of arrears of Minimum Wage, delay in renegotiation of Federal Government, NASU and SSANU negotiation of 2009, retirement benefits, among others.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that after nine months of negotiations, ASUU suspended its strike in December 2020, but only after the government suspended the use of IPPIS for payment of salaries of its members.
NAN also reports that the government had also approved N40 billion as Earned Academic Allowance and N30 billion as universities revitalisation funds. (NAN)