The non-Academic staff of Nigeria Universities, University of Ibadan (UI), who commenced a total and indefinite strike on Friday March 11, 2022, have revealed their grievances against the management of the nation’s Premier University led by its 13th Vice Chancellor, Professor Kayode Adebowale.
The Union comprising of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), noted that the strike action has become unavoidable because the University Management has failed to satisfactorily address all the long overdue burning issues and demands of the Unions.
The 15 demands of the Union are contained in its Article of Demands titled, ” Article of Demands from Joint Action Committee of SSANU and NASU, University of Ibadan, dated February 28, 2022 and submitted to the management on Wednesday March 3, 2022.
The Union demands the payment of promotion arrears from 2015 to 2021, clearing of backlog of promotions and ensuring that promotion do not fall into arrears any longer, appointing a liaison office, who would always follow through on correspondences to government agencies at Abuja, payment of staff school teachers outstanding salaries and improving the physical infrastructure of the school.
The Union demands the inclusion of non-teaching staff on the Committee on the Review of the Scheme of Service, making available to staff copies of reviewed Scheme of Service, reduction in the waiting period in between degrees from three to one year, payment of the allowances of workers of University Health Service, amounting to over N400,000,000 as well as providing all the necessary equipment needed to be effective on the job.
The non-academic staff also demanded, “For promotion purposes, West African Examination Council (WAEC) and NECO certificates should be the maximum qualification to grade level 11. The University Management should put in place arrangements for certificate or Diploma programmes through the Departments of Guidance and Counselling; Peace and Conflict Studies and Faculty of Law domiciled at the Distance Learning Center. The career path of those in the Security Department should be elongated to Grade Level 14. There should be regular training and retraining of the security personnel. The University Management should recruit more security personnel to curtail the security lapses and challenges.”
“The University Management should put in place a structured mode of training and re-retraining of the staff; the University Management should embed training of staff in the yearly budget; and foreign training should be given premium as obtained in other Universities. The University Management should compensate staff with the 2 –step movement on the salary scales”, the Union added.
The Union equally demanded that some administrative and established positions should be withdrawn from the academic staff and ceded to its members, the management should fix all the bad roads on campus, renovate staff quarters, criminalize commissioning of uncompleted buildings, provision of habitable offices for the security personnel, activate and enforce regulations on stray animals, revert to the old leave structure of 30 and 42 working days for junior and senior staff respectively, governing council considering and granting the request of amnesty for non-academic staff, who obtained academic qualifications without obtaining due approvals, returning of the representatives of NASU back to the Junior Staff Disciplinary Committee and approval of the representation of SSANU on the Appointments, Promotions & Disciplinary Committee.
“As non-teaching members of staff of this university, it is no news that we have gone through a lot of harrowing experiences from the handlers. Our rights have been individually and collectively trampled upon, and we are relegated to third class citizens. Our jobs are being encroached on a daily basis, while our entitlements are denied with arrant impunity. As a people, our destinies are in our hands. We all have a collective responsibility to make this strike action effectual, if we must be liberated and acknowledged in the scheme of things. This is not the time to abase ourselves in our different offices, but a time to stand tall to speak to authorities. Our jobs and existence are threatened. Therefore, our actions or inactions at this time will determine the success or otherwise of this journey”, the Union pointed out.
