THE Federal Government is planning to introduce N180,000 per student per session in federal universities, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) revealed after its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting at the University of Abuja at the weekend.
But, the SSANU President, Comdrade Promise Adewusi, who addressed journalists after the meeting, said the union had rejected the move during their various negotiations with the government.
However, Assistant Director (Press), Ministry of Education, Mr. Alphonso Okoroafor, in his reaction to the allegation said the ministry was not aware of such plan at press time on Sunday.
Also, SSANU has rejected in its entirety, the proposed salary increase for its members, insisting on the full implementation of the product of its collective bargaining with Federal Government, as it begins an indefinite total strike today.
The SSANU NEC directed all its members to resume its suspended strike and proceed on an indefinite and total strike with effect from the 20th of July 2009, “since government has violated the sanctity of the agreement, until that sanctity is restored.”
The SSANU president, who had participated in all the negotiations between the Federal Government and university workers, said the government had hinged payment of enhanced salary to them on their acceptance of the introduction of N180,000 school fees per student per session in all federal universities.
Comrade Adewusi, who explained that the government’s rationale for the planned introduction of N180,000 school fees, said the union leaders and the university workers had been blackmailed to accept the introduction of the “whopping” amount by the government.
But he added that they had maintained their position and rejected the move, because, “we have always maintained this solidarity with our students, because even our children are in these universities. We cannot afford to send our own children out of the country like other government public functionaries, who hardly have any of their children in Nigerian universities and, of course, we believe that, that is why they cared less about what happens with these universities.”
The SSANU president said: “I will like to acquaint you with the issues that affect the university system as a whole and, of course, we all know what the rot had been and the sharp decline in the quality of education.
And because of these various interventions or because of this state of anomaly in our universities, the unions have cried out, including our humble union, SSANU, on the need for interventions.
“Some of these interventions have led to collective bargaining and, as I have said from the outset, to this collective bargaining was not centered around salaries per se only.
“We are against the postulations and we are against the move that our students should pay a whopping NI80,000 per session per student, whereas the minimum wage still stands at N5, 500. One, how many parents can afford N180,000? Two, the fact is that, even the paltry N20, 000 and N25, 000 they pay in the federal universities, most parents can still not conveniently and comfortably afford this.
“If this is allowed to happen, what that means in effect is that education will be priced out of the reach of the children of the poor, which we do not want. It means the ministers would continue to produce ministers, the governors would continue to produce governors and the peasants, the labourers, the gardeners would continue to produce gardeners, because they would not go to school.
“So we want a level playing field, because we have been blackmailed most times that, ‘look, you want enhanced conditions of service, accept introduction of school fees in our universities’.”
Besides blackmailing them, Comrade Adewusi pointed out that the present administration had deliberately reduced the funding of university from 11 per cent maximum achieved during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration to less than three per cent.
He pointed out that the issue of proper funding of the universities was one of the issues that arose from the 2001 agreement, adding: “Key among the issues that were agreed in the 2001 agreement was a funding formula where government was supposed to progressively improve funding.
“When Obasanjo came, his funding was inadequate but he managed to get to 11 per cent. As I speak with you here, the funding for education in this year’s budget is less than three per cent and this is abysmal and this is in a bid to blackmail us to accept that school fees should be introduced in universities, so that they can pay us enhanced salaries and we said no.”
The SSANU president said: “Something that will benefit us and hurt or prejudice the rest of Nigerians would not be in our interest and would not be in the interest of the country, particularly, when you need this critical human capital to drive the progress we so desire. The development we so desire, the vision 2020, the seven-point agenda, who drives them? They are not robots, it is human beings and who are these human beings? They must be knowledgeable; they must be well trained; they must be skilled and that is what education does.
Therefore, it is one social tool you can’t afford to price out of the reach of the people and that has been our contention.” On the issue of the agreement reached with them by government, he explained that the Onosode Panel set up by government took them two and half years and that the government team comprised 27 eminent Nigerians drawn from all walks of life who could not be arm-twisted
He said: “They negotiated for over two and half years; agreement was reached, signed and I want to show you for the first time, because government keeps saying there is no agreement. You can see that this is an agreement between government and SSANU. You can see every page of this was signed. Of course, government has come out with the fancy talk that it was signed only for identification.
“But I want you to judge, even if it was signed for only identification, which we were not told at the time. In equity, this already is binding and government should do well by performing its own contract.
“The unions do not have the cohesive power to intimidate 27 prominent Nigerians. Therefore, the product of that agreement was based on their reasoned conscience that it is reasonable to make this system function minimally, not even maximally and now the government has jettisoned it and has made issue to look like that of salary alone.
“Even, talking in terms of salary, part of the agreement is a salary structure that took each party to the negotiation to go back to its principals to go and consult and get their approval. We did that several times, we took several breaks to consult and now government is showing this attitude.
“This was concluded before the so-called global meltdown, that the government is using as an excuse. If they had implemented this agreement, nobody would be talking of global meltdown, because this happened more than six months before the so-called of global meltdown set in.”
Adewusi said that all SSANU members, including those in hospitals, nurses and doctors in hospitals within the campuses, staff in halls of residence in all universities, and those in charge of other domestic affairs, water, electricity, library would commence a total and indefinite strike today.
He called on parents to reach out to their children because the basic things that would sustain them in the universities could not be available.
He said: ”This honourable house has resolved that in view of the above, SSANU rejects in its entirety, the proposed salary increase for its members and insists on the full implementation of the product of its collective bargaining with Federal Government of Nigeria.
“Since government has violated the sanctity of the agreement, until that sanctity is restored, SSANU NEC has directed all its members to resume its suspended strike and proceed on an indefinite and total strike action with effect from the 20th of July 2009 since it is obvious that the peaceful disposition of SSANU has been taken for granted.
“What this means, the implication is that the universities have to be shut down, because our members are the ones maintaining the services that keep the students in comfort, now we cannot guarantee this comfort. Our members have withdrawn their services.
“I think the best advice in this circumstance is for parents to reach out to their wards and their children because we cannot guarantee that there will be facilities that will continue to sustain them in classes and hostels.”
