by Adegoke Oluwatobi
Three non-academic staff unions of the University of Ibadan have today, the 28th of August, at a congress held at Niser park voted overwhelmingly in support of a proposed nationwide industrial action.
This is coming at a time when the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is still negotiating with the federal government on their demands.
The congress, which started at about 9:27am and witnessed a massive turnout of staffs numbering over 2,000, began with an opening prayer followed by chants of solidarity songs.
SSANU Chairman, Mr. Wale Akinremi, read out a letter addressed to all university chapters of these Associations by their national body under the Joint Action Committee (JAC). It was disclosed in the letter that all chapters are to conduct a referendum to decide whether to embark on a nationwide strike action by September 6 or not.
At the poll conducted in UI, 1,940 ticked ‘yes’, 10 ticked ‘no’, while 56 ticked ‘undecided’. The result of the poll would be sent to Abuja where the collation would be done after completion of the referenda at other universities.
It should be remembered that these union bodies embarked on a two-week warning strike in January this year. A part of the letter decried the fact that the government had not attended to any of their demands. Some of these demands include non-payment of earned allowances, lack of good governance in the universities, poor funding of the universities as against the UNESCO standard, inadequate infrastructures in the universities, corruption in the university system, heading of non-academic units by academic staffs, amongst others.
Mr. Akinremi accused ASUU of fighting for their interests alone. He said, “I’m always not happy when ASUU goes on strike and our members start asking when we will join them. ASUU is not our friend; they are fighting for their selfish interests. They are not fighting for us. We are not interested in joining ASUU strike; we want to resume our suspended January strike.”
The congress ended at about 12:02pm with a closing prayer.
