FRESH tension is looming in the nation’s universities and inter-university centres over the sharing formula of the just approved N22.127 billion for payment of Earned Allowances for the university staff.
It was gathered that out of the approved amount, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, is to take a lion share of 75 percent of the total sum, while the other three unions will share the remaining 25 percent among themselves.
The three unions are the Non-academic Staff Union of Education and Associated Institutions, NASU; Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, and the National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT.
Recall that the last N40 billion Earned Allowances released by the Federal Government for the four universities-based unions, where ASUU was also allocated 75 percent of the total sum, had generated crisis in the university system.
Vanguard reliably gathered, on Wednesday, that two of the unions, NASU and SSANU have rejected the sharing formula and warned he federal government to reverse it immediately in order not to cause industrial dispute in the university system.
Ultimatum
The two unions under the umbrella of Joint Action Committee, JAC, have given the government two weeks to redress what they described as injustice meted out to them.
A source privy to the development told our reporter that JAC had written to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige to intervene in the looming but avoidable crisis in the universities.
The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the letter refusing the sharing formula that was sent to the Minister of Labour and Employment, who is the Conciliator-in-Chief of the country, was copied to the Minister of Education and the Executive Secretary of the National University Commission, NUC.
The letter, the source further revealed, was signed by the General Secretary of NASU, Peters Adeyemi and the National President of SSANU, Mohammad Ibrahim.
The letter it was learned was titled “Refusal of Federal Government to honour Memorandum of Action.”
Source – VANGUARD
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