Years constitute a continuum. Events are hardly contained within one year. Indeed, as events go, they tend to spill over into one another. Thus, as 2015 closed and 2016 has set in, the events of the former continue to feature in 2016. That is the way of life. There is indeed a seamless dimension to events. As I write, a number of events which span 2015 and 2016 come to mind. Such events include the industrial action of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), the unprecedented peaceful transition from one regime to the other, the Biafran episode and the oil gridlock. In this seminal piece, as far as 2016 is concerned, we will examine these issues. In a way, the issues foreshadow what 2016 is going to look like.
As regards the first of these, i.e., SSANU’s industrial action, it represents something of a break in the run as far as stability in the academic calendar goes. After a relative period of calm, Nigerian universities are beginning to get restive again. This time around, members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) have decided to walk away from their jobs. Essentially, the industrial action can be viewed as a response to a circular which emanated from the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission. The specifics of the circular revolve around the fact that the Federal Government would no longer pay the salaries and allowances of teachers and other personnel in the various staff schools in the federal universities. In other words, the implication was that these workers were no longer on the payroll of the various universities.
Understandably, SSANU has voiced out in clear terms that this unilateral action on the part of the government would not stand. I am surprised by these developments. This is more so when it is appreciated that there is a subsisting agreement between the Federal Government and SSANU as well as other unions in the university as regards this issue. Among other things, the agreement provided that the Federal Government would be responsible for the capital and recurrent expenditures in the staff schools of our various universities across the country.
It will be recalled here that the agreement itself did not come about easily. It was forged in the context of several meetings between the government and the various unions. But in one fell swoop, one party to the agreement decided to renege on same. Needless to say, there is something untoward and reprehensible about this unilateral posture on the part of the government. This is more so in a democratic dispensation where certain governance norms ought to define relationships.
Moreover, matters have not been helped by the fact that all of a sudden, a party that was not central to the agreement is now the one that is giving out a directive on this issue. The visible entities like the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Federal Ministry of Education have largely remained mute – a phenomenon which I will not like to call inglorious silence.
On this note, discerning observers are likely to contend that bodies like the NUC and the Ministry of Education have merely pushed forward the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission as their surrogates. What is perhaps also baffling as regards this imbroglio is that a relevant body like the Committee of Vice Chancellors is not making its voice heard on this sensitive issue.
The sensitivity of the issue centres around a human condition in which, even as the rest of the country is still basking in the joys of this festive season, some of our compatriots are contending with the prospects of job losses. Equally disarming is a troubling question like: what is the fate of these workers’ terminal benefits? I refer here to features like gratuities and pension.
It is instructive to point out here that the affected teachers and other personnel in the staff school as well as SSANU made the compelling and unassailable point that other organizations with staff schools have been exempted from this punitive directive as dished out by the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission. The references here are the staff schools which continue to operate in places like the Nigeria Police, Army, Navy, and the Air Force. So the relevant point here is: why have the university staff schools been singled out for this treatment?
We may as well state here that the fact that some federal organizations decided to establish their own staff schools says something about the poor state of our public primary schools. Invariably, these federal agencies have gone ahead to establish their own parallel primary schools. This amounts to a vote of no confidence in what is on offer in the public realm.
Next week, we will continue with this SSANU issue and also examine features like the Biafran issue and the peaceful change of guards which have also spilled over into 2016. By way of a teaser as regards what to expect next week, these two latter issues are very interesting. In their respective ways, these issues speak to the winds of January 1966. And remember, we are still in this historic month of January. If you know your history well, you will know what I am talking about. And if you do not know, on January 15, four days from today, watch out for the advertisements in memory of First Republic politicians like Samuel Akintola and Festus Okotie-Eboh to appreciate what I am saying here. So, see you next week.
Kayode Soremekun
