By; SANI ALIYU, Zaria
The joint unions of Universities has said it had taken a stand to withdraw all essential services being rendered skeletally to Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) towards total compliance with the nationwide strike.
The three non-teaching staff Unions of Nigerian Universities have embarked on nation wide strike currently going on and Spoke to Journalists shortly after scuttling the University management’s efforts.
The unions are; Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and National Association of Academic Technicians (NAAT).
Speaking to journalists shortly after a congress meeting at ABU main campus, Samaru, Zaria Çomrade Hadiza Kabir, SSANU National Women Leader who double as Deputy National Chairperson Women Commission of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) said their stand to withdraw essential services was a unanimous decision of the congress.
She said,the strike action that was declared on Dec. 10, 2017 was total, comprehensive and indefinite, that’s why we agree here that all forms of services being rendered by non-teaching staff should be withdrawn with immediate effect.
According to her it is sad to say that ABU management see us as enemies and they have forgotten that we are also empowered to so, whatever we are doing is within the confines of the law.
“We are only fighting government because we have grievances, government have a terms of settlement with us which they have not honoured.
“We are not fighting the management, we are only pressing for the implementation of those 12 terms of settlements government signed with JAC,” she said.
The SSANU National Women Leader lamented that the management of ABU was using security personnel of the university who happened to be members of the striking unions to harass the members.
“Under section 11 of the Trade Union Act, there are exemption to who are not members of trade union, but the security department is not among those listed in the Act, therefore, they are not exempted.
“They are our members, they are part and parcel of us because they pay their union dues to us but we decided to overlook and allow them to work.
“We allow them to stay in the office so that they can look and protect lives and property during the period of this strike, we thought the management would have given us kudos by the position we have taken,” she said.
Comrade HADIZA said, the security personnel will be allowed to continue with their work but all other essential services including water supply will be withdrawn immediately.
Earlier during the congress, the Acting Chairman, SSANU-ABU, Shu’aibu Halilu had said that it was so sad that some of their members reported that they were being compelled to come to work.
“There is no superior officer or Head of Department that has the legal right to call our members to come and work compulsorily, such superior officer has no right at all.
“Section 73 of the Labour Act had made it very clear that no person shall require any other person or permit any other person to be required to come and perform force or compulsory Labour.
“Such is contrary to section 34 (1c) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 as amended, so we are very covered by the law,” he said.
He assured that any member that followed the wishes of his/her head of department would be panelised after the strike.
The SSANU boss advised those who became victim of such to report to the union so that the leadership of the union would implore means of addressing the situation.
Also contributing, the NAAT Chairman, Hassan Garba recalled that ABU was allocated N3 billion to share among its staff as earned allowance, lamenting that the non-teaching staff were not happy with the sharing formula.
He said more than 80 per cent of the amount released by the Federal Government went to academic staff leaving the non-teaching staff with less than 20 per cent.
He said the federal government had admitted that the mistake was from them and promised to allocate more money to non-teaching staff of the universities to bridge the gap.
