Prioritise Funding And Staff Welfare In Public Universities – Comrade Tayo Ogungbeni
Prioritise Funding And Staff Welfare In Public Universities
Let me congratulate all the members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) for bidding year 2022 farewell successfully, a year of torment and hunger. We shall never forget year 2022 in a hurry. God has confirmed through the happenings in year 2022 that He is our sustenance and provider.
We are entering the new year with arrears of salaries ranging between 4 and 10 months in Ondo State Tertiary institutions. Almost four years after the implementation of the New National Minimum Wage in Nigeria, none of the tertiary institutions in our Ondo State has implemented it for her workforce. Are we not part of Nigeria anymore? Underfunding is the hallmark of all the tertiary institutions in Ondo State comprising of Three State Universities and a Polytechnic, yet, the fourth University is underway. Is our problem establishment of Universities or improving the funding of the existing ones? Our Governor should help the existing universities to compete favourably with other sisters’ universities worldwide.
At the Federal level, government is doing everything humanly possible to ‘kill’ public universities because government officials can conveniently send their wards to private universities and even abroad! Why will a reasonable government that failed in its responsibilities punished the workers with no work, no pay?
It is unfortunate that university education is sitting on gunpowder. Only government can guarantee a stable academic calendar for the public universities in the new year. It is a fact that since the various Unions in Nigerian Universities suspended their industrial action, re-negotiation has also stopped! Our political leaders do not want the children of the masses to have a better future.
The failure of Federal Government to pay all the withhold salaries of our members cannot guarantee stable calendar. Do not allow our students to witness another year 2022 episode in year 2023.
We as SSANU members love peace and will do everything possible to maintain peace but the only antidote to peace in Nigerian universities is adequate funding.
Thank you.
Comrade Tayo Ogungbeni
Chairman, SSANU-AAUA/Chairman, JAC-ODSTI
