Staff schools funding: SSANU wants 2009 agreement with FG re-negotiated

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has called for a re-negotiation of the 2009 agreement with the Federal Government to resolve the standoff over funding of university staff schools.

Mr Moses Adeniyi-Aogo, Deputy National President, SSANU, spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the sidelines of the 2016 May Day celebration on Sunday in Abuja.

NAN recalled that the Federal Government had in 2105 issued a directive to vice-chancellors of federal universities, through the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission to stop funding university staff schools.

According to him, the funding of the schools is a part of a subsisting agreement and cannot be stopped without another negotiation.

“I want to appeal to the Federal Government to look at it; it is part of our agreement we signed with government.

“In that agreement, staff schools are part and parcel of the university system; how do you distinguish between university staff and Federal Government staff.

“Some people suggest we should go to the National Industrial Court (NIC) but I believe the issue does not require NIC; it is straightforward.

“When we have the next agreement, we can sit down and look at it again; the one we are operating now covers the staff schools,’’ he said.

He dismissed the argument that the schools generated money, adding the students only paid N3,500 per year for maintenance.

Adeniyi-Aogo said that university staff schools were like preparation grounds as students in education courses were sent there for their training.

On his part, Mr Solomon Alfa, SSANU’s Vice-President, Northern Zone, said that the 2009 agreement had been implemented since then and wondered why the sudden stoppage.

“Why is it taking Federal Government 2015 to come up with this position that the staffers of those schools are no more staffers of the universities?

“It has been implementing the agreement since 2009 and the agreement was meant to expire in the 2012 when it should have been re-negotiated,’’ he said.

Alfa called on the Federal Government to allow the agreement to remain until it was re-negotiated.