Strike: Nigeria Political Class Worse Than B’Haram – SSANU
The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities has accused the Federal Government of deceit and lack of interest to provide quality education to Nigerians.
The Western Zonal Executive Committee of SSANU, who said this on Wednesday at their special meeting held at the University of Ibadan, said the political class in Nigeria was worse than the dreaded Boko Haram in denying children of the masses access to education.
The National Vice President of SSANU, Dr. Abdussobur Salaam, and Zonal Secretary, Saheed Oseni, who spoke on behalf of the association said the refusal of the Federal Government to honour the agreements it signed with the association as far back as 2009 was one of the reasons the SSANU embarked on a national strike.
He said, “The Western Zone of SSANU is here in solidarity with the national leadership. Leaving our jobs to embark on a strike is not a pleasurable experience for us especially now that our salaries have been stopped.
“But when we are dealing with a deaf and dumbs government, we must find all means of drawing attention to our plight. Unfortunately, if Boko Haram means that education is forbidden, there is no group that depicts the forbidding of education more than the political class in Nigeria.
“For over six months, we gave notice of strike, repeated letters and reminders were communicated without any acknowledgment. We embarked on a two-week warning strike, no response. We extended by two weeks, yet no response either from the Ministry of Education or from Ministry of Labour.”
The association flayed the Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige, who Salaam said displayed crass ignorance about the issue that forced the university’s senior workers to embark on a strike
He said Ngige responded to a question on why SSANU was on strike by saying the association decided to go on strike because the Academic Staff Union of Universities was also on strike.
SSANU highlighted some of the other issues that forced its members to declare a national strike, saying the Integrated Personnel and Payroll System which was introduced by the government to curb corruption had turned out to be a bigger fraud.
