GBENGA OLONINIRAN writes concerning the plight of instructing and non-teaching college employees members as they battle to outlive the attempting instances within the nation amid the biting financial circumstances
The biting financial circumstances within the nation haven’t spared each the instructing and non-teaching employees members of universities, as a lot because it has not spared anybody. From the rising price of petrol with attendant inflation in transport fare to the shortage of gasoline and the skyrocketing costs of meals and commodities, college staff seem to bear a higher brunt.
A launch by a former chairman of SSANU on the College of Lagos, Oriwaye Adefolalu, trended final week after he lamented how professors and docs on the college had been scampering for a mortgage of N35,000 provided by their cooperative society.
Within the launch, Adefolabu famous that the senior employees members had been dashing to get the mortgage to purchase the subsidised “Ounje Eko” foodstuffs dropped at the campus.
In September, the Lagos State Authorities commenced Part II of the “Ounje Eko” market with a 25 per cent lower in costs. The market sells at totally different places on Sundays. The PUNCH learnt that the subsidised foodstuffs are, nevertheless, dropped at UNILAG on Fridays.
“There isn’t any cause for us to faux that every one is nicely when nothing is nicely. It’d curiosity you to learn that my humble self, Prince Oriwaye Adefolalu, heard concerning the N35,000 every that the Distinctive Cooperative CMS, UNILAG, was giving out as a mushy mortgage with out curiosity to its members, in order that they’d have cash to purchase ‘Ounje EKO’ on Friday, September 20, 2024,” Adefolaju wrote.
“If President Bola Tinubu will not be conscious that the college members of employees are dying like chickens, let him come to the College of Lagos. The sick amongst the federal college employees members don’t have cash to purchase meals to not speak of medicine,” he added.
He lamented that the four-month wage of SSANU members withheld by the federal government was a significant problem for them amid the prevailing financial hardship.
Final week, the Joint Motion Committee of SSANU and the Non-Educational Employees Union of Academic and Related Establishments introduced plans to begin an indefinite strike if their excellent salaries weren’t paid inside three weeks.
The unions are demanding, amongst different issues, the cost of 4 months’ withheld salaries, improved remuneration, earned allowances, and the implementation of the 2009 agreements with the federal government.
The Federal Authorities, by way of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, invoked the “No Work, No Pay” coverage when the 4 university-based unions, together with the Educational Employees Union of Universities, launched into a chronic strike in 2022.
In a press release collectively signed by the President of SSANU, Mohammed Ibrahim, and the Basic Secretary of NASU, Peters Adeyemi, the unions mentioned the Federal Authorities was given a 10-day grace interval, which expired on July 26, 2024, to pay the 4 months of excellent salaries to college employees, with the specter of shutting down universities and inter-university centres if the cost was not made.
Talking additional in an interview with our correspondent on Monday, Adefolaju mentioned he heard concerning the mortgage the cooperative was giving, and he went to the campus to get it for himself however was not fortunate as he was informed to come back for one more batch.
“Right now (Monday), I used to be on the campus, they usually informed me that the N35,000 won’t be prepared till Thursday,” he mentioned, lamenting that he spent N5,200 on transport to even get to campus.
“If our salaries are paid promptly, why will any person like me be queuing for N35,000 or foodstuffs? Normally, I purchase a bag of rice and even sprint folks,” he informed The PUNCH.
In keeping with him, gone had been the times when college staff had been envied. He queried: “It’s very, very horrible. You recognize, whenever you say you’re a lecturer, you’re a trainer, or you might be an administrator, Will you be capable to educate nicely?”
He careworn that between the time the labour unions had been negotiating minimal wage and now that the settlement has been reached, the price of dwelling has gone larger, explaining that the N70,000 minimal wage couldn’t resolve the issues confronted by staff.
The SSANU chairman at UNILAG, Gbenga Adenaiya, informed our correspondent on Tuesday that the members had been able to proceed on strike if their withheld salaries weren’t paid, following the ultimatum given to the Federal Authorities.
“The state of affairs is affecting all people. Whether or not you might be within the civil service, public service or personal sector, we’re all in it collectively – each educational and non-academic employees. And our prayers are that they pay us as quickly as potential in order that we will deal with our households and our private wants,” Adenaiya mentioned.
He confirmed that the “Ounje Eko” was being offered on the college, saying it takes place “as soon as in every week, each Friday, and it’s going to final for like eight weeks. I feel we’ve got had three weeks now.
“The underside line is that everyone is broke. Even to have cash, your private cash, to go to the market and purchase, the cash will not be accessible.
“However we thank God for our cooperative societies which can be attempting to help us by giving us mushy loans to purchase a few of these issues. It’s a critical difficulty we’re all contending with. The N35,000 mortgage was initiated by the cooperative societies.
“In case you have that N35,000, you should buy all of the issues they’re promoting there – rice, 5kg, garri 5kg. So we’ve got given the federal government three weeks. We’ve used seven days, and the remaining 14 days now. In 14 days, if we don’t see something from their facet. We start (strike).”
A lecturer at UNILAG, Dr Faustino Adeshina, mentioned educational staff like different Nigerians had been affected by the financial realities.
In an interview on Monday, he mentioned, “Lecturers, seniors, juniors, professors, they don’t reside on the moon. They reside in the identical financial system that each different individual lives.”
Adeshina, nevertheless, addressed the difficulty of lecturers going for loans to get foodstuffs.
Placing the difficulty in perspective, he mentioned the “Ounje Eko” was designed ordinarily for members of the college to profit from and never solely college lecturers, similar because the loans from the cooperative.
“It’s all the time been there. It’s a cooperative system. They usually thought it was clever that, okay, allow us to discover a method to give a buffer of N35,000 per member of the cooperative in order that we will use that cash to purchase no matter we would like on the Ounje Eko market. I’m a member of the cooperative,” Adeshina mentioned.
He defined that some individuals couldn’t get the mortgage as a result of the data acquired to them late and the cooperative members had been additionally many. “The cooperative members had been greater than 5,000. So, occasions overshadowed it. Lots of people didn’t get it. Don’t neglect, up till that point, they nonetheless needed to compete with those that got here from exterior to purchase the Ounje Eko. That was what occurred,” he added.
He mentioned as a member of the cooperative, he selected to not go for the mortgage.
On the financial hardship, he defined how he needed to spend extra money on gasoline, urging the federal government to “as a matter of urgency, launch the cash that they promised to present us. Along with that, they need to evaluation our wage.”
A lecturer on the Obafemi Awolowo College, and a former ASUU chairman on the department, Prof Adeola Egbedokun, in an interview, defined how lecturers on the establishment had deserted their automobiles resulting from the price of gasoline.
“As Nigerians, we’ve got discovered ourselves in a really precarious state of affairs which is foisted on us by President Bola Tinubu due to one unusual insensitive mantra that he alluded to when he was campaigning and saying ‘Emilokan.’
“I need to imagine that when he mentioned that, no person suspected. We had been swept off stability. We thought that assertion meant that he was going to do one thing totally different from what every other president had accomplished. However he introduced upon us hardship and horrible conditions.
“He has led us right into a state of affairs whereby it’s now troublesome for a median individual, not even senior lecturers or professors, I’m speaking about common Nigerians—he has rendered us in a state of affairs whereby we will now not feed, we will now not journey. The least price of transportation from Ife to Ibadan now could be N4,000,” he mentioned.
The don mentioned when he acquired to campus on Monday morning round 10 am, the automobile park for a constructing housing a number of departments had just a few autos.
“I noticed lower than 10 automobiles. That automobile park referred to as Humanities Automotive Park is all the time populated and even overused, however I noticed lower than 10 automobiles. I’ve seen a few of my colleagues who trekked from one place to a different. I’ve seen a few of my colleagues who’ve dropped their automobiles at residence. I’ve seen so a lot of them park their automobiles someplace and stroll round.
“I may verify that I spend a median of N150,000 each month on gasoline. How a lot is my wage that I’m utilizing such an amount of cash to purchase gasoline,” Egbedokun mentioned.