UNILAG’s SSANU protests FG’s N1bn allowance

THE  Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), University of Lagos chapter, on Wednesday, staged a peaceful protest over the sharing formulae of the N1.6 billion earned allowances by the Federal Government. The chairman of the association, Mr Adekola Adetomiwa, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the N1.6 billion was part of the issues contained in the agreement the association entered into with the Federal Government in 2009. He said the earned allowances comprised responsibility, excess workload and hazard allowances. He said a total of N30 billion was disbursed by the Federal Government to all the federal universities across the country for the earned allowance.

Adetomiwa said that the disbursement took place about two months ago before President Goodluck Jonathan’s meeting with the leadership of ASUU. “Of this amount, a total of N1.6 billion was accruable to our university to be shared by an existing formula, which is N15,000 for the junior staff spread across 18 months arrears; and N30,000 for senior staff spread across same 18 months. “Rather than follow this sharing formula as stipulated for all the labour unions of the institution, the university authorities decided now to pay each of us N15,000 across board and this is highly unacceptable. “I want you to know that this same earned allowance has since been paid our colleagues in other universities, the way it is supposed to be, that is N15,000 for the junior staff and N30,000 for the senior staff.
“Why then should our own here in the University of Lagos be different from others or is there something going on that we do not know about? “To this effect, we have given the university management 24 hours to follow the existing template on the sharing formula of this fund and do the right thing in order to avoid further problems in the university.” The SSANU boss said the association was the precursor of the demands for the earned allowances and therefore, there was no reason for the management to “shortchange members of the association.”  He said the incident, if unresolved, might also affect academic activities in the university in the event that ASUU called off its strike. Adetomiwa expressed willingness to follow up the issue until justice was achieved because, according to him, the government had done what was expected and there was no reason for some individuals to scuttle such a kind gesture.