The Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) Monday raised an alarm that major crises witnessed in the education sector are caused by the inability of both federal and state governments to respect agreements reached with the unions.
President of SSANU comrade Samson Ugwoke who was speaking at the 2nd Quadrennial National Delegates Conference in Abuja urged the government to serve the sector by ensuring agreements reached with the union are respected.
Comrade Ugwoke further said that it was wrong for the government to freely enter into an understanding with the unions and refuse to implement the agreement.
“As we speak today, the biggest challenge faced by SSANU is the lack of respect of agreements duly and freely entered into by our employers either at state or federal levels.
‘In 2001, an agreement was duly reached with the federal government which was left largely unimplemented before 2009 when another agreement was reached.
“The 2009 FGN/ SSANU agreement is a case in point of how agreements freely entered into are not implemented and even when some aspects are implemented, they are done in breach.
As we speak today, salient aspects of the 2009 agreement with respect to earned allowances, career structure and progression of our members, encroachment into nonteaching units by academic staff among others, are yet to be implemented.
“This is despite the fact that we had embarked on a series of strikes between 2009 to date, in order to drive home our demands for government to respect the agreements.”
