By Cross Udo, Abuja
The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has advised the Federal Government to consult widely with relevant stakeholders on the recently proposed 18-year benchmark for admission into tertiary institutions to avert a crisis in the education sector.
SSANU has also frowned at the delay in paying four months’ withheld salaries, which President Bola Tinubu directed about two months ago should be paid to its members.
This came as the union appealed to the Federal Government to extend the distribution of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses to universities to aid in transporting staff and students.
These, among other things, were contained in the communique issued at the end of its 49th National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, held in Abuja at the weekend and signed by SSANU President Comrade Mohammed Ibrahim.
The association called on the Federal Government to pay its members the earned allowances, noting that N50bn was earmarked for the same purpose in the 2023 budget.
On the 18 years benchmark recently announced by the Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman, as the new minimum age for a child to qualify for admission from 2025, SSANU said, “NEC in session lend her voice to critical stakeholders in the education sector in condemning the decision of the Federal Government to peg the age at which students can write the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE) and gaining admission into tertiary institutions at 18.
“Generality of stakeholders believe this policy would drag the education sector back. While reacting to the comment by the Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman Tahir, that from 2025, any candidate who is not up to 18 years old would not be allowed to write SSCE and the Joint Admission and Matriculation Examination Board (JAMB), urged government to consult widely as it has promised on this critical matter to avert a crisis in the sector.”
*Condemns delay in payment of four-months withheld salaries
While calling for payment of the four months withheld salaries, it said, “The Union is aware of the Presidential directive for release of the four months withheld salaries of members of SSANU and NASU. We are, however, baffled that, almost two months later, our members are yet to be paid. The NEC, therefore, calls on the relevant government agencies to implement the directive of the President by paying our members their four months withheld salaries.”
The communique said on the payment of earned allowances, “We know that the sum of N50bn was appropriated in the 2023 budget for this purpose. NEC, therefore, calls on the government to investigate and, as a matter of urgency, release the already appropriated funds for payment of Earned Allowances to our members to avert any industrial disharmony in the education sector.”
The NEC, in session, appreciated the government’s reconstituting the Committee for renegotiating the SSANU/FGN 2009 Agreement and urged the government to expedite action on inviting the union to the renegotiation process.
Regarding the transportation challenge occasioned by the fuel subsidy removal, SSANU said, “The Union is aware that the government has commenced distributing Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses to various states in the country.
“NEC in session had lengthy deliberations on the matter and resolved that there was a need to request the Government to extend distribution of the Buses to all Universities to aid in transportation of staff and students.”
However, it noted that the removal of fuel subsidies and devaluation of the naira have made life unbearable for the masses and ignited widespread suffering and criminality.
“However, recently, it has been reported in several media outlets that the subsidy has been reintroduced through the back door. One would have expected that the re-introduction would have reduced the price of petrol and consequently the cost of transportation, goods, and services.
“Unfortunately, the cost of petrol and other petroleum products keep skyrocketing, with some states selling for as high as N900 per litre and above in some parts of the country. Our Union members and the general public can hardly afford the necessities of life. Many have parked their cars because their meagre salaries can no longer carry them if they add fuel costs to their expenses.
“NEC in session; therefore, calls on the government to urgently fix the local refineries, which is a major remedy to this intractable economic debacle,” it added.
The communique said that the union viewed the socio-economic upheavals in the Nigerian state as symptomatic of a failing state opposed to peace and progress.
It said, “A country with vast potential human and material resources is enmeshed in rampant corruption and massive mismanagement, which undoubtedly spells doom and total collapse if nothing is urgently done.
“The country is economically prostate because of bad Government policies, high rate of unemployment fuelling dangerous insecurity challenges of kidnapping, banditry, youthful fraudulent activities, inflation, bad roads, failed medical facilities and all attendant manifestations of a dying nation.
“NEC, in session, therefore calls on the government to redirect the nation by introducing sound economic measures, gag the corruption monster, and provide jobs for the teeming youths to avert the country’s total collapse.”
It condemned what it described as the government’s suppression of protest; nothing that protests the world over is a fundamental right of citizens.
“There is nowhere in the world, especially in a democratic setting, where government, through its agencies, stop genuine and peaceful protest by its citizenry, especially when it is evident that there is hardship in the land occasioned by bad governance.
“A case in question is the manner the Nigerian Police treated members of JAC of SSANU and NASU during their peaceful protest in Abuja, where they were harassed and intimidated from their point of convergence at the Unity Fountain.
“NEC in session also condemns, in strong terms, the unwarranted arrest and even killing of peaceful protesters who were protesting against bad governance in the country. It frowned at the way the Nigerian law enforcement agencies, especially the Police, brutalized protesters, even after obtaining permission from the same Police authority.
“NEC, therefore, warned the various law enforcement agencies, especially the police, to desist from such barbaric and anti-democratic practices and perform their work with professionalism so as not to add to the already tensed atmosphere in the country,” it said.
