Workers strike paralyses UI

Administrative activities were paralysed on Monday at the University of Ibadan as the non-teaching staff commenced a seven-day warning strike.

The workers – all members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities, Non Academic Staff Union of Universities and National Association of Academic Technologists – blocked the main gate and other entrances into the institution during their protest.

The Chairman of SSANU, UI branch,  Wale Akinremi, said the industrial action became inevitable in view of the Federal Government’s failure to meet the agreement it reached with the workers’ unions of the universities three years ago.

Lamenting that the only language understood by Nigeria leaders was that of force, Akinremi pointed out that the non-implementation of the ‘end allowance’ in the agreement was the main grouse of the workers, coupled with its non-inclusion in the next year’s budget.

He noted also that the proposed plan by the Federal Government to reduce the non-teaching staff in the universities across the country, based on the recent report submitted to the Presidency by a committee, was another reason for the strike.

The Chairman of NASU, Cole Fatoki, said, “The union leaders are men and women of integrity who cannot be bought over by anybody but have restrained themselves all along not to localise the issue.”