The Federal Government has started the process of bringing all unions within the university system under one single entity.
This was disclosed by the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abubakar Rasheed while speaking at the 2nd Quadrennial National Delegates Conference of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) in Abuja.
According to him, the polarization of the university system, where each of the unions comes up with their individual demands to the Federal Government was constituting bottlenecks for the government to accede to their demands.
Rasheed also attributed the phenomenon to why university education in Nigeria can’t match up to their peers abroad, academically.
According to him, talks were on to convince the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress to invite all the various unions to a round table, to see reasons why they needed to come under one umbrella.
Among the unions expected to key into the new proposal includes the Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU, Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities NASU, the National Association of Academic Technologists NAAT, and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities SSANU.
He argued that there was a need for the unions to enter into negotiations with the government with one accord, rather than a segmented approach.
While appealing to the conscience of the unions, the NUC Scribe said it is regrettable that most times government and individual unions lock horns negotiating for better welfare packages for the staff at the detriment of the students.
He said, “No university in the world can operate effectively in isolation, it is frustrating that the University system in Nigeria has been polarized by various unions, you have NAAT, ASUU, SSANU all negotiating for different things.
“Most times, while one group is negotiating with the government, others are warning up for strike unless their demands are met”.
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