Current Hardship Comparable to COVID-19 Pandemic, Says SSANU
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
As Nigerians grapple with the challenges posed prevailing economic and and social problems, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has likened the situation to that of COVID-19 pandemic which had devastating impact on human lives.
National President of SSANU, Comrade Mohammed Haruna Ibrahim who spoke at the plenary session of the Third Quadrennial National Delegates Conference of the association held in Abuja, said the experiences in the last one year for the Nigerian worker, especially members of SSANU, have been particularly, nasty and brutish.
“We had thought we would only have to deal with the disruptions created by the COVID-19 Pandemic, and its wanton effects not just on us as a Union, but on the entire globe.
“Happenings in our country over the last four years have, however, thrown up new challenges to us a Union.
“More recently, we have had to further deal with government policies that have impoverished the already downtrodden Nigerian worker, thereby subjecting them to an almost slavish existence.
“The experiences in the last one year for the Nigerian worker, especially members of SSANU, have been particularly, nasty and brutish,” he said.
Ibrahim who was reelected for another four-year tenure noted that the greatest challenge besetting the Nigerian educational system and more particularly the tertiary education has been the spate of industrial actions.
He said that frequent industrial unrest in public tertiary institutions in the country has been caused by breaches of agreements entered between the unions and their employers.
“Since the advent of the civilian, or if you like, democratic government in 1999, we have witnessed increased accusations of failure of collective bargaining, at governments at both federal and state levels.
“As a result, industrial tensions in our tertiary institutions, protests and strikes have become the order of the day. Unfortunately, the trend has created a situation where unions and their leaders are being perceived as being too belligerent or strike happy,” he said.
Ibrahim said that it has become imperative the association to hold conversations on curtailing industrial unrest, “with a view to changing the narrative, and causing a paradigm shift to the benefit of not only the Union, but even the government (s), the stakeholders, students and the entire nation”.
