UNILAG postpones admission screening over Non-Academic Staff Strike | EduCeleb
Abdussalam Amoo
4th December 2017
The management of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) has indefinitely postponed the admission screening exercise for 2017/2018 session.
This is as a result of the strike
The university’s spokesman, Mr. Toyin Adebule disclosed that the screening will now hold on a later date to be announced.
“The screening exercise earlier scheduled for Monday, 4th to Friday, 15th December, 2017, has been postponed till further notice. New dates would be communicated soon,” he said.
Members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) in federal and state universities began an indefinite strike to protest the sharing formula of N23billion released by the federal government for earned allowances to all categories of staff in the NUS.
After the suspension of an indefinite strike by the academic and non-academic staff of the universities early this year, the federal government released N23billion to 24 federal universities to pay the Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) for 2009/2010.
The non academic unions of NUS last week kicked against the allocation of N18.3billion to academic staff and N4.6billion to SSANU, NAAT and NASU members out of N23billion released by the federal government for payment of EAA.
In a joint letter dated November 27 and signed by President of SSANU, Samson Ugwoke, NAAT, Sani Suleiman and NASU, Chris Ani, urged members to resume the suspended indefinite strike as from midnight, Sunday, December 3.
At the University of Lagos, members of the three unions after a joint congress, staged protest on campus and rejected the allocation of N23, 220,335.15 million of N958, 000,000 million received by the institution.
Immediately after the joint congress, the union leaders and members stormed the library, Senate building, Bursary and service area to chase out members found at work.
Aside locking the main gate, the striking staff unions stormed the Multipurpose Hall and disrupted the on-going screening of candidates admitted for the new academic year.
The leaders of the unions told the candidates and their parents to go home that the screening will not continue because of the strike and chased out its members handling the admission screening.
As soon as the striking members of JAC stormed the hall, candidates and their parents scampered for safety while leaders of the unions forced each faculty admission to pack and leave the hall.
At the service area which supplies water and light, the protesting SSANU, NAAT and NASU members switched off electricity supply and water to the entire campus.
SSANU, NAAT and NASU UNILAG chairmen, Mr. Olugbenga Adenaya, Mr. Kehinde Ajibade and Suleiman Lawal, marched their members to the main gate, staged protest and condemned the sharing formula adopted by the federal government.
Adenaya wondered why the federal government allocated just N22 million of N958 million to the three non-academic unions in UNILAG and vowed that the strike would continue until the government addresses the skewed allocation.
He disclosed that the strike is not against the university management or the academic staff but a fight against injustice and demanded for an explanation from government on how the N23 billion sharing formula was arrived at.