40% Pay Rise: Unilorin SSANU urge members to be calm over exclusion

Mr Naheem Falowo, the Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), University of Ilorin (Unilorin) branch, has appealed to all non-teaching staff of the institution to remain calm over the recent 40 per cent rise for civil servants.

Falowo assured the members that the national body of the union is on top of the matter.

Our correspondent reports that this follows the exclusion of the Unilorin staff from the recently approved and paid 40 per cent pay rise for civil servants in the country.

Making the appeal on Monday while speaking with newsmen in Ilorin, Falowo said that the union and its members were not against giving the core civil servants any pay rise since they are all Nigerians.

He however lamented the exclusion of the university staff from the new salary structure, saying the Federal Government has not implemented any of the eight-point agreement with the unions.

These, he said, included salary review, the union’s earned allowance, the payment of the staff school salary arrears despite the judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction and interventions of well-meaning Nigerians.

The Unilorin SSANU chairman said the union “members are happy with their work and we detest going on strike, but the actions of the Federal Government are discouraging.

“Nigerians should ask the Federal Government what they want to achieve by excluding university staff from the pay rise.

“They stopped our salary for four months during the last strike; people were starved; some could not pay their hospital bills; and some members died.

“We have not even gotten out of that unfortunate scenario and Federal Government is coming with this again.

“FG said when they removed subsidy, they would have to increase the salaries of staff. But they did so while excluding university staff, are we not patronising the same market? What is good for the goose is good for the gander,” he said.

Falowo therefore appealed to the federal government to urgently resume negotiations with NASU and SSANU, pay the unions’ N50 billion earned allowance as promised and also give them a pay rise to prevent industrial crisis.

On the relationship of the union with the management of the university, the SSANU chairman said the relationship with the Prof. Wahab Egbewole-led administration has been robust, peaceful and encouraging.

He explained that since the assumption of office of the vice chancellor, he has been assuring unions that staff welfare is paramount to him, saying “this was manifested with the end-of-year package and promotion of our members”.

The SSANU chairman commended the management for promoting a good number of his members.

According to him, the best reward management can give to hardworking staff is to promote them as at and when due.

He pointed out that staff that are due for promotion, deserved to be promoted, but if they are denied promotion, it means they will not be encouraged to work harder.

Falowo, however, assured Egbewole and his entire management team of the unions’ cooperation and support for as long as the welfare of staff, especially the non-teaching staff, continued to be paramount in his administration.

On the relation with the national body, the Unilorin branch chairman of SSANU applauded his predecessors, especially the new Registrar, Mr Mansur Alfanla, and Mr M. J. Akanbi for laying a good foundation for him to build on.

He explained that “Comrade M. J. Akanbi, who is his immediate predecessor, is a national officer of SSANU. The new Registrar has been a Chairman of the university’s branch and a National Treasurer of SSANU.

“You see, out of the 10 executive members that made up the national officers, the University of Ilorin has always produced a national officer out of over 100 universities in Nigeria.

“This says a lot about the relationship between the University of Ilorin and the national body of the union,” he said.