Troubles again in Nigeria

Remember the anti-fuel subsidy
removal, which we started the
New Year with and which later
paralysed economic activities
across the nation for more than
a week? Remember also the
strike by the Academic Staff
Union of the Universities (ASUU),
which disrupted academic
activities across university
campuses for some months
before it was called off recently?
From the look of things, trouble
doesn’t seem to be over yet for
the Federal Government. If
anything, it is becoming a case
of one month, one trouble. The
Joint Action Committee (JAC) of
unions in research and
development institutions and
colleges of agriculture,
comprising members of the
Academic Staff Union of
Research Institutions (ASURI), the
Non-Academic Staff Union of
Educational and Associated
Institutions (NASU) and Senior
Staff Union of Research,
Development and Associated
Institutions of Nigeria
(SSURDAIN), is threatening to call
its members out on strike over
non-implementation of
agreement reached between it
and the Federal Government.
“In January, 2011, the Federal
Government of Nigeria (FGN)
reached and signed an
agreement with the unions in
the research institutes and their
colleges. Sadly, many aspects of
the agreement are yet to be
implemented by government,”
the unions noted in a press
statement issued penultimate
week. The statement was jointly
signed by Comrade Akinwale
M.M, National Administrative
Secretary, ASURI and co-
chairman of the Joint Action
Committee, Comrade Haruna
Mubarak Imodu, NASU Branch
Chairman, Federal College of
Fisheries Primary Technology,
Lagos, Comrade Ezekiel Clean,
Vice-Chairman, NASU, National
Institute of Oceanography,
Victoria Island, Lagos, Comrade
Ben Igere, of SSURDIAN and
Comrade Osaigbovo, O.R,
Chairman, Press Release
Committee. “Consequent upon
that, our unions issued a 14-day
ultimatum to the government
which lapsed on the 12th
February, 2012.”
It is in the light of the expiration
of that ultimatum that the unions
are threatening to embark on an
indefinite strike “until our
demands are fully met.” It listed
their demands based on
agreements allegedly reached
with the Federal government, as
including “inadequate funding;
establishment of a National
Research and Technology
Development Fund (NRTDF);
establishment of a National
coordinating body for research
and development institution,
among others; one year arrears
of 53.37% salary increase from
1st July, 2009-June 2010 (which
has been paid to staff of
universities and colleges of
education); that the retirement
age of staff of Research
institutions will be 65/70 years
in line with their counterparts in
the university system; that
peculiar allowances be paid to
staff as regards the following:
staff allowance duty, hazard
allowance, protective wear
allowance, research project
allowance, post-graduate
allowance and non-accident
bonus allowance for drivers and
spcialized/scarce skill allowance.
“Others included that staff of
research institutions should earn
the same salaries and allowances
as their counterparts in the
universities; that conditions and
schemes of service be
periodically reviewed for
research institutes, their colleges
and allied institutions; that
appointment of Executive
Directors/Directors Generals/
Provosts be made from within
the relevant research and
development institutions.”
Drawing the attention of “all
well-meaning Nigerians” to the
consequences of government’s
non-implementation of the
mutually-reached agreements,
the unions warned that the
“culpability of the colossal loss of
the economy which shall result
would not lay with us” but with
the government.”
Elaborating on the issues
involved, Comrade Akinwale M.M.,
said at a press conference
addressed by the unions in
Lagos: “There is no education
without research. In fact, the
bulwark of any valuable
education, regardless of what is
happening now, is research.
Research is no more powering
education, for that reason we
are no more growing with time,
with the demand of the New
Age. For that same reason, those
in research institute who do jobs
that improve the ability of those
in the university to do their jobs
very well are not being
motivated to do their best. In our
system, you find out that those
who leave the universities for
industrial attachments are here.
“They come to research
institutes as centres of
excellence to be given the
practical experience of most of
the things they had been
theoretically exposed to in the
university. So you find out that
no such teaching can be
complete without valid
intervention of the research
institutes. Now, when we do all
these jobs and we don’t get paid
for them and indeed they don’t
also lead to the major measure
of our productivity, yet we carry
them out as if they are our major
mandate, and indeed it is what
we are also trained to handle,
you find out it will be unjust not
to be paid the allowances for the
jobs you’ve spent your skills to
enhance and also to pass on to
younger ones.
“We are exposed to very terrible
and expectable risks. You find
some of us working in human
virology labs and in vaccine
design segments of the research
sector. You find some of us
working in systems with nuclear
and radioactive substances
being used for validation of tests
and also for maintaining the
integrity of the systems. You
find some of us working to
generate the gene data banks
and also to maintain them. These
are risky endeavours/
commitments that you cannot
continue to expose yourself to
without earning some
allowances. That underscores
why we are insisting on some of
these allowances and there are
so many of them but we have
chosen to call them peculiar
allowances.
“We should also draw on these
allowances in our monthly
package. On a case-to-case basis
we have presented our case to
the government but nothing has
been done to make us earn these
allowances. Maybe the agents of
government who have been
negotiating on the part of the
government don’t have
sufficient power, or the wrong
people have been sent in. There
is a lot of foot-dragging taking
place. And even after several
negotiations, you find out that
the government doesn’t end up
releasing the funds or approving
the ones that have been agreed
on. So government has to re-
examine its disposition towards
us so that progress will be made
in this sector.
“There is a lumping of capital
and research funds.
There is no separation. And
when you give opportunity for
establishments to determine
what percentage of budget will
go into capital projects and
which will go into research, you
find out that some muddling
take place. It is only when they
set up a National coordinating
body for research and
development institution will the
government decide how best to
fund research.“We are insisting
that one year arrears as part of
the 53.3% salary increase which
has been paid to our colleagues
in the universities, polytechnics
and colleagues of education
should also be paid to us as
agreed since 2009.”
In the same vein, the unions are
also demanding as agreed that
there should be a review of the
condition and scheme of service
every two years. They allege that
the last one was done in 2004
and insist that another one
should have been done since
then “based on the prevailing
industrial conditions of research
institutes.” They would want
government to conclude and
speed up action on the
conditions and scheme of
service which they claim have
been under review for quite
some time now without arriving
at a meaningful conclusion
“because government’s agents
or representatives involved have
been foot-dragging.”
Furthermore, Akinwale, on behalf
of the unions, called for a review
of recent appointments of chief
executives of research institutes.
“We want all the appointments
of chief executives, to remain, as
the civil service rules connote,
from within the system so as to
encourage the best growth of
the system.“We have been told
that the job description,
appointment and promotion
shall not be inferior to those in
the university system. We are
therefore not asking for
anything spectacular. These are
the major planks of the issues
we are asking government to re-
address.”