Federal lawmakers move to avert SANU, NASU strike

The House of Representatives has called on the federal government to release the earned allowance of members of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) between 2009 and 2016, to avert impending strike.

Decrying what they termed “bias against non-academic staff of Nigerian universities,” the lawmakers asked the federal government to
urgently set up a committee to address the alleged discrimination.

The resolutions followed a motion brought under matters of urgent public importance by Aisha Dukku (APC, Gombe).

Dukku, while leading debate on the motion said the fund recently released to universities was disbursed on a sharing formular of 80 per cent to 20 per cent for the academic and non-academic staff respectively.

Dukku, who was the Minister of State for Education when the agreement was signed in 2009, said the sharing formula “is contrary to any known accounting procedure and international best practices.”

“I am worried that the grievances of the non-academic staff, if not urgently addressed, could end up crippling activities and shutting down our universities,” she warned.

Contributing to the motion, John Nnaji (PDP, Enugu) described the motion as “mere academic excise” because majority of the lawmakers have their children in universities outside Nigeria.

Tajudeen Yusuf (PDP, Kogi) expressed concern that the situation of Nigerian tertiary education has made neighbouring countries to start establishing “mushroom universities.”