The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities Tuesday protested the government’s directive barring its members from traveling abroad for conferences, describing it as “discriminatory, misguided and ill-advised”.
The government, through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, had, in a letter dated July 17, stopped all non-teaching staff across universities nationwide from going abroad for any conference.
The letter, signed by the Director, Academic Staff Training and Development of the Fund, Abubakar Adamu, premised the decision on the growing exchange rate occasioned by the floating of Naira as well as the paucity of funds.
The letter partly read, “Consequently, the Management has approved the suspension of non-teaching staff to foreign conferences due to paucity of funds. In view of the above, you are kindly requested to note the exchange rate and ensure that only teaching staff with evidence of accepted paper for presentation are nominated for foreign conferences.”
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But SSANU, in a letter by its president, Mohammed Ibrahim, said the action of TETFund was capable of retarding staff development and even threatening industrial harmony within the system.
The letter addressed to the Executive Secretary of the Fund, urged the TETFund to retract the said notification and set machinery in motion, which would see to the fair consideration of the conference applications of every category of staff in Nigerian tertiary institutions.
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