The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has issued an alert that another strike is on the way through the country’s universities.

It blamed the President for the ongoing university strike, threatening that employees and numerous unions would go on strike again soon unless the right things were done.

While presenting its memoranda to the school’s visitation council, the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Alike kw (AE-FUNAI) chapter of SSANU issued the alert.

The AE-FUNAI SSANU chairman, Emma Chigbata, presented the association’s memorandum to the panel’s Chairman, Amb Usman Sariki, and claimed that the country’s university system is dying.

Bad support, as well as the federal government’s divide-and-rule approach to dealing with multiple unions, are some of the reasons for the system’s rot, according to him.

“The Federal Government has no respect for agreements. Many agreements it entered into with various unions none of them have been fulfilled,” he said.

He cautioned that if the situation is not treated properly, law and order in the universities will be disrupted.

“Very soon students will rise against staff and teachers because of incessant strikes,” he warned.

Chigbata is pessimistic about the visitation committees set up for all Federal government universities’ ability to solve the issue.

He also bemoaned the fact that employees’ wages had been cut as a result of the federal government’s implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS).

“IPPIS slashed the salary of workers. It is now peanuts. Staff cannot afford to feed and pay house rents. Staff now borrow money to feed and take care of their needs,” he lamented.

In response, Amb Saraki said that the panel is a fact-finding committee rather than an investigation committee.

“We are not here to witch hunt anybody but to find out the true situation of things and advice government appropriately on how to improve the university system,” he said.

Source The Nations