Non academic staff vow to shut down UI, disrupt matriculation

GBENRO ADESINA/IBADAN

Barely a month that the non-academic unions of the University of Ibadan, UI, protested and paralyzed all activities over some allowances the institution owes the staff, the non academic staff this mourning embark on another round of protest over nonpayment of some allowances.
As at the time of filing this report, they had already marched to Trenchard Hall to disrupt the on-going orientation programme for the new students who will be matriculating Thursday.
As they are strategizing on how to disrupt the matriculation exercise slated to start at 9a.m. Thursday, the executive members of the non academic staff have ordered all their members to stop coming to work.
The protesting non-academic unions in the institutions are: Senior Staff Association of Universities, SSANU, Non-Academic Staff Union, NASU, and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).
The unions that were able to mobilize at least 20,000 members as at the time of filing this report, occupied the main gate of the institution thereby disallowing other staff of the institution who are not their members from gain entry into the premier institution.
All the academic staff who live off campus and students of primary and secondary schools located on campus had to turn back home.
The crisis started Tuesday when all the executive members of the non academic staff started mobilizing their members for a showdown Wednesday. Some of the non academic staff were sent text messages around 10p.m. Wednesday asking them to fully participate in the protest.
Explaining the rationale for a complete showdown, the Chairman of SSANU, Comrade Wale Akinremi alleged that the institution’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka has demonstrated enough insensitivity to the plight of the workers, stressing that they would force him to his knees.
He said that their protest would continue until the school management pays what it owes the staff.
According to him, he alleged that on Tuesday, men of the Department of State Security, DSS, arrested some of their members and after questioning them for some hours, released them with a condition that they must report back to their office Wednesday.
He said that the school management has alleged that the non academic staff were behind the protest that the students staged last Saturday over lack of electricity and water adding, “the VC said that he would not pay us the allowance we are asking for. Some groups in the institution are asking him not to pay us what he is owing us. He said that we can close down the school if we desire. He has also threatened to sack some members of non academic staff.”
The unions have been fighting the new management of the institution led by Olayinka over shortfall in their monthly pay package.
Whenever the non-academic staff of the institution embark on protest, they throw caution to the wind and take laws into their hands by attacking the academic staff who are not their members and chasing teaching staff out of the classrooms.
About two weeks ago, the premier institution decried the reduction in the Federal Government allocation to the institution, appealing to its staff to bear with the situation as it will improve as soon as the budget is passed.
In several meetings held with the unions on campus, the institution’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka discussed the financial status of the institution with the staff and appealed to them to be patient with him as all the backlog being owed would be paid as soon as the allocation to the institution is normalized.
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