By Johnbosco Agbakwuru, Abuja

THE Joint Action Committee, JAC, of the Non-academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, has described as a charade the inauguration of the Renegotiation Committee.

Recall that the Renegotiation Committee was inaugurated on Tuesday at the Ministry of Education headquarters, Abuja.

Although, the two non teaching staff unions that made up JAC were present at the ceremony, their presence was said to be insignificant as there was no formal role assigned to them.

Expressing their disapproval over the alleged shabby treatment meted out to them via a statement, the unions said it was a signal of a potential bias in favour of academic staff in the upcoming negotiations, to the detriment of non-teaching staff.

The statement issued by Prince Peters Adeyemi. General Secretary of NASU and Comrade Mohammed Ibrahim,  SSANU President titled: “The Joint Action Committee of NASU and SSANU condemns the charade of inauguration of Renegotiation Committee,” read:

“The Joint Action Committee of NASU and SSANU hereby strongly expresses its displeasure and disgust at the charade witnessed today, Tuesday, 15th October, 2024 at the so-called inauguration of Renegotiation Committee of the 2009 Agreements with Universities based Unions.

“Firstly, the reference on the letters of invitation to NASU and SSANU indicated ASUU, implying that the letters originated from ASUU’s file rather than from the files of our two Unions. i.e., FME/IS/UNI/ASUU/C.II/VOL.III/165 and FME/IS/UNI/ASUU/C.II/VOL.III/166.

“The event appeared to have been primarily focused on ASUU with the other unions seemingly included as an afterthought as the Honourable Minister of Education’s inauguration speech centered almost entirely on ASUU, with only brief and cursory mentions of the other unions.

“To confirm our fears, at the venue of the inauguration, the two unions witnessed a most humiliating experience where the President of ASUU was placed on what was referred to as the “Responsibility table and the presidents of other unions looked on from their positions of “irresponsibility”.

“From the proceeding, it was obvious that NASU and SSANU were only invited as mere spectators to give a semblance of legitimacy and acceptability to an already concluded renegotiation exercise.

“That the President of ASUU alone was invited to give a response on behalf of other unions without consultation and he ended up speaking on behalf of his union this clearly showed that the opinions and experiences of other Unions do not matter in the renegotiation.

“The proceedings of the entire inauguration has clearly shown the imbalance of relationship and the obvious unfair treatment that would be meted out to NASU and SSANU if the renegotiation process continues in this manner.

“Consequently, the JAC of NASU and SSANU hereby condemns the entire charade that took place today, in the name of an inauguration as it signals a potential bias in favour of academic staff in the upcoming negotiations, to the detriment of non-teaching staff and therefore expresses our misgivings about the process of the inauguration.”