L-R: Vice-Chancellor of Covenant University, Prof. Charles Ayo, who represented Bishop David Oyedepo, Vice-Chancellor of Landmark University, Prof. Aize Obayan and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Landmark University, Prof. Enoch Oyawoye, inaugurating an exhibition, during the 6th matriculation ceremony of the university in Omu-Aran, Kwara State on Friday

The Senior Staff Asso
ciation of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has called on well-meaning Nigerians to back the union’s on-going nationwide indefinite strike in order to salvage the country’s education sector.
Branch Chairman of SSANU in the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Comrade Bikume D. Syder made the call in an exclusive interview with The Tide in his office, Friday.
According to him, the call is necessitated by  the need for government to toe the line of reconciling the issues at stake early enough in order to avoid further determination in the nation’s education sector.
The issues at stake, Syder said, are a “directive from (Federal) Government to retrench over 2000 university staff school teachers,” and “forceful imposition of CONMESS/CONHESS on SSANU members in university health service units.”
“There is an order forcefully migrating medical and health workers in the university medical centres from the operational salary structure into a strange salary structure.
“The operational salary structure for the non-teaching staff in the universities is CoNTISS (Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Structure) into different salary structure like ‘consolidated salary for Health Workers (ConHESS) and Consolidated Medical Salary Structure’ (CONMESS),” he said.
These two positions taken by the federal authorities, Syder explained, negate the 2009 agreement reached by the Federal Government and SSANU “which is re-negotiable at three years intervals.”
Beyond increasing the number of unemployed people in the country, the SSANU boss explained further, the directive also amount to an infringement on the right of Association of SSANU members.
While noting that SSANU had embarked on the strike, which commenced on December 24, 2015, as a last resort, Syder expressed regret over the implications of the strike on what he called “faulty educational system” in the country, but that is essential for the development of education in the country.
“Strikes are usually last resorts. When all attempts to reach out to government has failed, when all attempts to draw government to the negotiation table has failed… last year SSANU embarked on a nation-wide protest to draw the attention of the Federal Government to these issues.
“But it seems that government is either paying lip service to it, or deaf ears to the cry of the university workers. This is what has compelled this strike,  Syder said.
When The Tide visited UNIPORT, normal health services related and administrative activities were at a hault including medical examiniations for students and those of Exams and Records.
The way forward in resolving the issues at stake, according to Syder is the withdrawal of “the Obnoxious Circular, return to status-quo and re-negotiation.
“This is why we are calling on well-meaning Nigerians, including the media, to help us make our case known to the government, and then restore normalcy in the system.

Stories by SogbebaDokubo