Jonathan braces for another education strike as varsity senior staff warn against implementing NEEDS report

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) on Thursday advised the federal government against downsizing its members in the process of implementing the Needs Assessment report.

The Chairman of the Western Zone of SSANU, Mr Alfred Jimoh, gave the advice in Ibadan during the awareness lecture on the Needs Assessment.

He said that SSANU has been sidelined and downgraded overtime, 'hence, why we are rejecting the report of the committee.

He said the Needs Assessment was aimed at downsizing members of the association with a claim that the system was top heavy.

The SSANU zonal chairman warned that should government accept the report it may lead to another nationwide strike.

According to him, 'the implementation of needs assessment report is dangerous and alarming to our jobs.

“It has been a common knowledge that the non-teaching staff of Nigeria Public Universities constitutes endangered species of the very hostile environment.

“As it were, the teaching staff have finally gone for the broke, by goading the government to empanel a one sided committee, comprising their members only'.

The Secretary of the zone, Mr Abdussobur Salam, said the union was able to establish that the committee report is laced with many flaws and errors.

“While some could be traced to ignorance on the part of committee members, some other aspects are deliberately created in a bid to protect the academic staff in the system.

“For there to be a proper reposition of the Nigerian public University system, the Needs committee report, must of necessity, be discarded by the Federal Government', Salam said.

The union organised an awareness public lecture at the Trenchard Hall, University of Ibadan, where members unanimously rejected the reports.

The Needs Assessment Committee was set up by the Federal Government to examine the need-gap within the public universities and come up with practicable solutions.