A fresh strike is looming at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) over the dissolution of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) by the management of FUTO. In a petition signed by the national secretary-general of the SSANU, Promise Adewusi, a legal practitioner, and copied to President Goodluck Jonathan, the union directed its members to commence an indefinite strike if the action is not reverted. Adewusi in his petition made available to LEADERSHIP Friday maintained that the management does not have the right to dissolve the executives of the unions, describing the action as ultra vires. He stressed that SSANU as a legitimately registered and recognised union does not owe its legitimacy to the University Council as it is not a students union. Your purported dissolution of our legitimate Exco or installation of a Caretaker Committee, therefore, is not only preposterous but also illegal and in bad faith, part of the petition reads. It warned the council to reverse its illegal decisions on or before Monday, the 3rd of February, 2014, adding that failure to heed the warning would lead to a strike action by SSANU. LEADERSHIP Friday checks revealed that trouble started between the unions and the management of the university after a meeting of a congress of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the union, where a 21-day ultimatum was issued to the management to meet the workers demand. Rather than suspending the secretaries of the unions, FUTO constituted a probe panel which indicted them of gross misconduct and consequently dissolved the unions and set up a caretaker committee to run the affairs of the unions. Meanwhile, the University Council in two separate letters to SSANU and NASU, signed by secretary to the council, Orje Ishegh-Nor, stated that the council at its 146th meeting considered the report of the investigative panel into the allegation of gross misconduct against the secretaries of the three dissolved unions, and approved its recommendation that the executive committees of the three unions be dissolved with immediate effect, mandating an interim executive to man the affairs of the dissolved unions pending the election of new executives.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 14:37:38 +0000
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