By Suleiman Shehu
Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI) has appealed to the Federal Government to end the over five-month-old strike in research institutes.
SSAUTHRIAI’s General Secretary, Dr Ezekiel Popoola, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Thursday.
NAN recalls that unions in the research and allied institutions, under the aegis of Joint Research and Allied Institutions Sector Unions (JORAISU) had, on Oct.13, 2021, embarked on an indefinite strike.
JORAISU, with 67 member-unions, one of which is SSAUTHRIAI, is demanding for payment of 12-month Consolidated Research and Allied Institutions Salary Structure arrears of 53.37 per cent increase, among others.
Popoola appealed to the federal government to give research institutes the attention they deserved for development of the country.
According to him, no nation can develop without research, noting that adequate funding and workers’ welfare should be given priority in order to achieve the desired result.
“Sometime in the past, we had gone on four months strike. The current strike started in October. So cumulatively, we have gone on strike for 10 months and nothing has been done about our demands.
“What do they expect from the research sector when it is not adequately funded? No nation can develop without research. I think something must be done about the challenge,” he said.
Popoola further said that the unions’ demands had been on for long, while the leadership of JORAISU and the federal government had reached agreement since December 2010 on the implementation of those demands, adding, however, that government had not implemented it till date.
According to him, the unions have written several letters to government and made political contacts, all to no avail.
Popoola said that the unions had refrained from embarking on picketing which, he said, could aggravate the present security challenge in the country.
“We don’t want things to degenerate to that level. It is something we can sit down and talk one-on-one.
“My appeal to the federal government is to be alive to its responsibilities because things cannot continue like this.
“We can picket but we are not thinking of that because of the current security situation in the country.
“If we had done that, government may say that thugs have hijacked it. These are the type of things we are trying to avoid,” Popoola said.
NAN reports that other demands by JORAISU are: adequate funding of research institutes, payment of peculiar and earned allowances as well as retirement age of 65 years for non-research staff, as obtainable in universities. (NAN)
