Hard times: Senior varsity workers in battle for survival, scamper for palliatives

GBENGA OLONINIRAN writes about the plight of teaching and non-teaching university staff members as they struggle to survive the trying times in the country amid the biting economic conditions

The biting economic conditions in the country have not spared both the teaching and non-teaching staff members of universities, as much as it has not spared anyone. From the rising cost of petrol with attendant inflation in transport fare to the scarcity of fuel and the skyrocketing prices of foods and commodities, university workers appear to bear a greater brunt.

A release by a former chairman of SSANU at the University of Lagos, Oriwaye Adefolalu, trended last week after he lamented how professors and doctors at the university were scampering for a loan of N35,000 offered by their cooperative society.

In the release, Adefolabu noted that the senior staff members were rushing to get the loan to buy the subsidised “Ounje Eko” foodstuffs brought to the campus.

In September, the Lagos State Government commenced Phase II of the “Ounje Eko” market with a 25 per cent cut in prices. The market sells at different locations on Sundays. The subsidized foodstuffs are, however, brought to UNILAG on Fridays.

“There is no reason for us to pretend that all is well when nothing is well. It might interest you to read that my humble self, Prince Oriwaye Adefolalu, heard about the N35,000 each that the Unique Cooperative CMS, UNILAG, was giving out as a soft loan without interest to its members, so that they would have money to buy ‘Ounje EKO’ on Friday, September 20, 2024,” Adefolaju wrote.

“If President Bola Tinubu is not aware that the university members of staff are dying like chickens, let him come to the University of Lagos. The sick amongst the federal university staff members do not have money to buy food not to talk of drugs,” he added.

He lamented that the four-month salary of SSANU members withheld by the government was a major challenge for them amid the prevailing economic hardship.

Last week, the Joint Action Committee of SSANU and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions announced plans to commence an indefinite strike if their outstanding salaries were not paid within three weeks.

The unions are demanding, among other things, the payment of four months’ withheld salaries, improved remuneration, earned allowances, and the implementation of the 2009 agreements with the government.

The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Labour and Employment, invoked the “No Work, No Pay” policy when the four university-based unions, including the Academic Staff Union of Universities, embarked on a prolonged strike in 2022.

In a statement jointly signed by the President of SSANU, Mohammed Ibrahim, and the General Secretary of NASU, Peters Adeyemi, the unions said the Federal Government was given a 10-day grace period, which expired on July 26, 2024, to pay the four months of outstanding salaries to university staff, with the threat of shutting down universities and inter-university centres if the payment was not made.

Speaking further in an interview with our correspondent on Monday, Adefolaju said he heard about the loan the cooperative was giving, and he went to the campus to get it for himself but was not lucky as he was told to come for another batch.

“Today (Monday), I was on the campus, and they told me that the N35,000 will not be ready until Thursday,” he said, lamenting that he spent N5,200 on transport to even get to campus.

“If our salaries are paid promptly, why will somebody like me be queuing for N35,000 or foodstuffs? Usually, I buy a bag of rice and even dash people,”

According to him, gone were the days when university workers were envied. He queried: “It’s very, very terrible. You know, when you say you are a lecturer, you are a teacher, or you are an administrator, Will you be able to teach well?”

He stressed that between the time the labour unions were negotiating minimum wage and now that the agreement has been reached, the cost of living has gone higher, explaining that the N70,000 minimum wage could not solve the problems faced by workers.

The SSANU chairman at UNILAG, Gbenga Adenaiya, told our correspondent on Tuesday that the members were ready to proceed on strike if their withheld salaries were not paid, following the ultimatum given to the Federal Government.

“The situation is affecting everybody. Whether you are in the civil service, public service or private sector, we are all in it together – both academic and non-academic staff. And our prayers are that they pay us as soon as possible so that we can take care of our families and our personal needs,” Adenaiya said.

He confirmed that the “Ounje Eko” was being sold at the university, saying it takes place “once in a week, every Friday, and it’s going to last for like eight weeks. I think we have had three weeks now.

“The bottom line is that everybody is broke. Even to have money, your personal money, to go to the market and buy, the money is not available.

“But we thank God for our cooperative societies that are trying to assist us by giving us soft loans to buy some of those things. It’s a serious issue we are all contending with. The N35,000 loan was initiated by the cooperative societies.

“If you have that N35,000, you can buy all the things they are selling there – rice, 5kg, garri 5kg. So we have given the government three weeks. We have used seven days, and the remaining 14 days now. In 14 days, if we do not see anything from their side. We commence (strike).”

A lecturer at UNILAG, Dr Faustino Adeshina, said academic workers like other Nigerians were affected by the economic realities.

In an interview on Monday, he said, “Lecturers, seniors, juniors, professors, they don’t live on the moon. They live in the same economy that every other person lives.”

Adeshina, however, addressed the issue of lecturers going for loans to get foodstuffs.

Putting the issue in perspective, he said the “Ounje Eko” was designed ordinarily for members of the university to benefit from and not only university lecturers, same as the loans from the cooperative.

“It’s always been there. It’s a cooperative system. And they thought it was wise that, okay, let us find a way to give a buffer of N35,000 per member of the cooperative so that we can use that money to buy whatever we want at the Ounje Eko market. I am a member of the cooperative,” Adeshina said.

He explained that some persons could not get the loan because the information got to them late and the cooperative members were also many. “The cooperative members were more than 5,000. So, events overshadowed it. A lot of people didn’t get it. Don’t forget, up until that time, they still had to compete with those who came from outside to buy the Ounje Eko. That was what happened,” he added.

He said as a member of the cooperative, he chose not to go for the loan.

On the economic hardship, he explained how he had to spend more money on fuel, urging the government to “as a matter of urgency, release the money that they promised to give us. In addition to that, they should review our salary.”

A lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University, and a former ASUU chairman at the branch, Prof Adeola Egbedokun, in an interview, explained how lecturers at the institution had abandoned their cars due to the cost of fuel.

“As Nigerians, we have found ourselves in a very precarious situation which is foisted on us by President Bola Tinubu because of one strange insensitive mantra that he alluded to when he was campaigning and saying ‘Emilokan.’

“I want to believe that when he said that, nobody suspected. We were swept off balance. We thought that statement meant that he was going to do something different from what any other president had done. But he brought upon us hardship and terrible situations.

“He has led us into a situation whereby it is now difficult for an average person, not even senior lecturers or professors, I am talking about average Nigerians—he has rendered us in a situation whereby we can no longer feed, we can no longer travel. The least cost of transportation from Ife to Ibadan now is N4,000,” he said.

The don said when he got to campus on Monday morning around 10 am, the car park for a building housing several departments had only a few vehicles.

“I saw less than 10 cars. That car park known as Humanities Car Park is always populated and even overused, but I saw less than 10 cars. I have seen some of my colleagues who trekked from one place to another. I have seen some of my colleagues who have dropped their cars at home. I have seen so many of them park their cars somewhere and walk around.

“I can also confirm that I spend an average of N150,000 every month on fuel. How much is my salary that I am using such an amount of money to buy fuel,” Egbedokun said.