Activities at Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Ondo State, were on Thursday grounded as workers’ unions, under the Joint Action Committee, protest the exclusion from the implementation of the N35,000 palliative wage award approved to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal.
According to Vanguard, the Joint Action Committee, consisting of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, Non-Academic Staff Union, and National Association of Academic Technologists, expressed dissatisfaction as the palliative has not been disbursed to the university staff since its initiation in Ondo State in November 2023.
The protest aims to draw attention to the plight of university staff, urging the state government to include them in the payment, which has been extended to other state workers.
The Chairman of Joint Action Committee —Ondo State Tertiary Institutions, Tayo Ogungbeni, in a notice sent to all branch Chairmen, after the leadership of JAC had met virtually, said “Congress should be held, and the decision to embark on protest be communicated to various management”.
Speaking during the protest, the Chairman of the Joint Action Committee in all the state tertiary institutions and AAUA SSANU Chairman, Comrade Tayo Ogungbeni, said the unions demanded to appeal to the state government not to deny them their rights to the payment of the wage award agreed by the federal and state governments in collaboration with labour unions for all workers in Nigeria.
Ogungbeni said all workers in Ondo State had been receiving the payment except tertiary institutions in Ondo State in which Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba Akoko was also left out.
He noted that “We have started this protest since Tuesday all over the State tertiary institutions in Ondo State, they did in Olusegun Agagu University in Okitipupa, University of Medical sciences in Ondo city, And Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba Akoko, we do not want our rights to be taken for granted.
“The federal government announced a palliative wage award of N35,000 for all workers in Nigeria, we are part of the general work force, why is Ondo State excluding us?
” Why are they saying we are not qualify for this palliative payment? we are asking for that money now, we know our governor want our welfarism, because everyone goes to the same market, we also pay for the same fuel Price, what we asked for is our right”.
