Fidelity Bank, NASU Boss In Illegal Laon Deals

SSANU Boss and Fidelity Bank are currently in a loan mess amid tension at University of Ibadan.

 

Truetells Nigeria reports that Fidelity Bank PLC and the Chairman of the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) of the University of Ibadan, Comrade Abiodun Rasaki Omisore have been allegedly involved in a non-transparent loan agreement on behalf of the non-academic staff that would snowball into strike action anytime.

This online newspaper gathered that the trouble started when a loan deal was struck with its servicing to last for two years, but after Fidelity Bank was still making deductions thereby raising suspicion that the NASU Chairman has gone into signing the agreement without NASU consent.

 

NASU members claimed that they were not aware of this until they were confronted by the bank.

 

The NASU chairman, Comrade Abiodun Rasaki Omisore, who allayed the fears of his colleagues that they are going to get to the root of the issues, allegedly joined hands with some staff of the bank to defraud them.

 

Attempt to reach out to NASU Chairman to confirm the strike threat over this was not fruitful at the time of filing this report because his MTN line available to our correspondent was not available.

Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) 

Non-academic staff union of Education and associated institutions (NASU), is an organisation whose aim is to protect the interest and welfare of its memebers, both internally and nationally.

Meanwhile, Following what it described as the failure of the Nigerian government to react to its letter earlier issued threatening to down tools, the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Educational Institutions (NASU) have declared a two-week warning strike.

This is contained in a memo addressed to the leadership of the unions’ branches nationwide.

The memo by JAC, which was signed by SSANU president, Mohammed Ibrahim, and NASU general secretary, Peters Adeyemi, is titled; “Commencement of Two-Week Warning Strike.”

The letter reads in part; “In view of the nonchalant attitude of the government to our demands, this is to direct our members in all universities and inter-university centres throughout the country to commence a two-week strike by midnight of Sunday, 27 March, 2022, in the first instance as earlier conveyed to the federal government in our letter.

“Please note that the two-week warning strike should be comprehensive and total as no concession should be given under any guise.

“Your strict compliance and adherence to this directive is mandatory for all branches of NASU and SSANU in the universities and inter-university centres.”

Background

In a letter addressed to the office of the minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige, and dated March 16, 2022, JAC of SSANU and NASU, had accused the government of insincerity in its implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Memorandum of Action (MoA) reached with the government in October 2020 and February 2021 respectively.

The letter, written at the end of a meeting to review the situation and signed by both Messrs Adeyemi and Ibrahim, gave the Nigerian government up till March 27 to address its demands or face an initial two-weeks strike.

JAC had given two weeks ultimatum to the government to implement the said demands, while it issued ‘red alerts’ to its members, asking them to prepare for a possible showdown with the government.

Demands

In a separate interview with PREMIUM TIMES, SSANU national vice president, Abdussobur Salaam, had listed the items in the JAC’s agreement with the Nigerian government to include the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, payment of earned allowances, usurpation of non-academic career positions by vice-chancellors, the inclusion of university staff school into the university community, non-payment of minimum wage arrears, and funding of state universities.