President of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Comrade Promise Adewusi, during the association's National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Port Harcourt, at the weekend, spoke on the need for all university managements to immediately commence the payment of the new salary to their workers, or face the consequence. Excerpts:

Comrade, what efforts are you making towards the payment of the new salary to university workers?
We are already battling with the issue.We have written a letter at the national level and engaged those we need to engage; but it is also not possible to go back after we have crossed the bridge, because forward ever and backward never.

There is actually a problem but what everyone wants to hear and see is the money in his pocket and that is what we are going to do for our members.

But let me also tell you that there are legal impediments, but we do know that with the overbearing part and authority of the constitution, ways would be found round it and that is why we ended up with an acting president.

If it could be done for that, then it can be done for any other thing, because the constitution is the basis of the Nigerian legal or law system.

We are saying that it is true that it is constitutional provision that if budgets are not passed early in a year, a certain percentage of the outgoing budget should be used for the purposes of emolument so that workers don’t starve. But the problem here is one that may be inadvertently not foreseen.

If we believe that those in political leadership acted in good faith, the money used in paying us the so called new salary was a special intervention by Mr. President through a supplementary budget, which began in July when the new salary was implemented and ended in December.

That is why our brothers in polytechnics and colleges of education will not earn this salary for now, because they did not get that special intervention, and that was why we did everything possible, as if we were guided by divine essence, as if we knew that Mr. President would go on a journey that would take him long in coming back and we insisted.

Our agreement was delayed, even after we gave government that moratorium, because Mr. President was out of the country on medical ground.

That was one of the strategic reasons why, immediately the day elapsed, some people said ‘go on strike;’ we said ‘no’ because we did not see an unwillingness to sign or commit, but there was a serious issue, and they kept telling us that Mr. President was too busy receiving foreign envoys, while we knew, from our sources, he wasn’t around.

The first day he came, from the airport, he ordered that the thing be signed, therefore, it was that special intervention that gave us the money that March. We hoped that this year’s budget would have become operational by January 1, where the new salary had been built in.

What your members are saying is that universities have not started paying and when will the money be paid, including the salary withheld during the months they were on strike?
We have engaged a number of universities and technically, legally, you cannot be paid the new salary because you cannot pay or spend money that is not appropriated, however, some universities are richer than the subvention they receive and that is why I want us to look inward and consider whether your university is rich or not.

Incidentally, in my university, the February salary has already been paid on the new rate. Let me also say, without inciting them, because I will continue to fight for them even if it takes the last breath on me, the August and September salaries, which I have forgotten, have been paid in my university, but it will never let us relax in asking that other universities should pay the new salary or face the consequence.

Let me also tell you that last week, we entered into an agreement and government had agreed to pay that money. Indeed, this money, probably, would have been paid before now but of course you know that the Federal Government had taken us to court during the strike and they got a court judgment that those months we were on strike, the salary should not be paid to us.

Government hanged onto that, so when we began this negotiation, we saw in the chairman, a man that was honest within the limit of being a Nigerian; a dynamic young man and we told him, if you wanted peace then this money should be paid.

Also, at the last meeting with the vice chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt, who also happens to be the chairman of vice chancellors of Nigerian universities, he asked the committee of vice chancellors to write a memo to Mr. President that there is no reason for disparity between SSANU and ASUU.

The same man has been truthful and whatever he does not understand he asks for more explanation and once you tell him, he moves it to your own advantage, because on that implementation he is representing the Committee of Vice Chancellors (CVC) and he has been fantastic, even in some areas that we disagreed, he found a way of going round it without breaking the rules.

He also told us that the money would be from the internally generated revenue, pending when government would pay back, because that is what Unilag and other universities did. But, there are some universities that if you push them from now till tomorrow, nothing will come out; you will even be surprised that poor universities like Umudike, that is inside the bush, have managed to pay.

Therefore, we still need constructive engagement with local management, there is no magic about it. Since you know that this money must be paid, it is already in the budget but we don’t know when it will come.

But if the budget is passed tomorrow and they did not pay this money within two weeks, we will call for full blown strike action; but for now because some branches are already paying and if you count, at least I know about six branches that are paying and one of them said they can continue to pay till May, if the budget is not passed. So, we will continue to engage government, we have already put them on their toes and they are running around.