There is no letup in the fresh crisis rocking the three state-owned universities in Ondo State – Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA); Ondo State University of Science and Technology (OSUSTECH), Okitipupa, and the University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED), Ondo, as well as the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo (RUGIPO), which has pitched the workers’ unions against the state government and management of the institutions.
The workers’ unions, which are at loggerheads with the government and management of the institutions are the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), as well as the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIP) and Non-Academic Staff (NASU) in the polytechnic.

At the centre of the crisis and fresh agitation are non-implementation of the Federal Government’s policy on the retirement age for the academic and non-academic staff of tertiary institutions in the country by the ivory towers, and non-payment of salary of all categories of workers of the polytechnic for five months.

The workers are also protesting non-remittance of their contributory pensions to their respective pension administrators by the management of the universities.

Faced with this development, the protesting unions, which are on strike at OSUSTECH, have vowed to continue the protest for seven days until their demands were met.



Although, the management of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic was said to have commenced implementation of the retirement age in the polytechnic, the workers last week protested against non-payment of their five-month salary, which has led to the forceful closure of the institution by the management, which ordered the students to immediately vacate the campus.

The Federal Government had in its negotiation with the staff unions in the nation’s tertiary institutions pegged the retirement age for academic staff at professorial cadre at 70 years from former 65 years and the non-academic staff from 60 to 65 years.

Meanwhile, when several institutions in some states of the federation had commenced full implementation of the policy, the managements of Ondo State-owned higher institutions, except Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, are yet to implement the policy, resulting to fresh agitations by the unions.
But, the management of the institutions said they were still awaiting the Act of the state House of Assembly directing them to commence the implementation of the Federal Government’s policy before such could be domesticated by the institutions.

However, in defiance to the implementation of the policy, the management of AAUA and OSUSTECH had directed their Registrars; Mr. Segun Ayeerun and Mr. Felix Oladapo Akinnusi to proceed on retirement respectively, claiming that they had already attained 60-year retirement age based on former policy.
This was as the authorities of the two institutions had since appointed new Registrars in acting capacity to perform their responsibilities.

However, irked by the development, the unions insisted that the managements’ action violated the extant rule of the Federal Government that pegged the retirement age of non-academic staff at 65 years and that of professors at 70 years.



The development had since led the industrial action at OSUSTECH, where the workers staged series of protests against what they described as “unlawful retirement of their members” and non-remittance of their pensions to the various pension fund administrators.
The protesting unions – SSANU, NASU and NAAT- were said to have barricaded the main gate of the permanent campus of the university, insisting that the seven-day protest would continue until their demands were met by the management.
The Chairman, Joint Action Congress (JAC) of the unions, Temidayo Temola, who spoke with journalists during the protest, said the management of the institutions had served five of their members’ retirement letters against the lawful retirement ages of 65 and 70 years, as stipulated by the Federal Government.

Besides, he expressed disenchantment over the management’s refusal to remit their pension contributions for the past 12 months to their various pension fund administrators.
He said: “The retirement age for staff is now 65-70 years for non-academic and professors, and not 60-65 years as being claimed by the management, and on which basis they served five of our members’ retirement letters without any provisions for them. Even our pension contributions, being deducted from our salary were not remitted; while our leave bonuses are not being paid. This is total wickedness.”
The JAC Chairman, therefore, appeal to the state Governor and Visitor to the universities, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), to call the management to order by reversing the unlawful retirement and to ensure that the workers’ pensions and leave bonuses were paid.



“We will resist any attempt to frustrate us and we will keep vigil for seven days until our demands are met,” he insisted.
Meanwhile, OSUSTECH Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Sunday Ogunduyile, while reacting to the protest, said that the institution’s Edict provides 60-65 years as the retirement age for management and academic staff respectively.
On the non-remittance of the workers’ pensions, he, however, pointed out that the mode of remittance of the pensions had been extensively deliberated by the workers’ unions and the management, where an agreement was reached on the matter.
Ogunduyile said: “The state House of Assembly has not passed any law on retirement age, so we still follow the institution’s Edict, which provides for 60-65 years retirement age for management and academic staff respectively. The workers’ pensions were remitted till March, and we all agreed that their salaries would be paid first before paying the pensions from our subvention and internally generated revenue.”
But, while faulting the position of the Vice-Chancellor, the unions said that the government had approved new retirement age for all categories of staff in the state-owned tertiary institutions, referring to a letter addressed to all heads of the institutions by the Attorney-General of the state and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Kola Olawoye (SAN), where the unions claimed that the new retirement age was approved by the State Executive Council (SEC) at its meeting of Monday, May 6, 2019.
According to the unions, the Commissioner in the circular stated that the new retirement age takes immediate effect.
However, there are more to the controversies over retirement age as stakeholders had accused the state government of double standard.
According to some stakeholders, who spoke with New Telegraph, if RUGIPO commenced the implementation of the 65 years retirement age for all categories of its staff since 2013 in accordance with the Federal Government approval, they wonder why universities in the same state refused to implement the policy.
Despite they claimed that the position of the polytechnic management was contrary to the edict establishing the institution which still pegged 60 years as the retirement age for all categories of staff, as some overage members of staff are still in the service of the state-owned polytechnic.
They said AAUA and OSUSTECH were still operating 60 and 65 years respectively for non- teaching and teaching staff in line with their edicts, and were not allowed to operate the 65 and 70 years for all categories of staff and those on professorial grade until the Edicts establishing the institutions were changed to reflect the new policy.
While the students of Adekunle Ajasin University as directed by the university authorities had since resumed for preparation of their semester examinations after several months closure of the institution, their OSUSTECH counterparts are still at home counting their losses over indefinite closure of the university.
The Chairman of Governing Council of the polytechnic, Mr. Banji Alabi, in his reaction, described the institution as law abiding, saying such propelled the implementation of the policy on retirement age by the council.
He recalled: “It would be difficult to hold brief for other institutions on the implementation of the policy. In 2012, President Goodluck Jonathan assented to the Act of the National Assembly, entitled: Retirement Age of Staff of Polytechnics and Colleges of Education (Harmonisation) Act, 2012″ and the bill for an Act to further amend the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act No. 11, 1993.
“The law limits the tenure of principal officers of universities to one term of five years only. But, it increased the retirement age of staff in the professorial cadre in the universities from 65 years to 70 years, and 60 to 65 years for polytechnic and college of education lecturers.

“On the June 12, 2012, the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), an agency responsible for the supervision of polytechnic education in Nigeria, through circular No: C/TEB.97VOL. T1/175 of 12th June, directed all polytechnics and monotechnics in Nigeria to adopt the new retirement age of 65 years.”
Alabi, however, added that the polytechnic Governing Council at its meeting of December 18 and 19, 2012 respectively, adopted the directive of NBTE by directing the management to comply with the new retirement age regime, saying the polytechnic ‘is fully in compliance with the law since 2012.”

Though, RUGIPO is not caught in the web of the controversy surrounding the implementation of the new age regime, it is, however, enmeshed in crisis over unpaid salary of all categories of workers running to five months; backlog of promotion exercise for three years and failure to appoint substantive principal officers for the institution.

Miffed by the development, the polytechnic chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) last week embarked on a protest by suspending all academic activities in the institution.

The union, led by its Chairman, Rafiu Ijawoye, said they embarked on the protest to draw the attention of the government and the management to the plight of the staff of the polytechnic.
Ijawoye, who accused the management of refusal to pay workers’ backlog salary despite receiving about N2 billion subventions from the state government, said: “The courses in RUGIPO are on the verge of de-accreditation by NBTE over lack of payment of staff salaries, emoluments and promotions.”
Based on this scenario, he lamented that certificates awarded by the institution would not worth the paper on which they are written, if the courses were de-accredited by the NBTE.
Also, the academic staff said their pension deductions running into N630 million had not been paid despite the fact that the funds were deducted from their salaries.

Ijawoye alleged that Governor Akeredolu had released N2 billion for the payment of their outstanding salaries, but the management withheld back N500 million of the money thereby making it difficult for them to receive their salary in the past five months.

However, the union has passed a vote of no confidence on the Acting Rector, Dr. Gani Ogundahunsi, asking the government to put machinery in motion for the appointment of a substantive Rector for the polytechnic.
Apart from the unpaid wages and the backlog of promotion, the unions are also at loggerheads with the management over what they termed its insensitivity to the plight of workers, regretting the kidnap of one of the members of the union, Mr. Taiwo Akinyemi, who died in the hands of his kidnappers due to inability of the institution to raise the ransom demanded for his release on time.

“ASUP had to raise funds to secure the release of another kidnapped lecturer, Mr. Michael Olopete, when the management was foot-dragging on the release funds to free the staff from his abductors,” the union lamented.
According to ASUP, the failure to appoint substantive principal officers for the polytechnic has made it difficult for those occupying the positions in acting capacity to provide quality leadership because they are only interested in perquisite of office and not the development of the institution.

But, in its reaction to ASUP’s protest, the management in a statement by the Acting Registrar, Mr. Sule Atiku, condemned the activities of the union, saying the union’s actions were inimical to progress of the institution.
In view of the development, the management ordered the immediate closure of the institution indefinitely and directed the students to vacate the campus with immediate effect, pending the announcement of re-opening of the polytechnic.

Source: https://citadelng.com/non-academic-staff-and-academic-staff-union-of-ondo-institutions-seek-gov-akeredolu-intervention-on-pension-retirement-age-leave-bonuses/