Abuja: Staff members of the National Mathematical Centre (NMC) have protested their exclusion from the N50 billion Earned Academic Allowances (EAAs) approved by the Federal Government for university workers. The workers, under the Congress of University Academics, NMC Chapter (CONUA-NMC), expressed their grievances in a letter to the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, a copy of the letter signed by Comrades Awogbemi Adeyeye and Okorie Okike, Chairman and Secretary of the union respectively, was made available to newsmen in Abuja. The Federal Government had recently released N50 billion to universities as earned allowances, intended for both academic and non-academic staff.
The union leaders have urged the minister to ensure the payment of the earned allowance for all deserving academic staff members of the NMC from 2013 to the present. Additionally, they demanded the payment of Field Trip, SIWES Allowance, Postgraduate Study Grants Allowance, and other allowances.
The union emphasized that the new Minister of Education is known for justice and requested necessary action for implementing the memo from the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission. The memo confirmed that NMC academic staffers are entitled to EAAs based on the ASUU 2009 Agreement with the Federal Government.
To support their claim to the allowances, the union highlighted that NMC is an inter-university centre with a mandate to improve the teaching and learning of mathematical sciences across Nigeria’s educational system. The centre’s responsibilities include training high-level personnel in Mathematical Sciences through various postgraduate courses and serving as a service provider to all universities in the country.
The union further contended that, given the peculiarities of NMC and the exposure of its academic staff to laboratory hazards, they should receive hazard allowances. They pointed out that non-academic workers at the centre receive hazard allowances monthly, thus questioning the exclusion of their members.
The union asserted that NMC academic staff contribute significantly to national development and should receive the same treatment as university lecturers. They expressed hope for a resolution to this exclusion from the allowances.