JORAISU vows to continue with the strike which is having telling effects on the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) and other research centres.
By Emma Ogbuehi
The Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), the elite intellectual platform for articulation of ideas on what direction Nigeria should follow on international policies in relation with the outside world, is presently, literally putting up the picture of a cemetery.
The hitherto bubbling centre of ideas and scholarship, is virtually desolate, no thanks to the on-going strike by the Joint Research and Allied Institution Sector Unions of Nigeria (JORAISU).
On a visit to the Institution by our correspondent, offices were shut, with few workers strolling in and out, wearing long faces. None was willing to volunteer comments on the level at which negotiations with the government had reached on the strike.
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A security officer, who refused to disclose his name, merely directed our reporter to a superior officer, who simply pointed at a big banner at the entrance gate where the grievances of the Union were articulated.
67-member JORAISU, comprising the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI) and the Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions (ASURI), had given the federal government 30-days cumulative ultimatum to fully implement the agreement it entered with the body, 10 years ago.
The notice, according to the Union, was blatantly ignored, thereby forcing the members to proceed on indefinite strike, commencing on October 12.
Their unresolved demands and grievances, include payment of 12-months Consolidated Research and Allied Institutions Salary Structure (CONRAISS) arrears of 53.37 per cent increase; withdrawal of circular on non-skipping of salary Grade Level 10 (NICN Court judgment in favour of trade unions and others); retirement age of 65 years for non-research staff as is obtainable in the universities and others; peculiar and earned allowances; adequate funding of research institutes and release of scheme/conditions of service, among others.
At the NIIA which is observing the strike like other JORAISU affiliates, academic and other administrative activities, were practically non-existence.
An obviously flustered staff who pleaded anonymity, urged the government to attend to the demands of the union to enable the workers return to duty. “We are appealing to the government to meet our demands because we are not ready to sit at home. We want the progress and development of the country. We want the government to attend to us for us to work effectively”, he said.
Elsewhere, commentators frown at the industrial action, saying that allowing research institutes to embark on strike, is a poor manifestation of Nigeria’s attitude towards development and invention.
“Look at that, the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs and other Research Institutes being on strike for over two weeks and nobody seems bothered. That is Nigeria for you. When we say the country has lost it, it looks as if we are being unpatriotic. But how can a nation allow its research institutions to go on strike. How then do we catch up with others? Taking the case of NIIA not working, who then brings in the intellectual angle to our foreign policy initiatives? You can see why we are moving round the circle rather than making leaps forward”, lamented a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History, Lagos State University, who asked not to be mentioned.
The Nigerian Institute of International Affairs which was established in 1961 but inaugurated in May 1963, is the country’s foremost intellectual think-tank for foreign policy formulation and analysis.
