ANOTHER industrial action looms in the Nigerian universities, as the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian universities (SSANU), on Thursday, gave government till the end of this year to meet its demands.

The South West Zonal Secretary of the union, Comrade Abdulsalam Salam who spoke with journalist at the union's secretariat in University of Ibadan (UI), shortly after the Southwest caucus meeting of the union, called on the Federal Government to reject the report of the NEEDS assessment committee report on the Nigerian public universities.

He said the association rejected the report of the committee, because it was aimed at downsizing members of the association with a claim that the system was too heavy.

Salam also pointed out that the adoption of the report will only cause confusion and anarchy in the Nigeria Universities, adding that the numbers of non-teaching staffs in the report was grossly inflated.

According to him, the report of the committee was ill-conceived, as it mainly targeted at SSANU members, following the recommendation that non-teaching staff should be transferred to federal and state ministries of education.

Salam observed that the non-teaching staff unions had met with the Federal Government team, led by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, where it submitted comprehensive reaction to the NEEDS assessment report but they were still planning to implement it.

"The composition of the committee was loop sided and there was no representation by the education stakeholders.

“ It was only a section of the university community that took part in the decision of the committee. The numerical data of non-teaching staffs in that report is very wide and many statistics were also fabricated," he said.

He explained that government’s stand was unrealistic and unacceptable. "We are calling on the government to reject the report submitted by the NEEDS assessment committee, because it was fabricated and lacks facts and accurate figures,” he added.

The union also commiserate with the family of Professor Festus Iyayi who was killed in an accident involving the convoy of Kogi State governor, Idris Wada on Lokoja-Abuja highway on Tuesday.

It described him as an eminent scholar, a comrade of high repute,researcher and unionist.