By Amaechi Agbo
On Thursday December 14, the National Association of Academics Technologists, NAAT, concluded its National Executive Congress, NEC meeting held in Enugu with the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT Chapter the host with seven demands to the management of the university
The two-day congress which commenced on Wednesday was rounded off at the College Auditorium, ESUT College of Medicine with a seven-point demand on the ESUT Management.
The demands were contained in the address of welcome by the NAAT ESUT Chapter, Comrade Onyia Anthonia who lauded the national body for choosing ESUT to host the congress for the first time in the history of the institution.
She appreciated the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Aloysius-Michaels Okolie for being a listening chief execute and “for changing the face of ESUT within the short period he has stayed.”
The chairperson however lamented the ugly situation of academics and non-academics dichotomy and the classification of technologists among the latter as well as posting technologists away from their place of work, a development she described as never had happened in the history of the profession.
“We want to use this medium to bring to the notice of the Vice-Chancellor the ugly issue of academics and non-academics disport in the university. This is an ugly statement that biases the minds of every technologist. It is highly confusing because our job description is academic and our name is also Academic Technologists but anytime there is a memo concerning academic staff, the Academic Technologists are always treated as non-academic staff upon all the levels some of our members have attained academically. Posting Academic Technologist out of their Area of Discipline /Area of specialisation.
“It has never been in the history of the universities that an Academic Technologist should be posted out of their discipline, but in this recent time, some of our members were posted away from their discipline to places where they will be less productive. Sir, we plead that you use your good office to settle this problem permanently and bring us out of this shame,” she said.
She went on to list the seven demands of the union from the management which includes: Sponsoring of members for trainings, workshops and conferences as the end users to enhance productivity, payment of responsibility allowance to all heads of technologists, employment of more Technologists to meet up the students/staff ratio, representation of the union in ESUT Governing Council, inclusion of NAAT members in the management team of directors of laboratory services, non-payment of earned allowance to NAAT members and payment of promotion areas.
Comrade Onyia expressed gratitude to the President of NAAT, Comrade (Hon) Ibeji Nwokoma on the changes his style of leadership has brought into the union. Adding “It is under his administration that the tone has been set for unprecedented strides both in the women inclusion agenda and overall staff welfare. In fact, the unity which continues to colour and energize our great union draws its roots from his style of leadership.
“The National Association of Academic Technologists, ESUT branch since inception has always improved on all indices and strive to meet up with other sister unions on campus. By the grace of God and the hard work and contributions of Exco members, we have been able to attain a feat though not yet a milestone,” she concluded.
The 2023 NAAT NEC meeting had over 299 members from various institutions from across the country in attendance
