15/04/2024
*NAAT* *DECIDES* *2024*
In the next one week, the activities for the 5th National Delegates Conference of the National Association of Academic Technologists will kick off at the University of Abuja where the headquarters of the Union is located.
The National Association of Academic Technologists is one of the four unions in Nigerian universities. Members of the Union are Technologists working in academic departments of Nigerian universities. For the purpose of gentle emphasis, for an all-round academic pursuits geared toward pure excellence in the sciences, technology, agriculture, medicine and other science-related courses, the importance of the laboratories, studios, workshops, farms cannot be over-emphasized. Therefore, the personnel working at these units, remains an important leg of the three-leg tripod (Classroom, Laboratory and Library) of any well-groomed graduate.
The Union, National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), started as the Association of University Technologists of Nigeria (ASUTON) sometimes in 1995, pulling out of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), which is an administrator- dominated Union. Academic Technologists as members of SSANU were having difficulties securing basic rightful academic allowances, especially those conceded to the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in the 1992 FGN/ASUU's Agreement. This is because as academics inclined members of staff, getting academics allowances under a Union dominated by administrators, it became difficult to convinced government of their rights to earn these allowances.This point formed the basis for the birth of ASUTON, which metamorphosed to NAAT in 2010 as a full-fledged Union, registered by the Registrar of Trade Unions in the Federal Ministry of Labor, Trade and Productivity.
NAAT, over the years had grown to become a strong Union, respected for its subtly-militant but intelligent and considerate approaches to issues. The Union no d