The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union, NASU have declared a 7-day warning strike over their salaries withheld during the 2022 nationwide strike.
SSANU President, Mohammed Ibrahim told journalists on Monday that the decision to embark on the strike was taken at a joint action committee of the two unions held in Akure, Ondo State capital on Thursday and Friday.
Ibrahim, who read the communiqué of the meeting to journalists in Abuja said the unions decided to embark on the warning strike as a last resort after several protest letters and other communications with the Federal Government did not yield any result.
- Why there is poor power supply in Oyo, Kwara, Ekiti, others — Ibadan Disco
- We are 70% ready for 2024 Hajj exercise – NAHCON
The statement added: “If nothing is done by the Federal Government to positively address this situation and respond to our previous letters to them, the members of the two unions may be forced to meet soon to take all lawful and stringent decisions on the matter.”
TheLeadng reported that in 2022, two months after Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU commenced a nationwide strike, both SSANU and the Non-Academic Staff of Educational and Associated Institutions also embarked on nationwide industrial action.
The action was to protest the government’s failure to fulfill its promises to the workers.
SSANU queried the rationale behind the government’s insistence on the ‘no work, no pay policy,’ saying that due process was followed before embarking on the strike that lasted four months.
Till he left office, President Muhammadu Buhari seized the salaries of the workers.
However, in October last year, President Bola Tinubu announced that his government would pay four months of the withheld salaries to members of ASUU, immediately raising concerns as to the fate of the members of the other unions.
A few weeks ago, the Nigerian government began paying the academics, leaving out the non-academic staff.
On February 13, 2024, SSANU and NASU wrote protest letters to the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, over the exclusion of the non-teaching staff from the payment of outstanding four months’ salaries.
However, on March 1, 2024, the unions threatened to disrupt industrial peace in universities should the government fail to release the withheld salaries of members.
The unions in the communique frowned at the latest action of the government, which excluded SSANU and other non-teaching university-based unions from the payment of the four months withheld salaries arising from the nationwide strike action embarked upon by all unions in our public Universities.
