Following the 2022 nationwide strike, The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) have commenced a 7-day warning strike, calling for the payment of four months’ withheld salaries for their members.
The resolution to initiate the 7-day warning strike was made during a weekend meeting in Akure by the joint action committee of the two unions.
The President of SSANU, Mohammed Ibrahim, announced the decision to embark on the warning strike during a Monday press conference in Abuja. He emphasized that this action was taken as a last resort, as numerous protest letters and communications with the Federal Government had failed to yield the desired outcome of salary payment.
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.”
The recent development follows the unions’ accusation of the Federal Government showing “disdain” towards their members.
President Bola Tinubu issued a directive for the payment of withheld salaries for university workers due to the 2022 strike. Despite this, SSANU, NASU, and NAAT have not received their salaries for that period, prompting them to issue a one-week ultimatum about two weeks ago.
In an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Mohammed Ibrahim, the President of SSANU, accused the Federal Government of abandoning the unions.
“We have to speak like this because we have been clearly shown that we do not matter in the system. But we all know that there is no university that can function without the non-teaching staff because we are majorly populated by professionals. We own the engine of the administration of every university. They are treating this segment of staff with some disdain. It does not speak good of the system,” he said during the show.
The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of SSANU and NASU stated that it had exhausted all efforts to encourage its members to uphold industrial peace and tranquility.
“While we appreciate the Federal Government for paying our academic counterpart, we also deem it necessary that our members are also paid,” the statement said, adding that the unions could no longer guarantee industrial harmony on the campuses should the government fail to pay them.
