The leadership of the Joint Action Committee JAC, of non-academic Staff Union of Universities NASU and the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities SSANU, on Wednesday, gave the federal government a final three-week ultimatum to settle the withheld four months’ salaries.
The Unions, in a statement signed by Peter Adeyemi, General Secretary of NASU and Mohammed Ibrahim, President of SSANU, said it is ready to shut down academic activities, at the expiration of the final ultimatum, issued on the 17th of September, 2024.
The Unions are also calling on the government to “ fully implement agreements reached with the government on the 20 of August, 2022, or risk an indefinite strike, at the expiration of the ultimatum.
The statement said at its JAC meeting held on the 12 of September 2024, the Union was “ shocked that almost 6 weeks after the ultimatum given to the government has elapsed, noting concrete has come forth in respect to the payment of the withheld salaries and the implementation of the “
“It is in view of this that the leadership of JAC decided to put all our members in Al, branches of Universities and Inter- University centers on notice that the federal government has been given a final ultimatum of three weeks, from Tuesday, 17th of September, 2924, to pay the withheld 4 months salaries and fully implement the agreements reached on 20th August, 2022, failing which members should proceed on indefinite strike action at the end of the expiration of the final ultimatum”
It will be recalled that Members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities and the Non-academic Staff Union of Universities NASU, had earlier given the federal government up to Thursday, July 4th to settle all outstanding arrears, failing which will lead to fresh industrial action by the unions.
A statement by SSANU after the 48th regular national executive committee meeting, in Benin City, Edo state, listed ten areas which they insist must be addressed by the federal government.
The statement signed by Mohammed Ibrahim, the national President of SSANU listed the payment of its four months withheld salary arrears, three months arrears of President Bola Tinubu’s wage award, as well as renegotiation of the 2009 agreements.
According to the statement, “ NEC in session once again expresses utmost dismay at the unprecedented level of Government’s insensitivity and deliberate resolve to cause chaos in the university system by adopting the divide and rule policy to set Unions on a collision course through preferential treatment of one union over others.
The statement said SSANU and other unions were compelled by Government to embark on strike in 2022 following a refusal to honour a collective Bargaining Agreement willingly signed by all parties. “At the end of the strike, the then-Buhari Government further signed an elaborate agreement among which was the non-victimization clause.
However, Government made a selective payment of the withheld salaries. While we do not begrudge the payment made to our colleagues, we expected same gesture to be extended to SSANU and NASU which legally complied with all procedures before embarking on the Industrial action.
The Unions had berated the government for reneging on its promises, despite all media hypes by the Ministers of Education and Labour, including the House of Representatives to pay these arrears, Government has continued to dribble SSANU, even after the mutual agreement to suspend the one-week warning strike in March this year.
“NEC in session deliberated on the matter and unanimously approved a long drawn comprehensive industrial action after concurrence with the Joint Action Committee meeting of SSANU and NASU scheduled for Thursday 4th July, 2024, if Government fails to pay the four months salary arrears”
Following the expiration of the ultimatum, the Union shut down academic activists at the University of Abuja, in what they said was a warning strike.
The strike followed government’s refusal to pay the withheld four months’ salaries owed to the unions.
Protests by staff of the University of Abuja’s Joint Action Committee (JAC), comprising the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions NASU, led to the blockade of all entrances into the university.
The protesting workers prevented both academic and non-academic staff, even as they shut down all access into the institution.
Speaking to journalists, Nureden Yusuf, the University of Abuja branch chairman of SSANU, said that the protest by JAC was to draw the attention of the federal government to the injustice done on SSANU and NASU in the payment of the four months withheld salaries which President Bola Tinubu approved in October last year.
“We are on strike basically to draw the attention of government to the state of our universities. You may recall that one of the contentious issues why we went on strike in 2022 was the issue of the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement.
“That agreement ought to have been renegotiated every three years and now we are 2024. Fourteen years after the last agreement, it is yet to be renegotiated.
Recall that President Tinubu had in October 2023 agreed to settle the withheld salaries during the period of strike in 2022 when he directed the Ministry of Education to settle the outstanding salaries.
But BusinessDay gathered that while their counterparts in ASUU have been paid their four months outstanding salaries, the government left out NASU and SSANU members.
“NASU and SSANU are unions of professionals. We oil the wheel of the university system. If we’re not in university, there can’t be any University. Apart from teaching, any other activity that is done in the university is done by SSANU and NASU members. We provide health services to the university.
“We are shutting down universities for seven days, none of our members is going to render any services. There won’t be people to man the security unit, there won’t be people in the university health services, there won’t be water, there won’t be electricity, there will also not going to be processing of transcripts or certificates. The transport unit will also be shut down.” He said
Also speaking, Sadiya Hassan, the Chairperson of NASU, University of Abuja, branch, said that it was the government that forced the two unions to embark on the warning strike.
She also frowned at people calling the union members supporting staff, saying that they are professionals in different fields who chose to be in the non-teaching sector.
