Mohammed Ibrahim, the national president of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has described the strike by his union and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational (NASU) as a longstanding battle involving vice-chancellors, bursars and registrars.
Ibrahim maintained that activities on campuses at all federal universities will remain grounded until the federal government pays their four months’ withheld salaries.
“It is a long-term battle because this strike also involves vice-chancellors, bursars, registrars, and other senior administrators who were not paid.
“The impact is significant, and no one from the government has reached out to us. We have withdrawn our services, and our members are resolute they will not return to work until all salaries are paid,” Ibrahim noted.
The Joint Action Committee of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities declared an indefinite strike on Sunday instructing their members in various federal universities across the country to embark on industrial action on Monday, October 28.
The federal government on the first day of the strike promised to pay the 50 percent as directed by President Bola Tinubu on October 2023 before the end of the month.
As of Thursday, October 31, members of both SSANU and NASU are yet to get the promised salaries.
To this end, Ibrahim said the universities would remain completely shut down until the payments were made. Besides, he disclosed that the federal government has not sent any invitation or any form of interference to resolve the impasse.
With Tunji Alausa, expected to resume duty as the new minister of education following President Bola Tinubu’s directive that former ministers should hand over by October 30, it is expected that the number one issue before the substantive minister is the SSANU and NASU strike.
Speaking on steps taken by the federal government to address the grieved university staff, Abdussobur Salaam, the vice president of SSANU said there had been no official response from the government on the strike.
“There’s no update on the ongoing strike, it continues. Some informal contacts were made between the minister of state for education and our union executives, but there’s been no real progress, just an informal appeal.
“This issue has persisted for a long time, with repeated promises that have not been fulfilled.
“All our ultimatums have expired, and we still haven’t received any alerts. The recent invitation was just an informal call on the phone. We urge the authorities to take decisive action; we have come too far and can no longer accept empty promises. If we don’t get the alerts we won’t back down,” Salaam said.
The striking staff of federal universities are demanding, among others, the payment of the four-month withheld salaries, improved remuneration, earned allowances and implementation of the 2009 agreements with the government.
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