THe Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) have threatened to embark on strike over the four months withheld salaries of their members.
In a letter issued on Friday, March 1, 2024, by the Joint Action Committee (JAC), the unions said they would go on strike if the Federal Government failed to release the withheld salaries after seven days.
The letter was signed by the President of SSANU, Muhammed Ibrahim, and the General Secretary of NASU Peters Adeyemi.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari withheld the salaries of university staff members who went on strike in 2022.
However, President Bola Tinubu in October 2023, ordered a partial release of four months of the withheld eight-month pay of all lecturers.
In the letter, the unions expressed concern that the government released four months of withheld salaries to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities without extending the same gesture to non-academic staff.
The unions said: “While we appreciate the federal government for paying our academic counterpart, we also deem it necessary that our members are also paid,” the joint letter reads in part.
“The various feelers we are getting from our members in the universities and inter-university centres indicate that we can no longer guarantee and be able to sustain industrial peace in the university sector.
“We, therefore, use this opportunity once again to call on the federal government to do the needful within the next seven days.
“The joint action committee of NASU and SSANU should not be held responsible should the wheel of administration and corporate governance be grounded to a halt in the University sector, as we have exercised enough patience.
“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.”
SSANU and NASU said they had written a letter to the Chief of Staff (CoS) to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman on February 13, but received no response.
The unions added: “We are shocked that two weeks after the letters had been sent and received by the appropriate quarters, the federal government has remained quiet and refused to take any step towards addressing this very sensitive issue.
“We like to confirm through this medium once again to the federal government that the pressure on us has intensified and we have done everything possible within our ambit to prevail on our members to maintain industrial peace and tranquility.”
SSANU, NASU Issue Seven-day Ultimatum To FG Over Withheld Salaries
