SSANU, NASU threaten indefinite action as unions end strike
THE Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities ( SSANU), the Non- Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions ( NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists ( NAAT) have threatened to embark on an indefinite strike should the Federal Government fail to meet their demands.
Both SSANU and NASU, through their Joint Action Committee ( JAC), had embarked on a sevenday warning strike to protest the selective payment of withheld salaries to their academic counterparts.
The unions, in a joint statement by SSANU president, Mohammed Ibrahim, and NASU secretary, Peters Adeyemi, said they would meet with members to decide on the next line of action, which he said could result in a total shutdown of the universities.
Speaking at a meeting organised by the Education Writers’ Association of Nigeria ( EWAN), Ibrahim said the unions were yet to get any positive response from government concerning their demands.
“We will go back to our members for discussion, I hate to say and with a very heavy heart, if it means shutting down the system again, once our organs sanction it, we will do it. This time around, it will be like never before,” Ibrahim said.
The NAAT President, Ibeji Nwokema, said though they met with the education minister, Prof Tahir Mamman and the minister of state in the ministry, Yusuf Sununu, alongside other government officials, they could not reach any resolution.
He said the minister simply pleaded with the unions to suspend the strike, promising them a swift response to their demands.
Ibrahim said his union insisted during the meeting that the minister must give a specific timeline for the demands to be met if they must suspend the strike.
“Nothing was achieved at the meeting except the optimism that something would be done. But as far as we are concerned, we have not seen the money and payments have not been made,” he added.
Nwokema said his union opted for a peace protest and a three- day warning strike, hoping that the government would accede to their demands.
He said his union is disappointed by the selective decision of the government in the release of the part- payment of the withheld salaries.
He said his members’ high hope in the President Bola Tinubu’s pledge to pay four months of their withheld salaries was dashed by government’s decision to neglect them. He said: “At the stakeholder’s meeting, the minister of education was present, the acting executive secretary of the National Universities Commission ( NUC) was present, and all the vice- chancellors and unions were present. The minister said clearly at the meeting that the payment would cut across board, the selective payment must have been deliberate to cause disharmony and destabilise the university system.”