ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – Members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) have commenced an indefinite nationwide strike within campuses of public universities to demand the immediate release of their withheld salaries.
On September 17, 2023, the Joint Action Committee of SSANU and NASU handed the Federal Government a three-week ultimatum to pay the outstanding withheld salaries of their members or risk an industrial action.
Before now, the two unions had staged several protests and warning strikes to protest their eight months’ withheld salaries by the Federal Government. During the warning strikes, nothing moved administratively within any public university in Nigeria as hostels and varsity gates were locked up and electricity supply was cut off by disgruntled non-academic staff.
The two unions berated the Federal Government for paying withheld salaries to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) while neglecting the non-academic unions.
All the unions had embarked on an eight-month strike in 2022 to press home some of their demands including a better welfare package. The administration of then President Muhammadu Buhari subsequently invoked a ‘No Work, No Pay policy’ against the unions but President Bola Tinubu last October approved the release of four of the eight months withheld salaries to ASUU members.
SSANU and NASU accused the Federal Government of unfair treatment and discrimination by failing to pay them like their academic counterparts.
Then Education Minister Tahir Mamman had in April blamed a “communication problem” for the non-payment of SSANU and NASU members, whilst he insisted that they were not discriminated against.
Mamman had said non-academic staff members of universities would get half of their withheld salaries upon the President’s approval but SSANU and NASU members said they haven’t gotten any three months after the minister’s promise.
