Administrative activities at universities across Nigeria may be disrupted starting tomorrow as non-teaching staff prepare to embark on a strike. The workers are demanding that the Federal Government pay their four-month withheld salary arrears and resume the payment of the N35,000 wage award announced last October by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) decided to go on strike during their 48th regular National Executive Council meeting held in Benin, Edo State, on June 27-28. The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and SSANU had previously warned the Education Minister, Prof Tahir Mamman, on June 20, 2024, that their members would commence a work boycott if their demands were not met within two weeks. That ultimatum expires tomorrow.
In a letter signed by NASU General Secretary Prince Peters Adeyemi and SSANU President Comrade Mohammed Ibrahim, the unions accused the government of “neglect and insincerity.” SSANU President Ibrahim, in a communiqué, further criticized the government for failing to honor a 2009 agreement and accused it of partiality and insensitivity.
“NEC in session 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 communiqué stated.
The unions recalled being compelled to strike in 2022 due to the government’s refusal to honor a collective bargaining agreement. They noted that despite suspending a one-week warning strike in March after promises from Education and Labour Ministers, as well as the House of Representatives, the government has continued to withhold the salary arrears.
The university unions are also calling for the immediate resumption of the N35,000 wage award and for state governments that have not yet started payment to begin doing so. They highlighted the irregular payment of the wage award, which was meant to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal, and its stoppage in federal universities, leaving three months of arrears pending.
SSANU also urged the government to expedite negotiations, approval, and implementation of a new national minimum wage. The union warned that it might join forces with other labor unions to shut down the system if negotiations on the new national wage are not concluded promptly.
“NEC is aware that governors in the Southern part of Nigeria had a meeting to discuss an acceptable amount to be paid as national minimum wage across the Southern states, with a resolution that they should be allowed to discuss with unions on how to pay it based on the availability of funds,” the communiqué noted. SSANU rejected this proposal, emphasizing that the issue of national minimum wage is on the Exclusive Legislative List, and only the Federal Government has the authority to decide on it.
The union also called for the reconstitution of a new committee to renegotiate the 2009 agreement and welcomed the recent reconstitution of the Governing Councils of federal universities, though they criticized the lack of educationists and experienced technocrats among the appointees.
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