The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) have jointly declared a seven-day warning strike to protest the withholding of their salaries for four months.
The unions announced the warning strike on Monday in Abuja, following a meeting of their joint action committee held in Akure, Ondo State, last Thursday and Friday.
Mohammed Ibrahim, the National President of SSANU, addressed journalists and read out the communiqué of the meeting, stating that the strike action was necessary as the Federal Government had failed to pay the four months’ salary withheld due to their nationwide strike in 2022.
While the Federal Government recently released the withheld salaries to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which was also on strike in 2022, SSANU and NASU were excluded from the payment.
In their protest letters to the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, on February 13, 2024, SSANU and NASU expressed dissatisfaction over the exclusion from the payment of outstanding salaries.
The unions denounced the discriminatory practice and perceived it as a violation of the post-strike agreement with the government regarding non-victimization of their members.
They alleged the presence of saboteurs within the government and called for immediate implementation of the directive from the President to pay all university-based unions their withheld salaries.
In addition to demanding the payment of the withheld salaries, the unions urged the government to expedite action on the renegotiation of the new national minimum wage, citing the impact of hyperinflation on the current minimum wage.
The SSANU and NASU warned of further industrial actions if their demands were not met, emphasizing their commitment to ensuring fair treatment and adequate remuneration for their members.
