Striking members of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) will receive 50 percent of their four-month withheld salaries this week.
Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, Minister of State for Labour and Employment gave the assurance yesterday, told The Nation via WhatsApp, that President Bola Tinubu directed the payment in July.
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Onyejeocha also disabused the minds of the unions’ leaderships that the Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Wale Edun withheld the payment.
FreshPage reports that the leaderships of both unions under the Joint Action Congress (JAC) issued the strike directive on Sunday via a circular by NASU Secretary-General Adeyemi Peters and SSANU President Mohammed Ibrahim to the chairmen of their branches nationwide.
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Their primary goal is to press for the payment of the salaries owed to them since 2022 by the government.
However, SSANU National President Mohammed Ibrahim and NASU General-Secretary Peters Adeyemi expressed hope for an end to the strike, saying activities on the campuses would resume once the government fulfilled its promise.
Onyejeocha had said: “The President approved that they should be paid since July. The minister of finance is facilitating the instrument. He said he will pay them before the end of the month.
“The minister said he is on it. He has assured that they will get the payment before the end of the month.”
SSANU National President Ibrahim said his members were surprised that nothing had been done by the government after President Tinubu approved the 50 payment.
‘’If payment is made, we don’t have to meet. We will call off the strike,’’ Ibrahim promised during a national television programme.
He added: “ The economy is harsh. Our members are going through a lot. To commute to work is tough. The price of petrol and other logistics are so high.
“ All of us working in the universities are not happy to see this situation happen. We had severally called the attention of those in charge of our governance to understand that our universities are in their states.
‘’We extended our patience by two weeks, then another month. Three months passed, yet the payment remained unpaid.
“So, we had exhausted all avenues of trying to pacify our members.”
Ibrahim lamented the disparity between academic and non-academic staff of the universities.
He pointed out that while academic staff members were paid 100 percent of their withheld four –month salaries early this year, the non- workers were left out.
NASU Secretary-General Peters said: “Today (yesterday) is 28th October 2024 and they’ve not paid what they owe our members.
‘’You said the minister said the money will be paid by the end of this month. The last day of the month will be Thursday, which is in three days.
“The strike will be called off if they pay on Thursday. Until they pay what they promised to pay, the strike continues.”
In UI, the strike affected both the non and academic activities.
Although the entrance gates of the university were opened, when The Nation visited, many workers who reported for duty did not attend to any official matters.
Lecture halls were locked, leaving students loitering within the campus.
UI SSANU Chairman Abiodun Omisore: ‘’We are not happy. We have been peaceful. The only thing that we have done is that we have not carried arms against the government.
“The only truth that we have at our disposal is to go and strike. We must get our salaries. We worked for it.’’
NASU UI Chairman Oluwafemi Ogunlade said only the payment of the arrears would bring an end to the strike.
He said: “The government should release our money. Not only that, the 2009 agreement is meant to be renewed every five years. But up to this moment, nothing has been done. So, we are still in 2009, even in 2024. All these are some of the many things that we have been agitating for.
“ There are also issues to do with poor funding of universities and our N50 billion earned allowance.’’
‘’Strike is the only option left to us. I don’t even think we need any dialogue. Because I can’t say the number of dialogues that we have had with the government.’’
