National Telescope national telescope newspaper
The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has suspended its seven-day warning strike.
The association’s president, Mr. Mohammed Ibrahim, made the announcement on Sunday in Lagos during a virtual stakeholders meeting hosted by the Education Writers Association of Nigeria (EWAN).
The seminar, “Withheld Salaries vs. Labour Crisis,” featured Mr. Ibeji Nwokoma, President of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), as a speaker.
Recall that on March 18, the affected university labor unions’ Joint Action Committee (JAC) announced that they would embark on a seven-day warning strike in protest of the government’s violation of a 2009 agreement and their four-month wage withholding.
Ibrahim claims that in order to give the government more time to think over its appeal, the union will not be extending its seven-day warning strike. Instead, the union will evaluate the outcomes of the warning strike and hold discussions with the government, as well as take any necessary measures.
“We had a meeting with representatives of the Federal Government in Abuja on Wednesday, and nothing tangible came out concerning the issue.
“Yes, they acknowledged the fact that we were on strike and that the action had paralyzed activities on the campuses of federal universities.
“So, the meeting was nothing but an appeal to suspend the strike while they do something as soon as possible.
“Now, just imagine a situation where there is no water, no light, and no mobilization of graduates for NYSC, which are all responsibilities of our members in universities.
“The strike will end by midnight. We’ll go back to our various branches to review the outcome of the warning strike as well as the recent meeting with the federal government, and from there agree on the next line of action.
“We have given them a window to do the needful, and failure to meet their own side of the bargain will be met with drastic action,“ he admonished.
Thus, he said that the federal government does indeed make meaningless commitments that are never kept, similar to the 2009 renegotiation deal that was disregarded.
“We have the right to go on strike once we follow the due process. It could be a warning strike, just like the one that is ending this night (Sunday).
“No one can stifle us or stop us from voicing out our pains.
“We could pick up our working places. We could also report to work without working, and so forth.
“All are lawful under the labor law. So, nobody can take them away from us.
“We are not asking for anything outside our rights. We cannot continue this way because, after all, we too are humans; we are also parents, with bills to pay and mouths to feed,” he stated.
Given the effect a strike would always have on students, the union head holds the government responsible for their actions.
“It is not that the university workers, including SSANU, like to go on strike; it is the government that always pushes us to apply that sanction. It is unfortunate for the government to take serious matters seriously.
“Members of our various unions are very critical to the running of any given university system. We should be taken seriously whenever we make demands, like our counterpart union in the same system.
“We deserve to be treated equally. There should be no preferential treatment. For the government not to have paid us the withheld salaries like our sister union, ASUU, is a great disservice to us.
“I want to say that we will continue to fight against this injustice until the right thing is done,” he said.
Many members of different unions lost their lives because they were unable to get quality healthcare; thus, he suggested that the only approach to preventing ongoing strikes throughout the education sector was to pay it adequately.
“If you spend well on education, you spend less fighting insecurity, hunger, poverty, and others. The government should take a cue from other countries.
“So, the panacea to ending the crisis in Nigerian universities, in fact, in the entire sector, is funding and more funding,” he declared.
