National Telescope national telescope newspaper
Members of Nigerian universities’ Senior Staff Association and Non-Academic Staff Union initiated a nationwide strike today, Monday, over claims of disparities in wage payments and unfair treatment by the Federal Government.
Unions across the nation issued a threat last Monday, March 18, 2024, threatening to close dorms and cut off electricity to universities if the federal government did not acquiesce to their demands.
The SSANU National President, Muhammad Ibrahim, stated that the organization’s members, who include bursars, registrars, and vice chancellors, have not received their 2022 arrears.
Ibrahim told The PUNCH on Sunday that the two unions were planning to go on a national strike.
The planned strike by SSANU/NASU was not known to Prof. Tahir Mamman, the Minister of Education.
However, Ibrahim announced that the strike had begun on Channels Television’s Morning Show.
“Definitely, it (the strike) has already started.
“As of today (Monday), all our workers in registry, bursary, works and maintenance, security, and students’ affairs have withdrawn their services and nothing moves within the administration of any public university in Nigeria and that will be the case for the next seven days until and unless the needful is done,” he declares.
Although some have contacted the non-academic unions informally, the SSANU president emphasized that no government official has made contact with them and that their promises cannot be trusted.
He questioned why certain public servants were refusing to pay the arrears due in 2022 as directed by President Bola Tinubu.
He continued by saying that despite giving the unions a seven-day notice last Monday, Nkiruka Onyejeocha, the minister of labor, had not gotten in touch with them.
He claimed that this was different from how receptive the former labor minister, Chris Ngige,
had been.He made it clear that if the government did not respond to the unions’ requests following today’s start of a seven-day warning strike, the unions would return to their toolbox and determine what to do next.
