Withheld salaries: SSANU, NASU threaten strike

The Joint Action Committee of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, have threatened to embark on an industrial action if the government fails to release the withheld salaries of their members.

The unions, in a joint letter signed on Friday by the President of SSANU, Muhammed Ibrahim, and the General Secretary of NASU, Peters Adeyemi, faulted the rationale with which the government released four months withheld salaries to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, but failed to do same for non-academic staff.

Newsmen gathered that the salaries were seized by the previous administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari during an industrial action in 2022.

The unions explained that they would no longer assure the government of industrial peace in universities if the amounts owed were not released.

The unions had earlier written protest letters to the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, on February 13, 2024, over the exclusion of the non-teaching staff from the payment of outstanding four months salaries.

“We are therefore shocked that two weeks after the letters had been sent and received by the appropriate quarters, the Federal Government has remained quiet and refused to take any step towards addressing this very sensitive issue and it seems as if the Federal Government is taking our maturity for granted.

“We like to confirm through this medium once again to the Federal Government that the pressure on us has intensified and we have done everything possible within our ambit to prevail on our members to maintain industrial peace and tranquillity.

“While we appreciate the Federal Government for paying our Academic counterpart, we also deem it necessary that our members are also paid. The various feelers we are getting from our members in the universities and inter-university ventres indicate that we can no longer guarantee and be able to sustain industrial peace in the university sector.

“We therefore use this opportunity once again to call on the Federal Government to do the needful within the next seven days as the Joint Action Committee of NASU and SSANU should not be held responsible should the wheel of administration and corporate governance be grounded to a halt in the University sector, as we have exercised enough patience.

“If nothing is done by the Federal Government to positively address this situation and respond to our previous letters to them, the members of the two Unions may be forced to meet soon to take all lawful and stringent decision on the matter,” parts of the letter read.