The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, through their Joint Action Committee JAC, have issued a warning of potential disruption to the peace in universities if the government does not release the salaries that were withheld during their strike in 2022 under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a joint communication signed by Muhammed Ibrahim, President of SSANU, and Peters Adeyemi, General Secretary of NASU, the unions expressed concern over the government’s decision to release four months’ worth of withheld salaries to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities while neglecting to do the same for non-academic staff.
The unions noted that they would no longer be able to assure the government of industrial peace in universities should the amounts owed by the government are not released.
Earlier, the unions wrote 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.
The letter read, “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.”
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