The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) announced a seven-day warning strike on Monday to protest against the non-payment of their salaries for the past four months.
The decision to embark on the warning strike was reached during a meeting of their joint action committee in Akure, Ondo State, last Thursday and Friday. Mohammed Ibrahim, the National President of SSANU, conveyed the unions’ decision to journalists in Abuja.
According to Ibrahim, the strike became imperative as the Federal Government had failed to remit the four months’ salary that was withheld due to their nationwide strike in 2022. While the government had recently released the withheld salaries to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), SSANU and NASU were excluded from this payment.
In protest, SSANU and NASU had sent protest letters to the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, on February 13, 2024, highlighting the discriminatory treatment they faced.
The unions emphasized that while they did not oppose the payment to ASUU, they considered it a breach of the post-strike agreement with the government, which assured non-victimization of members who participated in the strike.
SSANU and NASU suspect sabotage within the government and view the exclusion as a threat to industrial harmony. They called on the relevant authorities to immediately implement the President’s directive to pay their withheld salaries. Failure to do so would result in a one-week warning strike, as approved by their National Executive Council.
Additionally, the unions urged the government to expedite the renegotiation of the new national minimum wage, given the current hyperinflation in the country, which has rendered the current minimum wage ineffective.