The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) have announced a seven-day warning strike to commence on March 18, calling for the release of four months’ salaries withheld by the Federal Government following the 2022 nationwide strike.
This decision emerged from a meeting in Akure, the capital of Ondo State, with details shared in a communiqué by SSANU’s National President, Mohammed Ibrahim.
The previously withheld salaries
The salary withheld dates back to 2022, initiated by the government during a strike by both SSANU and the Non-Academic Staff of Educational and Associated Institutions, which occurred two months after ASUU’s strike began.
The protest was against the government’s unmet promises and the contentious ‘no work, no pay’ policy.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari had enforced this. However, President Bola Tinubu, in October of the previous year, pledged to pay four months of these salaries to ASUU members, prompting queries about the non-academic unions’ situation.
Despite recent payments to academic staff, the non-academic personnel remain unpaid, leading to SSANU and NASU’s protest letters on February 13, 2024, to government officials, demanding the owed salaries.
What the communiqué stated
By March 1, 2024, the unions warned of potential disruptions in universities if their members’ withheld salaries were not released.
They criticized the government’s selective payment approach, which favoured ASUU while neglecting other unions, considering it a violation of the agreement made post-strike, which assured no victimization of striking members.
- “We strongly oppose this discriminatory practice, which we view as the government’s open invitation to industrial crisis. Credible information available to us has it that the directive of Mr. President is for all university-based unions to be paid four months’ salary.
- “NEC suspects saboteurs in this government bent on destabilising and destroying Mr. President’s good intent to sustain industrial peace in the University system.
- “NEC in session, therefore, calls on the relevant authorities of the Government to immediately implement the directive of Mr. President by paying our members the four months withheld salaries, failing which NEC has approved a one-week warning strike in conjunction with our sister Union in JAC, NASU.”
