The National President, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, Mohammed Ibrahim has appealed to the Federal Government to release the withheld four months salaries of its members to help reduce the economic hardship on them.
In 2022, two months after ASUU commenced a nationwide strike, both SSANU and the Non-Academic Staff of Educational and Associated Institutions also embarked on nationwide industrial action.
The action was to protest the government’s failure to fulfil its promises to the workers.
SSANU queried the rationale behind the government’s insistence on the ‘no work, no pay policy,’ saying that due process was followed before embarking on the strike that lasted four months.
Till he left office, Buhari seized the payment of the workers.
However, in October last year, President Bola Tinubu announced that his government would pay four months of the withheld salaries to members of ASUU, immediately raising concerns as to the fate of the members of the other unions.
A few weeks ago, the Nigerian government began paying the academics, leaving out the non-academic staff.
On February 13, 2024, SSANU and NASU unions wrote protest letters to the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, and the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman over the exclusion of the non-teaching staff from the payment of outstanding four months’ salaries.
However, on March 1 2024, the unions threatened to disrupt industrial peace in universities should the government fail to release the withheld salaries of members.
Addressing a press conference today, Ibrahim noted that the union’s patience was running out if the FG did not do the needful.
The president added that the poor economy was taking a toll on its members and the four months’ salaries once released will help cushion its effects.
He however threatened, that anything short of that, we cannot guarantee the continuous work environment to function.
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