SSANU, NASU talk tough, say no going back on nationwide strike

Advertisements

Striking Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, said they will not go back to work without their demands being met.

Indeed, SSANU and NASU embarked on an indefinite strike on Monday over the non-payment of their four months salary arrears, paralysing and turning universities into ghosts institutions.

Rebuffing calls to go back to work, SSANU president, Mohammed Ibrahim, said that will not happen without theur salaries, arrears and other demands met.

According to him, “So, it’s not the issue of meeting. The issue is that we want payment and that every procedure has been followed.

“They can just simply direct this payment and I assure you in less than 24 hours, we can just refer back to our principals and this strike will be suspended.

“Well, assurances are not something that we have not received before. So assurances from politicians and assurances from government officials are not new things to us. But the mandate that we have from our members is that this strike is totally indefinite and that we will only resume when we get the alerts.”

The ongoing strike has crippled activities across public universities in Nigeria with classes and other facilities shut.

Only in March, both SSANU and NASU embarked on a seven-day warning strike – beginning March 18, 2024, over the non-payment of their salaries.

President Bola Tinubu had directed the payment of withheld salaries for university workers owing to their strike of 2022.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions, Dandutse Mohammed, had said the ongoing was unnecessary, calling for dialogue with the Federal Government.