The Joint Action Committee of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union, SSANU, of Educational and Allied Institutions will on Friday, March 8, hold a National Executive Council meeting to conclude on their voiced threat to go on strike.
The unions had given the Federal Government a seven-day ultimatum to release their members’ salaries which had been withheld in 2022 after they had embarked on a strike.
The union had also revealed their displeasure over the fact that the Federal Government recently released only the withheld salaries of members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and not theirs.
The National President of SSANU, Muhammed Ibrahim, who spoke to a PUNCH news reporter via a phone call on Wednesday, remarked that the federal government had yet to respond officially to the threat of industrial action issued by the two unions.
Recall that SSANU and NASU had last week Friday, threatened to stage a protest should the government fail to release the withheld salaries of members which were confiscated by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari during their strike in 2022.
Both unions, in a joint letter signed by the President of SSANU, Muhammed Ibrahim, and General Secretary of NASU, Peters Adeyemi, had questioned the Federal Government’s decision to release the four-month withheld salaries to ASUU members but had snubbed members of NASU and SSANU.
The unions also said they would no longer be able to guarantee the government of industrial peace in universities should the amounts owed, failed to be 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, regarding the removal of the non-teaching staff from the payment of outstanding four months’ salaries.
The Assistant Director of Press, Federal Ministry of Education, Tina Obilor-Duru, had not responded to inquiries by newsmen at the time of making this report on Thursday morning.
