Nigerian Universities Crises: SSANU, NASU, NAAT declare readiness to commence strike next week

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities, NASU and the National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, have expressed readiness to commence a nationwide indefinite strike next week Wednesday.

The unions added that the decision will, however, be based on feedback from branches nationwide on or before Tuesday.

This position was revealed by the Joint Action Committee of the three unions in a joint press statement. The unions said that they are willing to down tools after they have been fully briefed by the state branches.

The statement jointly signed by Chris Oni of NASU, Samson Suleiman of SSANU, and Sani Suleiman of NAAT, all presidents of their respective unions, said the refusal of the federal government to honour past agreements was frustrating.

“Seven months after signing a memorandum of understanding in January 18, the federal government has refused to honour her agreements but rather has been aggravating issues. A statement signed by the Honourable Minister of Budget and National Planning Senator Udo Udoma committed the same offence of asking that staff school workers should not be on the payroll of workers.

The federal government has also been silent on the earned allowances of workers,” the union said.

The statement reminded all branches of the union of the need to hold meetings ‘on or before Monday’ to discuss the desirability or not of going on strike.

The statement said a letter would then be written formally to the federal government to inform it of its decision next week.

The union also listed some of the reasons for their proposed strike.
These include the non-payment of earned allowances, lack of good governance, poor funding as against the UNESCO recommendation, inadequate infrastructure in universities, abandoned projects, irregular payment of salaries, non-registration of NUPEMCO (pension management scheme) and corruption in the university system.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported a crucial meeting held by the three unions last Wednesday to discuss on the possibility of a strike to press home their demands.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, is also currently on strike to protest poor welfare conditions of her members and low funding of universities among a host of other demands.

The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, recently while accepting that the government had not fully kept its side of past negotiations had assured that the crises in the educational sector would be settled soon.