The national bodies of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational Institutions (NASU) have declared a two-week warning strike to begin on March 27th, citing the Nigerian government’s failure to respond to their letter threatening to down tools.
This was stated in a letter signed by SSANU President Mohammed Ibrahim and NASU General Secretary, Peters Adeyemi, dated Friday, March 25, 2022, by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of NASU and SSANU.
The strike, which is set to begin at midnight on Sunday, March 27, will exacerbate the situation on Nigerian university campuses, as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is in the second month of its three-month original strike.
The letter headlined “Commencement of Two-Week Warning Strike” instructed all of the union’s members in universities and inter-university centers to start the warning strike.
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JAC argued that the Federal Government had been nonchalant about the union’s demands and asked its members to strictly adhere to the strike.
The JAC letter read in part: “Having waited so long, this is to inform you that the Government has not responded nor reacted to our demands as at this moment.
“In view of the nonchalant attitude of the government to our demands, this is to direct our members in all universities and inter-university centers throughout the country to commence a two-week strike by midnight of Sunday, 27 March 2022, in the first instance as earlier conveyed to the federal government in our letter.
“Please note that the two-week warning strike should be comprehensive and total as no concession should be given under any guise.
“Your strict compliance and adherence to this directive is mandatory for all branches of NASU and SSANU in the universities and inter-university centers.”
Background
JAC of SSANU and NASU accused the government of insincerity in its implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Memorandum of Action (MOA) reached with the government in October 2020 and February 2021, respectively, in a letter addressed to the office of the minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige.
The letter, signed by both Messrs Adeyemi and Ibrahim and issued at the end of a meeting to examine the situation, gave the Nigerian government until March 27 to answer the requests or risk a two-week strike.
JAC had given two weeks ultimatum to the government to implement the said demands, while it issued ‘red alerts’ to its members, asking them to prepare for a possible showdown with the government.
Demands
Abdussobur Salaam, SSANU’s national vice president, detailed the items in the JAC’s agreement with Nigeria’s government in a separate interview with Campusnownow as:
- Renegotiation of the 2009 agreement,
- Payment of earned allowances,
- Usurpation of non-academic career positions by vice-chancellors,
- The inclusion of university staff school into the university community,
- Non-payment of minimum wage arrears, and
- Funding of state universities.
He said university vice-chancellors have continued to defy a court order declaring that the teachers of universities’ staff schools are integral members of the university community.
He added that the government has only paid less than N8 billion of the N30 billion it agreed upon.
“The memorandum of understanding we had was that the renegotiation will be concluded within six weeks. And that was as far back as February 2021. And if you count six weeks from that time, we will be talking about sometime in May or maybe April. But here we are, a year later, we have not even been invited for one meeting despite our reminders.” he had said in an interview with Campusnownow.
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