Funmi Ogundare
The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologist (NAAT), yesterday, threatened to embark on a total strike action, following the federal government’s failure to address its concerns.
The unions had gone on a one-week warning strike action which started last Monday, to press home it’s demands. The threat by the unions is a follow-up to the warning strike which ended Sunday midnight.
The unions gave the warning during a virtual meeting organised by the Education Writers Association of Nigeria (EWAN) .
They stated that services such as electricity, water supply, mobilisation of students for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, as well as provision of health services in university clinics will be disrupted.
The National President of NAAT, Ibeji Nwokoma expressed concern about the way the government was handling the issue, saying that the government had failed to respond to the critical issues raised by the unions.
He listed some of the issues including: Renegotiation of 2009 agreement, non-payment of earned allowances, non release of CONTISS 14 circular for members, payment of arrears of occupational hazard allowance, among others.
He explained that his union had entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the federal government on several occasions, adding that government did not deem it necessary to implement the things that were contained in the MoU.
“Our members went on strike in March 2022 and it was over the refusal of the government to fulfil the 2009 agreement we had with the government. The agreement was to be renegotiated every three years, but that was not done.
“It’s over 15 years now, what we have been having is taking a step forward and two step backwards; and government kept tossing us from one committee to the other
“They are owing us five and a half months from that strike action, ” Nwokoma stated, adding that the government paid the teaching staff four months withheld salaries and forgot other unions.
” The same attitude is what obtains when you have earned allowance to be paid. Some people would just arrogate to themselves the power to take whatever they like from the money and leave the crumbs for others,” he stressed.
The National President of SSANU, Ibrahim Mohammed, explained that it made efforts to draw the attention of President Bola Tinubu through letters to the Minister of Education, but the government was yet to respond or address their concerns five weeks after, even after the ultimatum of the one-week warning strike.
“What the strike shows is that the university cannot operate without the commonality of these four unions because everybody is important. We are not a strike happy union, but we are being pushed to the wall,” he stated.
He expressed concern that it had lost over 100 members due to their inability to take care of themselves due to a lack of fund between 2022 and now.
Asked what the unions would do after the suspension of the warning strike and government not yielding to their request, the president said the necessary organs would meet and the decision would be made public as soon as possible.
“We have our own organs and the government have theirs . So if our organs call for total and indefinite strike, which is one of the tools that we use, the system will be shut down totally. Non- teaching staff are the ones in charge of power and water supply. They also man security posts,” he added.
He also called for adequate funding for the tertiary institutions, saying that when education is adequately funded, government will spend less on insecurity, health and many others .
