SSANU: Workers’ Salaries Have Lost Value Due to Inflation

*Demands reversal of fuel price hike

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

One of the university-based unions, the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) has bemoaned the impact of inflation in the country on its members’ salaries.
It also expressed concern over the increase in the pump price of petrol as well as what it described as the deliberate hoarding of the products, urging government to ensure reversal of the price hike.

In a communiqué issued at the end of its National Executive Council (NEC) held at University of Calabar, in Cross River state at the weekend, SSANU said that, “it observed with serious concern the inflationary trend in our nation where the purchasing power of the naira has been drastically reduced so much that every good in the market has been taken over by galloping inflation leaving many Nigerians groaning in abject poverty.”

The communique signed by SSANU President, Mohammed Haruna Ibrahim, urged federal government to re-gig its economic policies with a view to checking this hyperinflation to allow the poor and low income earners survive this untold hardship.

SSANU said it felt seriously agitated by unwarranted increase in the pump price and deliberate hoarding of the petroleum products.
According to the association, the avoidable situation has plunged innocent poor Nigerians into precarious economic situation, further increasing their hopelessness and frustration fuelled by economic hardship.

“NEC therefore demands the urgent reversal of the pump price to the old price of N180 at least to reduce the biting impact, especially during this yuletide season”, ” it said.
On the non-compliance with national minimum wage law, SSANU said it had discovered with shock that some of her members were yet to be paid arrears of the new national minimum wage by their universities.

The association expressed concern that her members in the nine universities have either not been paid or were yet to be fully paid the national minimum wage.
The affected institutions he listed included are Federal University Otuoke; Micheal Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike; Federal University, Dutsima, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Federal University, Gashua, Yobe, Federal University Kashere, University of Maiduguri, Modibo Adama University, Yola and University of Benin, Benin.

It therefore, urged government to immediately conclude the payment of the arrears to her members in the affected universities.
SSANU further urged the federal to urgently pay the arrears of withheld four months salaries of its members in one installment without further delay.
“In the same vein, NEC earnestly urges government to release the three month withheld third party deductions to affected Federal Universities. This becomes imperative as the delay is causing serious upsets and breaches to financial organizations in affected Universities,” it said.

Regarding the 2023 general elections, SSANU said it has critically analyzed the political atmosphere and the attendant turbulent and violent-prone campaigns which was capable of truncating the democratic gains of the Nation.
“NEC therefore urges all stakeholders in the political space to observe the rules of by the game to engender free, fair and credible elections that will usher in smooth transition.
In conclusion, NEC calls on the federal government to ensure that all our demands are resolved within the shortest possible time,” it added.