SSANU, NASU declare one-week warning strike over withheld salaries

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) have declared a seven-day warning strike.

Both unions are seeking the release of four months’ worth of the salaries of members withheld during an eight-month strike in 2022.

In 2022, the salaries of university staff who embarked on strike were withheld by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

In October 2023, President Bola Tinubu directed the release of four months of the withheld eight-month pay of all lecturers.

However, a joint committee of SSANU and NASU recently expressed concern that the government released four months of withheld salaries to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) without extending the same gesture to non-academic staff.

Both unions issued a seven-day ultimatum on March 1 at the end of which they stated that a possible strike was imminent.

Muhammed Ibrahim, president of SSANU, and Peters Adeyemi, the general secretary of NASU, both stated that their February 13 letter to Femi Gbajabiamila, the president’s chief of staff (CoS), and Tahir Mamman, the minister for education, had not been responded to.

The joint action committee of the two unions issued a communique after a meeting held in Ondo state during the weekend.

Ibrahim said both unions have resolved to embark on the warning strike as a last resort, since several protest letters and other communications with the federal government, did not result in the payment of the withheld salaries.