The joint Action Committee (JAC) of Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) would tomorrow Friday, February 5, 2021 begin an indefinite strike following the inability of federal government to meet her demands.
The unions had on 22th of January 2021 issued two weeks ultimatum to government to address the issues or face”an indefinite, comprehensive and total strike”.
President of SSANU Comrade Muhammed Haruna told Blueprint that the unions have not agreed with the government to suspend the planned industrial action schedule for tomorrow Friday.
Comrade Haruna said the decision to suspend the action would taken at the end of congresses of JAC of SSANU and NASU which would be holding tomorrow Friday , February 5 2021 nationwide to discuss on the plead made by the Federal government.
Meanwhile the union leader said the planned strike would commence tomorrow from 12 midnight.
“Our getting back to them is hinge on the result of our branch congresses that would be held tomorrow. Our congresses would hold tomorrow across Nigeria , we have briefed them what we discuss with government you are also aware that we only discuss two items out of the seven demands and the two that we discussed are one is the issue of the arrears from the minimum wage, which they could not give us a date for payment rather that it would be capture in the supplementary budget and the second one is the issue of IPPIS which they said they are going to set up committee to look at the issue and those two issues alone we spend close to four hours . They pleaded that we should suspend but we told them we don’t have the mandate to do that unless the congresses. However our strike would continue from midnight tomorrow”.
Speaking on Tuesday after a meeting in the instance of the Minister of Labour and Employment , Dr Chris Ngige to arrest the planned industrial action by the workers, General Secretary of NASU who is also the secretary of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) Comrade Peters Adeyemi said the meeting did not arrived on a conclusion.
According to him, the representatives of the unions at that meeting do not have the mandate to suspend the action declared the members of the JAC, however said
“We have not concluded the work. There are some issues that developed during the course of our discussions. We need to take back to our members so that they can give us further directive. As a result of that development, we asked that the government should allow us time to meet our members and seek for further mandate.
“Clearly, the agenda of the meeting has not been exhausted, so there are still issues to be addressed. In fact, one of the most contentious issues is yet to be discussed. We are favourably disposed to dialogue and after discussing with our members, we will come back and continue with the discussion. So far, nothing has been concluded.
“We don’t have the mandate to talk about suspending strike. That’s not within our competence. The mandate of our members stands until they ask us to reverse it.
The union’s demands which an MoU was signed are inconsistencies in IPPIS payment, Non-payment of earned allowances, Non-payment of arrears of National Minimum Wage, Delay in renegotiation of FGN/NASU and SSANU 2009 agreement, Non-payment of retirement benefits of outgone members.
Other issues complained about were: teaching staff usurping headship of non-teaching units in clear violation of conditions of service and establishment procedures, neglect and poor funding of state universities, and non-constitution of visitation panels for universities.
