The National President of SSANU said no government representative officially reached out to the unions, despite an entire week's notice of the strike.
The Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) have commenced a seven-day nationwide strike Today (Monday, March 18, 2024), over their withheld four months’ salary by the Federal Government.
This directive comes exactly a week after the unions issued a warning that they will close down university hostels and disrupt power supply nationwide if the Federal Government does not fulfil their demands.
Enforcing the no-work, no-pay policy, the Federal Government withheld the salaries of university workers following a prolonged strike in 2021. They (the Federal Government) later released four-month withheld salaries to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in February but left out SSANU and NASU.
Both NASU and SSANU contested the payment disparity. They demanded that their withheld salaries be equally released and gave the Federal Government an ultimatum with a warning to embark on a nationwide strike.
The National President of SSANU, Muhammed Ibrahim on Channels Television’s Morning Show programme, confirmed the commencement of the strike.
He said, "As of today (Monday), all our workers in registry, bursary, works and maintenance, security, and students’ affairs have withdrawn their services and nothing moves within the administration of any public university in Nigeria and that will be the case for the next seven days until and unless the needful is done,”
He added that no government representative has officially reached out to the unions, despite an entire week's notice of the strike.
He emphasised that if the government disregards the unions' demands after the seven-day warning strike, which began today, the unions will revert to their strategies and determine the next course of action.
