The Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) staged a one-day national protest today, Thursday, July 18, over the four months’ withheld salaries of their members.
The national protest disrupted administrative work in universities and inter-university centres, reports The Nation.
The workers are demanding that the federal government pay them the salaries that have been withheld. Ibrahim Mohammed, the National President of SSANU, stated that the unions would shut down the university system unless their members were paid the withheld salaries by the federal government.
Ibrahim said: “We will shut down the system. No university can operate without the non-teaching staff. We admit we employ, we promote, we punish, dismiss, and reward.”
General Secretary of NASU, Peters Adeyemi said several meetings with the government over the withheld salaries have not yielded positive results.
Adeyemi said: “We have been on these issues for almost 10 years and some of these issues have remained unresolved.
“We are determined to make sure that the four months withheld salaries are paid to our members.
“We are not fighting anybody. If those who are in charge are in the process of paying this is to ginger them so that they can pay us immediately.
“Let those who are in charge, those who are holding on to our money, let them start sending it to our various accounts.”
During the protest, the Nigeria Police, Federal Capital Territory, FCT Command stopped the Joint Action Committee (JAC) from leaving the Unity Fountain.
As soon as the leadership of JAC started addressing members for the protest for onward movement to the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labour and Employment, where they are to present letters to the ministers, the FCT Commissioner of Police, Benneth Igwe, stormed the Unity Fountain and warned that there would be no protest.
Consequently, the police used an armoured vehicle and a Hilux van to block the entrance and exit gates to stop the protest.
All entreaties made to the police by the leadership of the two unions could not persuade them to allow the aggrieved members to proceed with the protest rally.
Some of the non-teaching staff members had wanted to revolt against the police directive, but they were calmed down by their leaders not to do anything that could lead to violence.
The aggrieved staff wondered why the police could attempt to stop a peaceful protest in a democracy, describing the action as a bad omen for democracy.
In order to ensure that the letters were submitted to the relevant ministries, the leadership of JAC decided to use their vehicles instead of the initial peaceful protest to go to the Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman, and his counterpart in the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha.
The unions warned that if the four months withheld salaries are not paid by next week, they would be left with no other option than to shut down universities and inter-university centres.
Former Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen Chris Ngige had invoked the ‘No work, no pay’ policy when the four university-based unions embarked on a prolonged strike in 2022.
Salaries of members of the university-based unions who participated in the strike were withheld by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
But President Bola Tinubu in October last year granted amnesty to the university workers and directed that four months of the withheld salaries be paid to them.
