There are strong indications that the nation’s university system may be crippled at any moment as members of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Other Associated Institutions (NASU) have threatened to resume their suspended strike over four withheld salaries by the Federal Government.
The General Secretary of NASU, Prince Peters Adeyemi, gave this hint on the sidelines of the ongoing National Executive Council, NEC, meeting of the union in Abuja. Although he declined to give the exact date of the strike’s commencement, it is expected that the NEC members will take the decision during their meeting.
According to Prince Adeyemi, members’ patience has been exhausted, and he declared, “We are going to resume the suspended strike.”
When speaking with journalists at the NEC meeting venue about the two months’ salaries that President Bola Tinubu directed to be paid out of the four months withheld salaries, the General Secretary said, “What is new is that the President’s directive has been disobeyed. We used to know that the president’s words can be equated to a command. So, when the President said to do this, his aides quickly dealt with it. But in this case, it seems as if the Minister of Finance has his priorities beyond what he ought to have done.
“The money has not been paid. Now it is obvious that we are going to resume our suspended strike. We have given the government enough notice. Very recently, we had to prevail on our members to say, look, we think we are making headway, if we start a strike now, it may not be good. But everything that we have done shows clearly that the Finance Ministry and the Minister are unwilling to pay the two months that they said Mr President approved.
“Our patience is already exhausted. We are going to resume the suspended strike. I know that when certain elements in a government treat the directive of the president with levity, it could mean that they are exploiting their closeness to the president, and the president will have to readjust.
“There is no reason for not paying this money. I think this is a big disrespect for the president and an attempt to provoke an industrial upheaval in an atmosphere that is cool and calm. It works against the president’s resolve to say I don’t want strikes in the universities. And everything is being done by this government, at least the Minister, to prevent strikes. The Ministry of Education has done its part, the president has done his part, the Finance Minister is the one sitting on our money.”
Recall that President Tinubu had, in October 2023, directed that NASU and Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities, SSANU, members be paid two out of the four months withheld salaries by the federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari in 2022, following a prolonged strike over unresolved disputes.
In March 2024, members of the two unions went on a seven-day warning strike over the refusal of the Ministry of Finance to implement the Presidential directive.
Again, the leadership of the Joint Action Committee, JAC, of NASU and SSANU gave the federal government a final three-week ultimatum on September 18, 2024, to settle the withheld four months’ salaries.
