August 20, (THEWILL) – Non-teaching staff of Nigerian universities, the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Education Institutions (NASU), have suspended their strike for a period of two months.
The suspension followed a brief meeting with the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, in Abuja on Saturday.
Adamu said the Federal Government has committed N50 billion to pay earned allowances for members of SSANU, NASU and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
SSANU’s national president, Muhammed Ibrahim, who confirmed the development said, “Yes, we have suspended the strike for a period of two months.”
While the suspension takes effect from Wednesday, activities in public universities will, however, remain limited as varsity lecturers remain on strike.
The Federal Government Thursday, insisted that there will be no salary payments for the varsity lecturers for the periods they did not work.
Adamu had said the measure is aimed at deterring others who may contemplate similar strike in future.
But ASUU, on Friday, insisted on the payment of the salary backlog, maintaining that without the move, unfinished academic sessions should be forgotten.
President of the union, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, who made the position of the lecturers known, said though public varsities have been shut since February, the lecturers should be paid, since they have to teach to make up for the time lost during the closure.
“Let me tell you the difference between ASUU and other labour unions. When other unions go on strike and come back, all those periods for which you are on strike, you don’t need to do the backlog of work.
“But for ASUU, when we go back today, we are going to start from the 2020/2021 session. For these two sets of students that have been admitted by JAMB, we have to teach them over these periods to ensure that we meet up with the system.
“So, we are going to do the backlog of the work we have left behind. We are not going to start today and say ‘This session is 2022/2023, therefore, all these two sets of people that have been admitted by JAMB are cancelled. We have to take another admission for the 2023/2024 session”, he said.
According to him, if the government maintains its stance on the non-payment of salary backlog, members of the union are not obliged to make up for the lost academic time.
“If we agree on that, therefore, the lectures we should have given to students for 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 sessions, they should be allowed to go so we start a new session 2022/2023 within September which is when a new session should start.
“Therefore by July next year, I would go on my leave as we used to have in those days so that the backlog is gone. All the lectures that remain; all the two sets of admissions that JAMB has given that are waiting should become irrelevant.”
He said that ASUU does not need a pity party over the government’s withholding of the lecturers’ wages, maintaining that the union “can take care” of its members.
Varsity lecturers had since February 14, 2022, embarked on strike to Protest among others, the failure of the Federal government to implement the MoU it signed with ASUU, poor commitment to the payment of academic earned allowance (EAA) and the continued use of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System as well as refusal to adopt the Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
