SSANU, NASU Suspend Strike after Five Months, ASUU Adamant
The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) have suspended their nearly five-month strike.
The suspension which was announced on Saturday, August 20, 2022, is expected to take effect from Wednesday, August 24, 2022.
According to the education minister, 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 and NASU on March 27, 2022, declared a two-week warning strike.
By April 10, 2022, the unions extended the strike by another two weeks, citing the government’s failure to meet their demands.
In June, the unions further extended the strike by two months.
The strike by SSANU and NASU has led to suspension in the issuance of academic transcripts; mobilisation of graduates for the compulsory one year service organized by the National Youth Service Corps.
However, activities in public universities are expected to remain limited as ASUU remains on strike.
Minister Adamu, who had hinted of SSANU and NASU’s strike suspension on Thursday, said ASUU rejected the government’s proposal over the “no work, no pay” rule.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday, ASUU’s President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, said salary backlogs must be cleared before lecturers return to the classroom.
“If we agree on that, therefore, the lectures we should have given [to students] for 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 [sessions], should be allowed to go so we start a new session, 2022/2023, in September,” Professor Osodeke said.
“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 explained that 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.
“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’.”
The ASUU chief also said the union 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.
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