The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has issued a stern warning, stating that it will initiate a nationwide shutdown of activities in universities if the withheld salaries of its members are not promptly paid, News About Nigeria reports.
This declaration follows the exclusion of SSANU members from the payment of withheld salaries by the Federal Government, which commenced payments for the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Monday.
The withheld salaries became an issue when the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari implemented a ‘No Work, No Pay policy’ against both ASUU and SSANU during an eight-month strike in 2022.
While President Bola Tinubu approved the release of four out of the eight months’ withheld salaries for ASUU in October 2023, SSANU members have been left out of this payment.
Professor Gbolahan Bolarin, the chairperson of ASUU at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, confirmed the initiation of salary payments for ASUU members, acknowledging that “yes, it is true. Payment has started rolling in.”
Expressing dissatisfaction over the exclusion, Mr. Mohammed Ibrahim, the National President of SSANU, condemned the injustice and stated that SSANU members deserved to be paid as well.
He said, “We can’t guarantee continuous peace in our universities. We have written to the Chief of Staff and Minister of Education, and we escalated it to the Nigeria Labour Congress. There is a palpable danger if SSANU is not paid their backlog.
Ibrahim revealed that SSANU members would convene a meeting on Tuesday to decide on the next course of action in response to the development.
“Our members will meet tonight or tomorrow morning to decide. We are under pressure; this is a clear injustice, as no university can operate without the non-teaching staff.”
