By Gabriel Dike
The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), have issued the Federal Government an ultimatum to implement its demands. This followed their meeting held on Wednesday, March 16, 2020 to appraise development on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Memorandum of Action (MoA) reached with the government. They concluded that the Federal Government has not been sincere with the implementation of the agreements.
The ultimatum is contained in a letter sent to the Minister of Labour and Employment, dated March 16 and signed by NASU General Secretary, Prince Peters Adeyem, and the National President of SSANU, Mohammed Ibrahim. The JAC, in the letter titled “Re: Looming Industrial Action and Notice of Warning Strike,” lamented that nothing came out of its letter dated March 1, 2022, in respect of their demands.
The two unions said they had earlier given a 21-day ultimatum to the Federal Government in respect of its members’ grievances and agitation. The letter stated: “The meeting was shocked that two weeks after giving the Federal Government ultimatum, nothing tangible has come out of it and that government has not even acknowledged the letter with a response as expected.” It noted that the Federal Government is not bothered with the detestable conditions of members of non-teaching staff in the universities and Inter-university centres.
The committee, therefore, gave government up to Sunday, March 27 to do the needful as regards their members’ demands. The two unions warned that if government fails to meet their demands, they would have no other option than to direct their members to proceed on a two-week warning strike.
According to JAC, the warning strike would be in the first instance to drive home its demands. If the unions keep to their threat, the nation’s university system would be crippled because the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is currently on two months strike over its demands.