By Gabriel Dike
Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), yesterday, vowed to sustain its ongoing nationwide strike despite the Federal Government declaring it illegal.
Reports from various campuses indicated that the workers stayed away from their offices in compliance with the directive of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of both unions on the strike.
Members of SSANU and NASU had launched the strike last Friday because of inability of the Federal Government to meet demands put forward since 2009.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, however, declared the strike illegal insisting government was not aware of it.
NASU University of Lagos branch chairman, Mr. Kehinde Ajibade, said JAC congress overwhelmingly supported the strike to continue until government met their demands.
“We have submitted our congress resolution to our national secretariat. The congress resolved that if the Federal Government meets 80 per cent of our demands, the strike can be suspended.”
Ajibade explained that members working in the offices of vice chancellor, registrar, bursar and other management staff would not be allowed to work, stressing “the strike is total and comprehensive; nobody is allowed to work.”
On comments credited to Ngige, Ajibade said the union was not aware of his declaration that the strike was illegal.
“We don’t take him serious. He cannot stop our strike and thee is no going back.”
At the Lagos State University (LASU), ongoing examination was disrupted as the two main gates were shut early in the morning.
Daily Sun learnt that the striking workers shut the gates and students found it difficult to gain access into the campus to write examination scheduled for Monday.
A 300 and 100 levels students told Daily Sun that many of them were caught in the crisis and could not write the examination. Both expect the management to reschedule the disrupted exam.
A senior lecturer told our Correspondent that he arrived LASU gate Iba at 7.35am and the striking non-academic staff had locked the gate resulting in long queue of cars while many undergraduate students stranded outside.
At University of Ibadan and University of Jos, workers complied with the directive of JAC and stayed away from their duty posts.
The demands include inconsistencies in IPPIS payment for which the unions proposed its own payment platform called University Peculiar Personnel and Payroll Payment System (U4PS). Other issues were: Non-payment of earned allowances, unpaid of arrears of national minimum wage, delay in renegotiation of Federal Government/NASU-SSANU 2009 agreement, and unpaid retirement benefits of former members.
SSANU and NASU members on Friday, February 5, embarked a nationwide strike to protest the non-implementation of signed agreement between the Federal Government and the unions.