The prevailing industrial peace in the nation’s universities and the academic calendar should not be allowed to be disrupted by the government’s non-implementation of past agreements reached with the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and other unions in the universities. We urge the federal government to quickly listen to these unions and attend to their demands before the universities witness another round of strike. The frequent strikes in the Nigerian universities are worrisome and unacceptable.
The federal government should show more seriousness in addressing the requests of non-teaching staff of federal universities, as well as the academic staff of the university. This is to avoid the total collapse of the university system. The greatness of a nation is partly tied to its university system and the quality of its graduates. The perennial disruption of the academic calendar due to poor funding and inadequate remuneration of varsity workers should never be allowed to fester.
The federal government should not allow the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), SSANU and NASU to embark on strike before attending to their welfare and other needs. Recently, the later group embarked on one-day warning strike to draw attention to their grievances, especially the non-payment of withheld four months salaries by the federal government. Before embarking on the recent one-day warning strike, the university workers had, in a circular dated July 4th, 2024, expressed their dissatisfaction with the federal government’s management of their demands.
SSANU President, Mohammed Ibrahim, and NASU General Secretary, Prince Peters Adeyemi, hinted that the Joint Action Committee (JAC) got a cold reception when it recently visited the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment prior to the one-day warning strike. According to the unions, other meetings they had with the Minister of Education and officials of National Universities Commission (NUC) did not yield any meaningful result as government did not show “any convincing commitment on the payment of the withheld salaries and resolutions of other pending grievances of JAC of the two unions.”
In March this year, SSANU and NASU members embarked on a seven-day warning strike, after which the leadership of SSANU and NASU instructed their members to resume work on March 25. The JAC was unimpressed that the federal government paid withheld salaries of ASUU members and neglected theirs. All the unions had embarked on an eight-month strike in 2022 to demand a better welfare package, which led the administration of Muhammadu Buhari to invoke a ‘No Work, No Pay policy’ against the unions. However, President Bola Tinubu approved the release of four of the eight months withheld salaries last October for ASUU and none for SSANU and NASU members.
Like ASUU, the members of SSANU and NASU play important roles in the running of the universities. The non-academic workers are in charge of the bursary, registry, works and maintenance, students’ affairs and security departments. No university can afford to do without their services. They play a complementary role to the academic staff. Without them, the administrative units of the universities will be in disarray.
The federal government should realise that what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. The arrears of salaries of SSANU and NASU members should also be settled. Government should not continue to criticise the striking workers when it is delaying in settling their arrears of salaries. We call on the federal government and the varsity workers to explore ways to resolve the matter. Government is advised to restrain from taking actions that might push the aggrieved workers to the wall. Education and health are two of the most important sectors of every nation that should not be toyed with.
The spate of strike actions in our universities does not bode well for the future of the country. Apart from losing valuable time, which is hard to remedy, some of the students have been forced into crimes and prostitution. A good number of them have travelled abroad to continue their education. This is a big loss to the Nigerian university system financially and academically, as some stay back after their education to swell the manpower of those countries.
Government has always complained of limited resources to cater for the demands of the varsity workers. We believe that reducing the cost of governance and frivolous expenses will enable the government to adequately fund varsity education. Let the government treat SSANU and NASU members with respect.