From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
In order to ensure that they receive their rightful entitlement, the Federal Government has promised to keep interacting with the two unions, the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), regarding their decision to embark on a seven-day warning strike on Monday, March 18.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris stated this while fielding questions on whether the seven days strike notice by the non teaching staff in the public universities was discussed at the Federal Executive Council (FEC), meeting.
Asked whether the matter was discussed at the cabinet meeting, the minister said it did not come up but added that government was addressing the issue.
He said, “Government will continue to engage them (SSANU and NASU). All the associations involved in that (planned strike), government will continue to engage them to find lasting solution to the problem.”
When asked why President Bola Tinubu’s directive, which stipulated that university workers who went on a protracted strike in 2022 and had their salaries withheld by the Mohammed Buhari administration due to the implementation of the “No work, no pay” policy, did not include SSANU, NASU, and the National Association of Academic Technologists, or NAAT, he replied that the government would keep negotiating with the unions to resolve the issue.
He said, “Government will continue to engage them, they are all Nigerians. They are all working within Nigeria. Nigerian government has respect for every worker in Nigeria and we will continue to engage them.”
Pressed further on why the unions were excluded when their counterparts in the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), were paid, Idris said, “Government will take every right step it deems necessary to ensure that everybody gets whatever is legitimate to him or her.”
The Joint Action Committee, (JAC) of SSANU and NASU had in its resolution said it would commence a seven day warning strike on Monday, March 18 and that if after the strike nothing was done, they would embark on indefinite strike that will cripple activities in the public universities.