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By Gabriel Dike
The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) have signed a Memorandum of Action (MoA) with the Federal Government to implement their demands.
Following the signing of the memorandum, JAC has suspended the ongoing three-week-old nationwide strike and directed members to resume work on Monday, March 1, 2021.
JAC in a circular to branch chairmen of NASU and SSANU, dated Thursday, February 25th, 2021, announced the suspension of the strike after a national JAC meeting same day.
The circular, signed by the General Secretary of NASU, Prince Peters Adeyemi and National President of SSANU, Mr. Mohammed Ibrahim, informed the chairmen that the strike would be suspended from midnight of Friday, February 26th, 2021.
The national JAC said the decision to suspend the strike is based on collated responses from the branches and the signed MoA with the Federal Government with identified timelines for implementation.
“After the review of the strike at the meeting held with the branch chairmen of NASU and SSANU on February 25th in Abuja, branch chairmen were directed to go back to their respective branches and hold congress to take decisions on the strike, “ JAC stated. In the circular, JAC recalled that the industrial action commenced in the midnight of Friday, February 5, after a three-day nationwide protest and a 14-day notice to the government to take action on the content of the MoU signed on October 20th, 2020. The leadership of JAC acknowledged the perseverance and doggedness of members in the three-week-old strike and sent her appreciation to members in the universities and inter-university centres.
With the suspension of the industrial action, NASU and SSANU members are expected to resume work on Monday.
The branch congresses of NASU and SSANU gave the Federal Government two major conditions that must be met before the three-week-old strike would be suspended.
The two conditions demanded by the non-teaching staff are the release of additional N20 billion earned allowance and payment of arrears of the new minimum wage put at over N18billion.
The leadership of JAC at the meeting with government officials had also demanded that no members of NASU and SSANU would be victimised as a result of their role in the industrial action.
