By Cross Udo, Abuja
Academic activities at the University of Abuja were temporarily affected yesterday as the protesting Joint Action Committee (JAC), comprising the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), blocked all entrances to the university gates.
The protesting workers prevented academic and non-academic staff from driving in through the University’s gates, which were under lock and key.
Speaking to journalists, the University of Abuja branch chairman of SSANU, Comrade Nureden Yusuf, said that the JAC protest was to draw the federal government’s attention to the injustice done to SSANU and NASU in the payment of the four months withheld salaries that President Bola Tinubu approved in October last year.
He said, “We are on strike basically to draw the government’s attention to the state of our universities. You may recall that one of the contentious reasons why we went on strike in 2022 was renegotiating the 2009 agreement.
“That agreement ought to have been renegotiated every three years, and now we are in 2024. Fourteen years after the last deal, it has yet to be renegotiated.
“Also, we are talking about withheld salaries. Mr. President, in October 2023, gracefully agreed that our withheld wages during the period of strike in 2022 should be paid to us. Our counterparts in ASUU have been paid their salaries for four months, but we have yet to receive our salaries.
“NASU and SSANU are unions of professionals. We oil the wheel of the university system. If we’re not in University, there can’t be any University. Apart from teaching, SSANU and NASU members do any other activity at the university. We provide health services to the university.
“We are shutting down universities for seven days, and none of our members will render any services. There won’t be people to staff the security unit, people in the university health services, water, or electricity, and transcripts or certificates will not be processed. The transport unit will also be shut down.”
Also, the Chairperson of NASU, University of Abuja branch, Comrade Sadiya Hassan, said the government forced the two unions to embark on the warning strike.
She also frowned at people calling the union members supporting staff, saying they are professionals in different fields who chose to be in the non-teaching sector.
Hassan said the two unions have other demands besides the withheld salaries, such as renegotiating the 2009 agreement.
Besides, she said, “We want the reconstitution of our governing councils because that has affected our members’ promotion and other issues pending since they were dissolved. Nothing is going on at the university as it ought to be. So we want the governing councils to return so things can move in the universities.
“And as we are being referred to as supporting staff, we are not supporting staff; we chose to be in the offices, not the classrooms, which is why we are professionals in our field. We should be treated as one, not as second fiddle in the system.
“So, we want the federal government to do what is needed. We don’t want to go on strike but are forced to do what we do today. So they should give us our rights, and we will go back to our offices and render the services we are used to.”
