University Staff Threaten Strike Over Unpaid Salaries

Members of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Other Associated Institutions have threatened to resume their suspended strike due to the Federal Government’s failure to pay their withheld salaries.

Prince Peters Adeyemi, the General Secretary of NASU, shared this update during the ongoing National Executive Council meeting of the union in Abuja.

He informed reporters that President Tinubu’s directive from two months ago to release their salaries has not been followed.

In October 2023, the President ordered that members of NASU and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities receive two out of the four months of withheld salaries from the federal government, which had been frozen since 2022 following a prolonged strike over unresolved issues.

Adeyemi stated that they have still not received any payments despite this directive.

“What is new is that the President’s directive has been disobeyed. We used to know that the president’s words can be equated to a command. So, when the President said to do this, his aides quickly dealt with it. But in this case, it seems as if the Minister of Finance has his priorities beyond what he ought to have done.”

The money has not been paid. Now it is obvious that we are going to resume our suspended strike. We have given the government enough notice. Very recently, we had to prevail on our members to say, look, we think we are making headway, if we start a strike now, it may not be good. But everything that we have done shows clearly that the Finance Ministry and the Minister are unwilling to pay the two months that they said Mr President approved.

“Our patience is already exhausted. We are going to resume the suspended strike. I know that when certain elements in a government treat the directive of the president with levity, it could mean that they are exploiting their closeness to the president, and the president will have to readjust.

“There is no reason for not paying this money. I think this is a big disrespect for the president and an attempt to provoke an industrial upheaval in an atmosphere that is cool and calm. It works against the president’s resolve to say I don’t want strikes in the universities. And everything is being done by this government, at least the Minister, to prevent strikes. The Ministry of Education has done its part, the president has done his part, the Finance Minister is the one sitting on our money.” he said.

He stated that their patience has run out.

 “We are going to resume the suspended strike,” he said.

However, he refused to provide a date for when they would resume their strike action.