Babatunji wusu –
The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian institutions (SSANU) has threatened to stop operations at all institutions in the country unless its members’ paychecks that have been withheld are released.
This statement is in response to the Federal Government’s recent decision to withhold SSANU members’ salaries, which has caused a great deal of resentment inside the union.
The Federal Government started paying members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Monday, but excluded SSANU. This is when the dispute started.
In an interview with Punch, Prof. Gbolahan Bolarin, the ASUU chair at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, affirmed that these payments have started. The money has begun to come in.
The disputed withheld salaries are related to an eight-month long strike in 2022 that saw both SSANU and ASUU members stop working.
The former administration of President Muhammadu Buhari used the action to justify imposing a “No Work, No Pay” policy on the striking unions.
In a surprising development, President Bola Tinubu approved the release of four of the eight months’ worth of ASUU’s unpaid salary in October 2023, but SSANU was conspicuously absent.
In an interview with The PUNCH, Mohammed Ibrahim, the National President of SSANU, voiced his disappointment and emphasized the seeming injustice of the circumstances.
Ibrahim made it clear that SSANU’s complaint was not about ASUU getting paid what was owed, but rather about SSANU being left out of comparable benefits. He said, “It was a great injustice against SSANU.”
Ibrahim said, “This is just terrible, we found out that only ASUU’s payment was approved. As it is, there is tension on all the campuses we are not angry that they are paying ASUU, but they should know that it is not only ASUU that went on strike.
“Why should our case be different? The government should pay everyone who works in the university. We can’t guarantee continuous peace in our universities. We have written to the Chief of Staff and Minister of Education, and we escalated it to Nigeria Labour Congress. There is a palpable danger if SSANU are not paid their backlog.”
He also said it was confirmed at the office of the Accountant General and IPPIS that only ASUU’s payment was approved.
He said, “We found out at the Chief Accountant General office that it was only ASUU that was approved, we also have confirmation from IPPIS that the payment does not include SSANU.”
He hinted that SSANU members would meet today (Tuesday) to decide on the development.
Ibrahim said, “Our members will meet tonight, or tomorrow morning to decide. We are under pressure; this is a clear injustice as no university can operate without the non-teaching staff.”
Also, National Vice-President, SSANU, Abdussobur Salaam, said, “The Joint Action Committee of NASU and SSANU should therefore not be held responsible should the wheel of administration and corporate governance be grounded to a halt, as we have exercised enough patience with the government, especially in the face of the harsh economic conditions occasioned by policies of the current administration led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
