The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has threatened to shut down varsites nationwide if the federal government fails to grant their demands within the next seven days.
Mohammed Ibrahim, the President SSANU gave the seven days ultimatum on Channels TV’s Sunday Politics.
According to him, the clock is ticking and the seven days ultimatum commenced today (Monday).
He added that if their demands remain unmet, SSANU and the Non-academic Staff Union of Education and Associated Institutions (NASU) are prepared to take drastic action which is a total strike and shut down of universities across the country.
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He said:
“We are in charge of security, we are in charge of administration, we are in charge of medicals, we are in charge of hostels, we are in charge of electricity, we are in charge of everything apart from teaching. So, once our members down tools, no university can function in Nigeria.
“It’s quite unfortunate. No union member wants to go on strike but when you are pushed to the wall, what would you do? You have to push back.
“You can see what is happening in the country. The economy is in dundrums and everybody is suffering. Most of our universities are located far outside the township and our members have to commute every day.
“Fuel cannot be accessed, food is scarce, our medicals can not be attended to, and members are suffering quite clearly.
“It’s quite absurd that we have to speak like this and it is because we have been clearly shown that we do not matter in the system while we all know that there is no university that can function without the non-teaching staff.
“We are populated by professionals, we oil the engine in the administration of every university and therefore treating a segment of staff with disdain does not speak well of the system.
“In 2022, all the university-based unions were on strike – four of us. For us in NASU and SSANU, we went on strike on the 27th of March and we called it off on the 27th of August after the intervention of the then Minister of Education, Mal Adamu Adamu.
“We had an agreement that we signed with the government to review the situation and ensure that justice is done.”
