The Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have called for the arrears of withheld salaries of their members from the Federal Government.
For SSANU, it is asking for the release of four months’ arrears while ASUU is demanding the arrears of its members during their eight-month strike.
ASUU’s National President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke further claimed that all the issues that led to the strike had not been resolved.
ATTENTION: Click “HERE” to join our WhatsApp group and receive News updates directly on your WhatsApp!
Osodeke said:
“As of now, it is zero. This is the usual thing with the government once we call off a strike. They have left everything. The government will pretend like nothing has happened. That is why we continue to have strikes.”
The president held that despite the intervention of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, their needs were still unattended.
He said:
“When we called off the strike, the assumption was that we have resolved all the issues, which is not correct. Of all the issues the speaker said he was going to do, not a single one has been done.
“Our members are teaching, making sacrifices because of the children who are already in school. But the government deliberately ensured that they don’t pay salaries.”
Osodeke further accused the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, of paying members of the newly registered Nigeria Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA) in Sokoto, who were part of the ASUU strike before the union was registered by the government last month.
He said:
“The minister of labour has come with a new dimension. The newly registered union, NAMDA, the government is paying them seven months’ salary. They have paid them in Sokoto. We were all on strike from the beginning; you registered a union towards the end of the strike and pay them because you said they were working. Working where?
“They have to pay the withheld salary arrears because all we are doing now is trying to meet up with the backlog. We are clearing the backlog where we stopped to ensure that these students don’t miss a day.”
