Members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Education Institutions (NASU) are to resume work this Wednesday in public universities, following the suspension of their strike last Saturday
The unions suspended the industrial action, after a brief meeting with the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu in Abuja.
Adamu during the meeting assured the non-academic staff of the Federal Government's committment to their welfare with the release of N50 billion to pay earned allowances for members of SSANU, NASU and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of SSANU and NASU in a statement, explained that the suspension was for an initial two months.
The statement signed by JAC spokesperson, Peter Adeyemi,
reads further in part:“The two months is to allow government implement the agreements reached,” the statement,
“Part of the agreement is the decision of the government to set aside the sum of N50 billion for the payment of earned academic and earned allowances, cogent decision on the University Peculiar Personnel Payroll System (U3PS), release of the white paper on university visitation panel and funding of the universities.
“On the poor funding of federal institutions, the Minister said he directed the National Universities Commission (NUC) to ensure that all the schools are up-to-date on what they are supposed to do, otherwise sanctions will be visited on any institution that defaults.
“The Minister of Education also gave an assurance that no member of the unions that participated in the strike will be victimised".
“The Minister said President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to devout 15 per cent of the national budget to education"
“On the salary payment system, the Minister said the alternative payment systems provided by ASUU JAC of NASU and SSANU did very well. He added that the Federal Government is awaiting the report of the technical committee it set up before taking action on the matter.”
However for members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU in public universities, they are still on their strike action started over six months ago on 14th of February,
The lecturers had disagreed with the minister over the insistance of the Federal Government to apply no work no pay rule for the six months period of strike by the academics which ASUU rejected
ASUU’s President,Professor Emmanuel Osodeke speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily last Friday monitored by Edu-biznews, said salary backlogs must be cleared before lecturers return to the classroom.
“If we agree on that, therefore, the lectures we should have given [to students] for 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 [sessions], should be allowed to go so we start a new session, 2022/2023, in September,” Professor Osodeke stated .
“Therefore, by July next year, I would go on my leave as we used to have in those days so that the backlog is gone. All the lectures that remain; all the two sets of admissions that JAMB has given that are waiting should become irrelevant.”
According to him, “other unions go on strike and come back, all those periods for which you are on strike, you don’t need to do the backlog of work"
“But for ASUU, when we go back today, we are going to start from the 2020/2021 session. For these two sets of students that have been admitted by JAMB, we have to teach them over these periods to ensure that we meet up with the system.
“So, we are going to do the backlog of the work we have left behind. We are not going to start today and say ‘This session is 2022/2023, therefore, all these two sets of people that have been admitted by JAMB are cancelled. We have to take another admission for the 2023/2024 session’.”
Osodeke maintained that the union would not succumb to pressure over the non-payment of the lecturers' wages by government, saying the union can take care” of its members.
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