Over two months after they embarked on a strike, non-teaching staff of Nigerian federal universities have vowed not to return to work until the federal government addresses their grievances.
The chairman of the the Joint Action Committee, JAC, of the workers’ unions, Samson Ugwoke, stated this position in a phone interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday.
The affected unions are the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, and National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT.
Members of the unions commenced an indefinite strike on December 4 last year, accusing the government of violating an agreement it had with them on the formula for sharing N23 billion it released to the universities as earned allowances. The unions are angry that academic staff of the universities took the lion share of the allowances.
Mr. Ugwoke said the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, complained that government has no funds to settle the unions.
“Since 19th of December, 2017 the Minister of Education said they are still looking for money and also waiting for response from the presidency, although the minister acknowledged there was a mistake in the sharing of the N23 billion released by the government for earned allowances to teaching and the non-teaching staff,” he said.
According to the chairman, the unions rejected an appeal by the minister to suspend their strike while government sourced for funds.
“We were asked to suspend our strike while they look forward to getting the money but we told him we had to consult our principals, which is the NEC of the various unions and whatever they tell us, we will get back to the federal government. But as I speak to you, the strike continues,” he said.
“We had a session with the National Assembly House Committee on Education last week where we presented our case to them: why we are on strike and the problems in Nigerian universities. But the Minister of Education did not attend and he was duly notified and acknowledged the invitation, but the Federal Ministry of Education did not give reasons for their absence and the committee said they will write to them of non-compliance,” he said.


He said the Ministry of Labour had invited the unions for a meeting on February 7 to discuss how to resolve the issues in order for the unions to suspend their strike.
“The Director of Labour Relations told us that the meeting was cancelled because the Education Ministry said we had a meeting with them last week and there is no need for meeting this week. The whole indication is that the government has nothing to offer us for now, so the strike is on and it continues,” Mr. Ugwoke said.
When contacted on Wednesday, the Federal Ministry of Labour spokesperson, Samuel Olowokere, said the meeting was cancelled because the unions had suspended the strike.
“The unions were supposed to have a meeting with us today by 3 p.m. which was the initial arrangement, but they have suspended their strike on their own since yesterday. Kindly call them and confirm from them. So they are no longer having a meeting with us again because the meeting has been overtaken by suspension of their strike,” he said.
But Abdussobur Salaam, SSANU public relations officer, said the nationwide strike was continuing.
“I don’t know what they are talking about. As I am speaking to you right now, we just finished a meeting in Ado -Ekiti reiterating the position of the strike. There is no truth in saying the strike has been suspended, it is still on and we are mobilising our members,” he said.
In reaction , the spokesperson of the Federal Ministry of Education, Chinyere Ihuoma, said the strike was receiving priority attention of government.

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