Varsity Workers’ Strike Cripples Academic Activities

Academic activities were paralysed yesterday in most universities across the country following the decision of the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) to embark on a nationwide strike as directed by their national leadership.

Academic activities were disrupted yesterday also at the University of Benin and the Federal University of Lafia.

In a joint Congress held at the sports complex on the university’s Ugbowo Campus, the union leadership said a monitoring committee had been constituted to ensure compliance by those affected.

The association’s national bodies directed members to embark on the indefinite strike after exploring all avenues to make the federal government pay their four months’ salary, which has failed to yield results.

As a result of the strike, students were not allowed to participate in activities in the Library, Health Centre, and Sports Complex, while the private security outfit contracted was working at the gate.

Speaking at the meeting, the chairman of NASU University, Anthony Igbinosa, said, “The president said they should give us 50 per cent of what they owe us, which is two months, so we gladly left and happily told our people that we are expecting two months and let us start from somewhere. The 18th of July has been almost three months to date.”

For his part, SSANU counterpart Brodricks Osewa told journalists that to ensure compliance, “We have decided that we should commence, and there is a monitoring team that will go round, and we will make sure that there is total compliance in our university.”

Also, the Senior Staff of the Federal University of Lafia in Nasarawa State joined the indefinite nationwide strike called by the union’s national body on Monday.

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) branch chairman, Comrade Daniel Dajen, disclosed this to newsmen at the end of an emergency union congress in Lafia.

Comrade Dajen told journalists after the meeting that the leadership’s decision to join the strike resulted from the federal government’s failure to pay their withheld four months’ salaries.

He said the branch chapter’s leadership would ensure full compliance with the directive through the monitoring team it has established.

He called on the federal and state governments to institute a result-based framework toward implementing all agreements reached with the union to ensure uninterrupted academic activities in public universities nationwide.

Comrade Dajen pointed out that most public university workers face difficult times due to inadequate welfare and the non-implementation of policies to improve the system.

Our correspondent reports that the development partially crippled administration at both the takeoff and permanent campuses of the university.

The workers trooped to the university’s Sports Complex as early as seven a.m. in a bid to join the nationwide strike.