Kano Varsities’ Workers Want Withheld Entitlements Paid

Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has urged the Kano State government to pay its members their entitlements, citing the severe economic hardships the affected workers face.

The north-west zone of SSANU expressed concerns that the state government owes staff at two state-owned universities various entitlements, including promotion arrears, hazard allowances, earned allowances, and arrears from the 2018 minimum wage adjustment.

According to the union, the universities affected are Aliko Dangote University of Science and Technology (ADUSTECH), formerly known as Kano University of Science and Technology, Wudil, and Yusuf Maitama Sule University (YUMSUK), formerly Northwest University, Kano.

In a statement released after its 6th regular executive council meeting at Federal University Birnin Kebbi, signed by the national vice president, Comrade Aliyu Adamu and zonal acting secretary, Comrade Hauwa Abdullahi Danbatta, SSANU highlighted that the Kano State government has yet to pay SSANU members at ADUSTECH their 2021 and 2022 promotion arrears, hazard allowances, earned allowances, and minimum wage adjustment arrears.

The statement further noted that YUMSUK staff have not received six months’ worth of consequential adjustment arrears.

Additionally, the union pointed out that palliative payments given to civil servants in Kano State were not extended to university staff.

Describing the government’s actions as “absurd,” SSANU’s North West Zone criticised the Kano State administration’s purported priority to education, questioning it due to the unpaid entitlements and the lack of a governing council at the two universities for over a year.

The statement also called on the state government to immediately reconstitute the governing councils of both universities and promptly pay all outstanding salaries and allowances owed to the workers.

The statement added that the neglect meted out to workers in the two universities leaves much to be desired.