Pay Arrears Of Our Withheld Salaries, SSANU Tells Federal Govt

Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has appealed to the federal government to, without further delay, pay the arrears of its members’ withheld salaries due to the 2022 strike embarked upon by the union.

The association said its members are yet to recover from the effect of the hardship caused by the withholding of their four months salaries and may not recover from it unless the government clears the backlog.  

The appeal was among other resolutions reached at the end of the association’s two-day NEC meeting held at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State recently.

In a communique signed by SSANU national president, Mohammed Haruna Ibrahim, the association recalled that the government had reneged on collective bargaining agreements with the union which had led to the industrial action where SSANU complied with, and followed all industrial protocol before embarking on the strike.

The NEC-in-session also called for urgent reconstitution of a new committee for the renegotiation of the SSANU/FGN 2009 agreement, following the demise of the chairman of the government team Prof. Nimi Briggs.

SSANU equally demanded that the federal government consider merging the payment platforms developed by ASUU (UTAS) and that of JAC of SSANU and NASU (U3PS) and immediate payment of the arrears to her 11 member universities.

Other demands include release of the N50 billion for payment of outstanding earned allowances as contained in the 2023 budget, review of the conditions for the acquisition of the student loan to enable interested students to access and repay same and rejection in totality the dissolution of the governing councils of federal universities by the federal government and call for the reinstatement without further delay.

NEC in session also demanded that councils of universities be allowed to perform their functions devoid of interference by the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation or its agents.