The non academic staff of the University of Ilorin under the aegis of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of non teaching staff unions on Tuesday joined the nationwide industrial action called by the national body of their union.
The chairman of Non Academic Staff Union (NASU), University of Ilorin branch, Mr. Suberu Ibrahim, said the strike action will be total and indefinite.
Ibrahim said the non payment of their withheld four months salaries necessitated the strike action.
Among others, NASU is demanding the payment of the four-month withheld salaries of its members, improved remuneration, earned allowances, and implementation of the 2009 agreements the union had with the government.
“You will recall that in the last few months, we have been agitating for the payment of our withheld salaries, and when we went to Abuja for a national protest, President Bola Tinubu, in his magnanimity directed that the money should be paid to us. Unfortunately, the Minister for Finance refused to pay us,” Suberu said.
The chairman of SSANU at the institution, Mr Falowo Naheem, lamented the treatment the non-teaching staff of the universities were receiving from the federal government.
Naheem noted that the government has not fulfilled the 2022 agreement, which he said resulted in the latest strike action.
He added that, “The unions are only taking strike action as the last resort because members were pushed to the wall. The situation in Nigeria does not warrant for any government to hold people’s salary. This is a country where you cannot afford transportation, food, hospital bills.”
The National Financial Secretary of SSANU, Mr Akanbi Jimoh, maintaining that the national body will not relent in agitation for the welfare of its members.
