Nigerian Universities seem to be on the brink of another shutdown as members of staff are set to resume strike action.
Indications from the campuses show that the four unions – ASUU, SSANU, NASU, NAAT- are unhappy with what seems like a breach of agreement on the part of the federal government.
The money -about N220bn- was promised for October 2017 and is to pay for the shortfall in salaries, Earned Academic Allowances, promotion allowances and fund the revitalisation of federal universities.
The unions had conditionally suspended their industrial action earlier in the year after receiving assurances from the federal government that their grievances would be answered and monies accruing to them released by October.
The members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are likely to meet between November 10 and 12 while the Non-academic staff unions have scheduled a National Executive Council meeting for this week.
Speaking to the press, ASUU President, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, said: “People may report that something is approved but until our people are paid, we don’t want to speculate anything. We have made our submission and we work with government officials, but whether it is approved or not, it is not for us to speculate.
“We have something we submitted that we worked on together with the ministry’s officials. So we expect that they pay, it is when they pay we can believe they have approved.”
This was the position taken by the chairman of the Joint Action Committee, comprising of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU), the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), Comrade Samson Ugokwe.
