As the head of the University of Abuja branch of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Nurudeen Yusuf says that th...
As the head of the University of Abuja branch of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Nurudeen Yusuf says that the union is protesting because the federal government has not paid its two months' salary.
On October 9, protests were held at federal universities across the country by a joint action group of SSANU and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU). Yusuf said on Channels TV's breakfast show on Friday that the protest was meant to get the federal government's attention so that it would rethink its 2009 deal with the union. "What's really important is that we want to renegotiate the deal we made with the government in 2009," he said.
"This agreement needs to be renegotiated to be valid for another 16 years, but the government has not done so."
Yusuf asked the government to step in and make things better at work for the union's members so they wouldn't have to go on strike. "We are going to see how the government reacts to our protest yesterday," he said.
"This is the start of a string of disturbances." We are going to start what JAC called "an industrial war" if we don't hear back from you. Yousuf said that the government was not sincere when it said it would address the protests, and that there had been "promises without action."
"We can't keep making promises because they don't allow us to eat," he said.
"There's no need to make a committee to pay people." "I don't think that's too much for the government to do: make sure that employees are happy and healthy at work so that we can do the best job for the country."
He told the government that it needed to do more to help schools and pay the 25% and 35% salary debts that have been due since September 2024.
"Suppose there is a university with more than 40,000 students and less than 5,000 beds available. Where will the other 35,000 students stay?" he asked.
"We need to improve the education system for the country to grow." The universities need to get enough money.
The head of SSANU said that some of the union's most important requests were for the 2009 agreement to be renegotiated, for two months' worth of salary arrears to be released, for third-party deductions to be paid back, and for the 25% to 35% increase in salary arrears.