SSANU, NASU strike halts activities at OAU, FUTA campuses

Activities at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun, and the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) on Monday were halted as staff followed a seven-day warning strike.

Topnaija recalled that the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) called for a seven-day nationwide warning strike.

SSANU and NASU sections, following national bodies’ directives, sealed the main gates, prohibiting cars from entering and exiting the campuses.

The bodies had called a nationwide warning strike to protest the Federal Government’s inability to pay arrears of four-month salaries owed to union members in 2022.

NAN correspondents who were monitoring the strike in Ile-Ife and Akure say that lecture halls and offices were also shut, preventing professors who had previously been paid their arrears from conducting academic activities.

In separate interviews, the Chairmen of SSANU in the institutions, Messrs Taiwo Arobadi and Felix Adubi, respectively, stated that the union’s action was consistent with the directives of its national bodies.

The chairmen stated that their members from the registry, bursary, works, maintenance, security, and student affairs departments had withdrawn their services.

According to the chairmen, the Federal Government signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) in 2009 and Memoranda of Agreement (MoA) in 2023 on the payment of their arrears, but nothing has been done to date.

Arobadi stated that if the FG acts today, the strike will be called off; however, if the FG fails to act within the time frame specified, the next course of action will be selected.

“What we are agitating for is that the Federal Government should pay our four-month withheld members’ salaries, following the 2022, nationwide strike.

“We see no reason why the government should pay only the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and abandon SSANU, NASU, and NAAT,” he stated.

Also, Comrade Wole Odewumi, Chairman of the Non-Teaching Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, OAU Branch, told NAN that the workers followed the national strike direction.

Odewumi said, “No union is superior to another, and since the Federal Government has paid ASSU, other unions should be paid as well.”

Adubi further stated that the FUTA unions have no complaints against the institution’s management, but rather with the federal government.

He stated that the FUTA unions would not heed any appeal from the school administration not to participate in the seven-day warning strike issued by its national leadership.

“All administrative and technical activities in FUTA have been paralysed, and we still have the whole of this week to comply with the warning strike.

“We don’t have a problem with the management of FUTA, but the Federal Government and no appeal from the school will go anywhere.

“As a matter of fact, it is unfair treatment to our members, and this strike is to resolve the issue positively before it leads to unnecessary upheaval in our universities.

“The Federal Government should pay our withheld four months’ salaries in the federal universities and inter-university centres as done for our academic counterparts,” he stated.

According to NAN, the institution was empty, with no academic work taking place following the unions’ instructions.