Nigerian universities ‘ non-academic staff will start a nationwide three-day protest on Monday as a notification of their intention to go on an indefinite strike over the federal government’s inability to uphold its agreement with them.
The non-teaching staff’s agitation comes four months after their peers in the Nigerian Universities Academic Staff Union (ASUU) suspended their two-month strike.
The non-academic unions, comprising the Nigerian Universities Senior Staff Association (SSANU) and the Universities ‘ Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), said the arrangement now under dispute had made them suspend their own industrial action in March last year.
The protest will precede the resumption of the strike, according to the chairman of the union’s Joint Action Committee, Samson Ugwoke.
”We are directing our members to mobilise for a protest on 15th July to send a notice of strike to the federal government, ” he said.
On December 4, 2017, the unions started a nationwide strike following the government’s inability to resolve their grievances. In March 2018, that strike was suspended.
The former Labor and Employment Minister, Chris Ngige, said the government would pay the striking workers N8 billion within five weeks.
This was announced by the minister as a resolution achieved at a March 13, 2018 meeting.
But the unions said the delay in paying Earned Allowances had become a source of discomfort and agitation for their members and a source of embarrassment for their leaders during their protest in 2018.
