SSANU, NASU suspend strike after meeting with education minister

The Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Education Institutions (NASU) on Saturday suspended their strike actions after a brief meeting with the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, in Abuja.

The suspension is expected to take effect from Wednesday.

According to the education minister, the Federal Government has committed N50 billion to pay earned allowances for members of SSANU, NASU and the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

But ASUU remains on strike, insisting that the lecturers would not return to classroom unless their six-month salaries for the strike period are paid.

Adamu, who had hinted of SSANU and NASU’s strike suspension on Thursday, said ASUU rejected the government’s proposal over the “no work, no pay” rule.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday, ASUU’s President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said salary backlogs must be cleared before lecturers could return to the classroom.
The students would have to forfeit the lectures, assignments and examinations meant for the past six months if the lecturers won’t be paid for the strike period, he said.

“If we agree on that, therefore, the lectures we should have given [to students] for 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 [sessions], should be allowed to go so we start a new session, 2022/2023, in September,” Osodeke said.

“Therefore, by July next year, I would go on my leave as we used to have in those days so that the backlog is gone. All the lectures that remain; all the two sets of admissions that JAMB has given that are waiting should become irrelevant.”

He explained that when “other unions go on strike and come back, all those periods for which you are on strike, you don’t need to do the backlog of work.

“But for ASUU, when we go back today, we are going to start from the 2020/2021 session. For these two sets of students that have been admitted by JAMB, we have to teach them over these periods to ensure that we meet up with the system.

“So, we are going to do the backlog of the work we have left behind. We are not going to start today and say ‘This session is 2022/2023, therefore, all these two sets of people that have been admitted by JAMB are cancelled. We have to take another admission for the 2023/2024 session’.”

The ASUU chief also said the union does not need a pity party over the government’s withholding of the lecturers’ wages, maintaining that the union “can take care” of its members.