By Adadareporters
The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has issued a one-week ultimatum for the Nigerian government to pay the unions’ members’ withheld salaries or face an industrial action.
This is contained in a statement jointly signed by SSANU president, Comrade Mohammed Ibrahim, and NASU secretary, Comrade Peters Adeyemi. They are demanding the payment of the withheld salaries like their academic counterparts who were paid four months out of the months owed.
JAC said it had written protest letters to the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, Femi Gbajabiamila, over the exclusion of the non-academic staff when the government decided to pay part of the withheld salaries but that the letters were not responded to since they were submitted.
The statement read, “We therefore use this opportunity once again to call on the federal government to do the needful within the next seven days as the Joint Action Committee of NASU and SSANU should not be held responsible should the wheel of administration and corporate governance be grounded to a halt in the university sector, as we have exercised enough patience.
“If nothing is done by the federal government to positively address this situation and respond to our previous letters to them, the members of the two unions may be forced to meet soon to take all lawful and stringent decisions on the matter.”
JAC said it has done everything possible to prevail on their members to maintain industrial peace and tranquillity, adding that, “While we appreciate the federal government for paying our academic counterparts, we also deem it necessary that our members are also paid. The unions can no longer guarantee industrial harmony on the campuses should the government fail to pay them.”
