The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), University of Ilorin branch on Tuesday, commenced protests to press for living wages from the federal government.
Similarly, the unions at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, embarked on a peaceful protest calling for the immediate sack of the Ministers of Education and that of Labour and Productivity.
According to the unions, their protest was necessitated as a result of the downturn in the economy which forced members to no longer afford foods, transportation and other basic needs of life.
At Ilorin, the university workers were armed with placards with different inscriptions like: “Pay our four months withheld salaries,” “We demand total freedom from IPPIS, “Release our N50 billion earned allowance.”
Addressing journalists in Ilorin on the sideline of the protest, NASU Chairman, University of Ilorin, Mr. Zubair Ibrahim, said their agitation was over salary arrears owed members by the federal government as a result of the strike.
He said, “We are hungry and we cannot die in silence. Members are finding it difficult to survive.”
According to him, the federal government has failed to address the demands of the unions following their warning strike some months back.
Ibrahim stated that, “after series of appeal to the federal government to pay their withheld four month salaries, we discovered that nothing was forthcoming.”
He explained that NASU and SSANU had earlier given the federal government a two-week ultimatum to meet their demands and threatened to shut down campuses nationwide if they were not fulfilled.
The NASU chairman demanded the immediate payment of the four months withheld salary arrears to members and 25 per cent allowance.
He recalled that the unions had reached mutual agreement that the federal government would pay N50 billion earned allowance, adding that nothing was forthcoming.
Ibrahim also said members rejected that their payment should be paid through the IPPIS which they alleged was inconsistent in its methods.
Also speaking, Chairman, SSANU, Mr. Olushola Falowo, lamented that the government had been insensitive to the plights of workers.
He advised that the government should cut back on the cost of governance and factor in the workers who are getting impoverished on a daily basis.
Also, Alhaji Akanbi Jimoh, the National Financial Secretary of SSANU, stated that the minimum wage for Nigerian workers was constitutional and should be of priority to the government.
The unions in Bauchi, also carried placards with various inscriptions and marched through major roads within the campus singing, dancing and chanting solidarity songs.
Some of the inscriptions on the placards read: “Ministers of Labour and Education should be sacked,” “Tinubu, pay us our wage awards,” “pay us our four months arrears of withheld salaries and other allowances” and “SSANU says: Tax the rich, subsidise the poor.”
Others are: “SSANU says enough of hardship,” “Pay SSANU, NASU withheld salaries,” JAC of SSANU and NASU says no to divide and rule,” “End insecurity, create jobs and economic prosperity,” “Pay us our N50 billion Earned Allowances now,” among others.
Speaking in an interview with journalists during the protest, the JAC Chairman, Sulisma Jatau, said their demand for the sack of the Ministers of Education and that of Labour and Productivity, was because they have not kept their words during several meetings held with their unions.
Jatau, who is also the SSANU Chairman, demanded payment of their four months salary arrears vowing that they will not rest on their struggles until their demands are met.
“This protest is geared towards making the government to pay us our salaries. They must pay our withheld salaries, they must pay our earned allowances, they must pay all our entitlements, 2009 agreement must be respected.
“The Minister of Labour and the Minister of Education must be sacked. We demand for their sack because they promised us more than 10 times now and we have not seen the light of the day, so they must be jokers.
“As Ministers, they are supposed to be honourable in their own actions and if they are not, they should be sacked and those competent should be appointed to head those places,” he said.
He added: “Tinubu’s government is a failure. We have given him time enough. He promised that he was coming in to fix the nation. He has been there longing to govern this country and with what he is doing, it means he never had plans in how to govern this country.
“Hardship in the country is too much, suffering is too much. We are suffering, people are dying. They have money to buy private jets, they have money to build a house for the Vice President when people are dying of hunger.”
Hammed Shittu and Segun Awofadeji
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