The Joint Action Committee has directed the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and Associated Institutions and National Association of Academic Technologists to resume strike on Monday.
A letter to all the branch chairmen of the three unions on Friday titled, ‘Directives to immediately resume the suspended strike,’ was signed by Samson Ugwoke, SSANU, Chris Ani, NASU and Sani Suleiman, NAAT.
The JAC had claimed that only ‘pittance’ was given to SSANU, NASU, and NAAT, adding that the lion share of the money was taken by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
The joint body complained that the government failed to explain how the N23bn was shared between ASUU and the non-academic teaching staff unions.
The strike notice read, “Please recall our last correspondence to you in which we informed you of the letter written to the Minister of Education, rejecting the allocation made by the office of the Permanent Secretary and signed by the PS himself.
“In the said letter, the Federal Government was given seven days to explain the criteria for the said allocation and do the needful. The deadline has elapsed without any response from the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“In view of the above, therefore, you are hereby directed to resume the suspended indefinite strike action as from 12 midnight, Sunday, December 3, 2017. During this period, the strike shall be total and comprehensive.”
But the ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, said the money was strictly for the members of the teaching union, noting that ASUU only yielded part of its members’ claim to the non-teaching unions following government’s request.
He said, “We sat back to review what we were supposed to give our members. We had to cut down part of our members’ claim to give a portion to the non-teaching staff because the government requested us (to do so). “They (non-teaching unions) can make their demands too from the government, but they should not vent their anger on our union; that would be anti-labour.”
He noted that in 2013, the non-teaching unions shared N30bn earned allowance that was released to the universities, while ASUU was on strike, noting that the union did not benefit from the largesse.
Ogunyemi cautioned the non-teaching staff against harassing ASUU members, adding that the reported threats against its members would not be condoned.
He said, “While we are not against protests by other union members, we shall take necessary steps to protect our members. All the threats of assault and kidnapping against our members would not be condoned; we urge the university authorities and government to protect our members. We shall take all necessary steps to ensure that our members are not harmed.”
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