The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and Allied Institutions (NASU) at the University of Abuja commenced a protest on Tuesday over the government’s failure to release four months of withheld salaries from 2022.
Addressing the media at the protest, SSANU chapter president Nurudeen Yusuf described the government’s action as “provoking.” In 2022, the Nigerian government withheld salaries for both academic and non-academic university staff during an eight-month strike. SSANU and NASU participated in the strike for four months.
In October, President Bola Tinubu ordered the payment of four of the eight months’ withheld salaries for academic staff, excluding non-teaching staff. This decision led to renewed tensions between the non-academic staff union and the government. Despite the directive, only academic staff received the payments in February, prompting SSANU and NASU to declare a nationwide protest.
Yusuf described the disparity, stating, “You may recall that on March 18th, 2024 we invited you when we embarked on a week protest to draw the attention of the government to issues bordering on our welfare and university education in general, most especially, the payment of our withheld four months salaries. This is most vexatious and provoking considering the fact that the same presidential directive was selectively implemented to the advantage of our teaching counterpart- the academics.”
