Academic activities at universities have been suspended as the Non-Academic Staff Union, NASU, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, and National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, commence nationwide strike, Monday, 4th December 2017.
The non-teaching staff of Nigerian universities, under the umbrella of Joint Action Companies, had announced last week that they would commence an indefinite strike today in public universities across the nations.
They had beforehand gone on a comprehensive strike on September 11, only to suspend the said strike on the 21st of September, after an agreement with the government. Now they have embarked on an indefinite strike to pour out their grievances. They stated that the strike was a necessity as a result of the Federal Government’s inability to clarify the criteria for the disbursement of funds, of about 23 million, dispersed by the government to the university unions.
A letter was addressed to all its branch Chairmen with the title “Directives to immediately resume the suspended strike” and it had the signature of all heads of each union, Comrades Samson Chijoke Ugowke of SSANU, Chris Ani of NASU and Sani Suleiman for NAAT. It directed that all members should suspend all activities as effective from 12.00 midnight of Sunday 3rd December 2017, as agreed by the contents of Memorandum of Terms of Settlements as reached on September 20, 2017.
The letter reads:
Feature image credit: nationalmirroronline.net“The strike action shall be comprehensive and total. There shall be no provision of services, either on skeletal or ad hoc basis. This strike, like others before it, is not our making or desire. No responsible union goes on strike without considering its implications on the system. However, we find ourselves in a sorry plight where strike appears to be the only option.”