After meeting with Adamu, SSANU, NASU suspend strike

The Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Education Institutions (NASU) have suspended their strike actions.

The development happened on Saturday after a brief meeting between the leadership of the unions and the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu in Abuja.

The suspension is expected to take effect from Wednesday.

Adamu said that the Federal Government has committed N50 billion to pay earned allowances for members of SSANU, NASU, and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Meanwhile, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU) is still on strike.

Adamu had during the week said that ASUU rejected the government’s proposal of “no work, no pay” rule.

And confirming that, ASUU’s President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, on Friday said that salary backlogs of members of the union must be settled before lecturers return to the classroom.

In a joint statement announcing the suspension of their strike, SSANU and NASU said the suspension was for an initial two months.

The statement read, “The two months is to allow government implements the agreements reached.

“Part of the agreement is the decision of the government to set aside the sum of N50 billion for the payment of earned academic and earned allowances, the cogent decision on the University Peculiar Personnel Payroll System (U3PS), release of the white paper on university visitation panel and funding of the universities.

“On the poor funding of federal institutions, the Minister said he directed the National Universities Commission (NUC) to ensure that all the schools are up-to-date on what they are supposed to do, otherwise sanctions will be visited on any institution that defaults.

“The Minister of Education also gave an assurance that no member of the unions that participated in the strike will be victimised.

“The Minister said President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to devout 15 percent of the national budget to education.

“On the salary payment system, the Minister said the alternative payment systems provided by ASUU JAC of NASU and SSANU did very well. He added that the Federal Government is awaiting the report of the technical committee it set up before taking action on the matter.”