Members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) at Federal University Lokoja (FUL) held a peaceful protest on Tuesday. They want the Federal Government to pay their four-month unpaid salaries.
The two unions are upset because the government hasn’t paid what they owe. They said if the government doesn’t pay soon, they will stop working completely. This means they will go on strike.
The protest took place at the FUL main campus in the Felele area of Lokoja. Many people from both unions joined the protest.
The workers walked around the campus with signs. These signs asked the government to pay their withheld salaries and meet their other demands.
The chairman of SSANU at FUL, Comrade Adedeji Kazeem Suarau, spoke to the members. He asked the government to quickly meet their demands. He warned that if the demands are not met, it could hurt university education.
He explained that the unpaid salaries happened because of the “No Work, No Pay” rule used by the government when Muhammadu Buhari was president.
He said that when President Tinubu took office, he approved the payment of the withheld salaries. However, only members of the sister union, ASUU, were paid, leaving non-teaching staff out.
He added that, after asking about it, SSANU and NASU were told that approval for their payment was still pending. But until now, the government has not paid them.
He also mentioned that there have been delays in promotion payments for their members since 2018. Some members were paid, but many were not.
He said that members are struggling with the current economy. They were supposed to get extra money to help them, but this hasn’t been paid for four months either.
He urged the Federal Government to take responsibility and pay all their owed salaries and allowances.