Strike: SSANU, NASU ground activities at Lokoja varsity

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) have shut down the Federal University Lokoja, Kogi State, following the nationwide strike declared by their national unions.

When our correspondent visited the Federal University Lokoja on Monday, the institution’s campus was deserted.

Addressing journalists at the Felele campus of FUL after a joint emergency congress, SSANU chairman, Comrade Adedeji Kasim Suara, noted that the two unions are embarking on an indefinite strike due to the failure of President Bola Tinubu’s administration to pay their four months’ outstanding salaries and implement the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on August 20, 2022.

He vowed that they would not return to work until their demands are met.

He said: “We don’t like the way the Federal Government is treating us. In 2022, we went on strike, and our salaries were withheld for four months. Since that particular time up till now, the Federal Government has not paid our salaries, despite the fact that our sister union, ASUU, was paid 50 percent of their withheld salaries.

“The President has magnanimously said that our four months’ salaries should be paid, but the people we are dealing with in the system raised a memo for only two months.

“The two months we are talking about, up till now, we are yet to get anything. Our four months’ salaries should be paid. When they pay us, we will go back to work.”

Also speaking, the FUL NASU chairman, Comrade Abdulazeez Yusuf, said the Federal Government has not been responsive to the welfare of workers in the university despite the current economic hardship.

“We have given more than enough time to the Federal Government. At this point, we are not considering returning to work until our demands are met. Our appeal to the government is that they should, for once, take our education sector seriously.

“Because any country that is not taking education seriously is not into any serious business. The government should know that those who are working in the university system have to leave so that the work can continue.

“There is no way people will work, and you will owe them for four months, considering the present harsh economy. We all know the prices of foodstuffs in the market. If you are not paid for four months, imagine what it will cost you and your entire household,” he said.

Meanwhile, SSANU and NASU unions at the Federal University Lokoja have set up a task force to enforce total compliance with the industrial action.