by Oge Okonkwo

Concerning the ongoing nationwide strike, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has made clear its refusal to join the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) because there were no sufficient reasons to do so.

This information was made known by the vice president (West) of the union, Alfred Jimoh,  in a talk with journalists after addressing the congress of the University of Ibadan (UI) chapter at the Theatre Arts Department of the institution on Wednesday.

Referring to the issue of payment  as ‘earned allowance’, Jimoh said the union is waiting to see how the Federal Government would handle its own demands, emphasizing that there was no point going on strike because some people were.

Daily Independent reports:

He explained that positive signals were coming from the Federal Government as regards their demands, hence the decision to sheath the sword for the time being.

At the congress summoned by the UI chapter of the union, members were briefed on the current development as regards their agitation for better welfare including payment of the ’earned allowance’.

Led by Jimoh, the union executives gave the account of how far they had gone in seeing to the implementation of the demands, with the zonal leader noting that he could not be categorical on when government would meet the demands especially the payment of the earned allowance.

While assuring that “we are very close to getting it paid”, Jimoh told the congress members that until recently, government did not show seriousness on their demands, but, said unfolding events had revealed that non-teaching staff must be tactical in their dealings with the government.

He cited the last meeting the non-teaching staff union executive had with government delegation in Abuja under the chairmanship of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, where it was revealed that ASUU executive specifically demanded that they would prefer to meet the delegation separately instead of being part of  the meeting.

Jimoh also said their observation and presentation at the meeting, led to the inclusion of president of each of the non-teaching staff unions in the newly inaugurated Implementation Committee for the “Needs Assessment Committee recommendation.”