he Joint Action Committee of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Education Institutions has suspended its ongoing strike for a period of two months.

A member of JAC and SSANU National President, Mohammed Ibrahim disclosed this in a telephone interview with The Nation on Saturday in Abuja.

He said the suspension will take effect from Wednesday next week.

“Yes, we have suspended the strike for a period of two months,” the SSANU president said.

According to Ibrahim, the Federal Government has committed N50 billion to pay earned allowances for members of SSANU, NASU and the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

He also said the unions reached agreement with the government on their conditions of service with the hope that the agreements would be implemented within the two months period.

The strike by SSANU and NASU has led to suspension in the issuance of academic transcripts; mobilisation of graduates for the compulsory one year service organised by the National Youth Service Corps.

In a statement on Saturday, the SSANU president said: “Today, after series of engagements with the Honourable Minister of Education and having considered the issue that led to the strike, and having satisfied ourselves that government, this time around, has committed itself to agreeing to respect the agreements that have been reached at the meetings, we believe that it is only honourable that we give the government the benefit of the doubt while the needful is being done at the government’s end.

“To this end, we hereby inform you of a two months window given to the government to actualize the agreements that have been reached. The two months window is in the nature of a ceasefire and does not represent a closure on the industrial action

“It is our sincere prayer, given the assurance made by the Honourable Minister of Education and our commitment to ensure an end to the ongoing impasse, that the two months opportunity will suffice for actions to be taken and the entire matter laid to rest.

“We wish to thank all Nigerians, the Nigeria Labour Congress and affiliates, the Media and all stakeholders in the Nigerian Educational system for their various roles so far and plead with them to continue to prevail on government to play its own side of the bargain in the interest of peace in our Universities and Inter-university Centres.

“In view of the above, NASU and SSANU members are hereby directed to resume duties on Wednesday, 24th August, 2022.”

The JAC of NASU and SSANU embarked on strike on 27th March, 2022.

The national industrial action was for an initial two week period, but owing to the nature of response which we considered almost non-existent, had to be renewed for another two weeks, leading to another one month and subsequently three months to allow concrete decisions to be taken on our demands.

The purpose of the strike which entered its 146 days on Saturday was to drive home the demands of the unions in the areas of: renegotiation of the 2009 agreements with the Federal Government; the inconsistencies in IPPIS which made the union to demand for its replacement with its own payment platform called the University Peculiar Personnel Payroll System (U3PS); non-payment of earned allowances; payment of arrears of National Minimum wage; release of white papers on visitation panel reports and usurpation of headships of non-teaching units in clear violation of establishment procedures.

Others included: full reinstatement of staff school teachers in line with the National Industrial Court Judgement and poor funding and governance of state universities.

“In the course of the industrial action, we had engaged with various organs of government including the Presidency represented by the Chief of Staff to the President. We had also had meetings with the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Honourable Minister of Education and heads of various governmental agencies in order to ensure a speedy resolution of the impasse.

“As responsible unions, we have always guided ourselves with the principle that in collective bargaining, no party takes all and no party should lose all. We are not deluded in any Winner takes all philosophy but a consideration for what is best for our members, what is best for our Nigerian University System and indeed what is best for the Nigerian nation.

“This strike would have been avoidable if both parties, the government and the union(s) had kept to their parts of the bargain. Unfortunately the bane of industrial harmony in the University system has been the issue of not honouring agreements freely entered into,” the statement added.

Despite reaching an agreement with the JAC of NASU and SSANU, the government is yet to reach a truce with the Academic Staff Union of Universities who went on strike on February 14.

The university lecturers are insisting on the payment of their six months salaries which covered the period they went on strike as a condition for calling off their own strike.

A situation the government has rejected, insisting that the university lecturers will not be paid for the period they were on strike.

This has led to a stalemate in negotiations with the university lecturers.

ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke insisted on Friday that members of the union won’t resume work until they are paid the salary arrears.

Source: The Nation