FG to negotiate with SSANU, NASU over withheld salaries

The Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman, has promised to negotiate with the teaching and non-teaching workers of the Nigerian universities.

This was in response to the ongoing protests by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities and Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions.

The unions are demanding, among others, the payment of the four-month withheld salaries, improved remuneration, earned allowances and implementation of the 2009 agreements with the government.

For two weeks, ASUU chapters nationwide had been staging protests, sensitising the public to their unmet demands.

Both SSANU and NASU commenced their nationwide protests on Tuesday, with a plan for a grand protest in Abuja on July 18.

Mamman, in response to a message from our correspondent, said, “We will keep on appealing and engaging with them to show understanding and allow peaceful resolution of the matter.

“We share with them their concerns but we believe in the importance of a negotiated settlement to ensure we continue with a stable, non-disruptive session in tertiary education.”

The National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, in a report, , said the government gave the union a two-week timeline to meet its demands.

The timeline ends on July 25.

Osodeke said, “We have met with the Minister of Education and reached a timeline. They made promises to us and we want to watch if it would be done. We are meeting two weeks from today, July 25, to see if they have done what they promised.

“The protest made them call us for the meeting, they should fulfil their promise,” he said.