The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) on Sunday warned that non-teaching staff would also proceed on strike as soon as schools are reopened if the federal government refused to address its demands.
The latest warning came against the backdrop of a renewed hope for an end to the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
National Vice President of SSANU Alfred Jimoh, who stated this at a press conference held at the SSANU office, University of Ibadan, said the hope of having a peaceful post-COVID-19 industrial atmosphere in universities would only be a mirage, except issues such as unpaid arrears of earned allowances, inadequacies of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and double deduction of pension are addressed.
The union described as saddening that the earned allowances of non-teaching staff that arose from the 2009 FG/SSANU agreement was still largely unattended to, despite repeated industrial actions on the issue.
Pointing to various correspondences with the federal government, SSANU lamented the nonchalant attitude of the government to issues affecting non-teaching staff of Nigerian universities, while treating teaching staff as ‘demi-god’.