The warning strike embarked upon by non-teaching staff of public universities across the country on Monday grounded critical services at the University of Jos, (UNIJOS) in the Plateau State capital.
Daily Trust observed that the strike which was embarked upon by the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), showed members in total compliance.
“Compliance is 100 percent. We fully mobilized for the strike, and all members have complied,” Tony Okoka, the spokesman of SSANU told Daily Trust during the monitoring by officials and a special committee on compliance.
“We will continue the monitoring as directed by the national body,” he said.
The three unions are leading the strike action in protest of the federal government’s refusal to implement its 2009 agreement with them.
It would be recalled that the striking unions had notified the ministers of Labour and Education of their impending strike last year, but the federal government failed to address their concerns, compelling them to the decision to down tools for five days.
Okoka said the monitoring committee is committed to the directive for the warning strike, and has turned down several appeals by various concerns in the university, to relax the implementation on certain areas including the school clinic, as well as the staff school.
“There have been pleadings for us to relax strike monitoring so that services at the clinic, as well as the staff school are not completely paralysed. But we have a directive to implement this strike in total,” Okoka said.
Registrar of the university, Mr. Monday Danjem was not immediately available for comments, just as he did not pick calls on his mobile phone.
However, classes were held as lecturing staffs remained diligent on duty, Daily Trust observed.
