The leadership of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (SSANU), University of Ibadan chapter, yesterday, led their members on a peaceful protest at the main entrance of the institution to demand the immediate release of their withheld salaries.
The protesters blocked the ever-busy Mokola-Sango-UI-Ojoo Road for almost one hour disrupting vehicular movement with placards of different inscriptions such as “Federal Government should honour 2009 agreement made with the Union,” “Nigeria workers are hungry,” “JAC demands immediate release of Earned Allowances from 2013 till date,” “Tinubu once promised us cassava but now garri is no longer available,” “SSANU demands four months withheld salary,” among others.
They were led by both the chairmen of NASU and SSANU, Oluwafemi Michael Ogunlade, and Abiodun Rasaq Omisore, respectively. Ogunlade, while speaking with the media, said: “You know in the federal universities we have non-teaching and teaching unions. ASUU are the lecturers while NASU and SSANU are non-teaching staff.
“But what we discovered was that the Federal Government paid ASUU. I don’t have anything against ASUU. We are all working here (UI). But our grievances are against the government.”
“And we embarked on the same strike and we even suspended ours before ASUU’s. Our strike was four months while the strike by ASUU lasted eight months.
“If they fail to honour this agreement, we will go to Abuja on July 18, 2024, for a national protest,” he concluded.
Also, Omisore said: “We were promised by the government having followed due process but the government failed to honour the agreement. So, by July 18, 2024, we will move to Abuja for a national strike.”
