The General Secretary of NASU, Prince Peters
Adeyemi, gave this hint on the sidelines of the ongoing National Executive
Council meeting of the union in Abuja.
Adeyemi told newsmen that the directive
President Tinubu gave two months ago for their salaries to be paid has been
disobeyed.
The President had in October 2023 directed
that NASU and Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities members be paid
two out of the four months withheld salaries by the federal government under
President Muhammadu Buhari in 2022 following a prolonged strike over unresolved
disputes. Adeyemi said despite the directive, they are yet to get their money.
“What is new is that the President’s
directive has been disobeyed. We used to know that the president’s words can be
equated to a command. So, when the President said to do this, his aides quickly
dealt with it. But in this case, it seems as if the Minister of Finance has his
priorities beyond what he ought to have done.”
The money has not been paid. Now it is
obvious that we are going to resume our suspended strike. We have given the
government enough notice. Very recently, we had to prevail on our members to
say, look, we think we are making headway, if we start a strike now, it may not
be good. But everything that we have done shows clearly that the Finance
Ministry and the Minister are unwilling to pay the two months that they said Mr
President approved.
“Our
patience is already exhausted. We are going to resume the suspended strike. I
know that when certain elements in a government treat the directive of the
president with levity, it could mean that they are exploiting their closeness
to the president, and the president will have to readjust.
“There is no reason for not paying this
money. I think this is a big disrespect for the president and an attempt to
provoke an industrial upheaval in an atmosphere that is cool and calm. It works
against the president’s resolve to say I don’t want strikes in the
universities. And everything is being done by this government, at least the
Minister, to prevent strikes. The Ministry of Education has done its part, the
president has done his part, the Finance Minister is the one sitting on our
money.” he said
According to him, their patience has been
exhausted.
“We
are going to resume the suspended strike,” he said
He however declined to give a date as to
when they would be resuming their strike action
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