The National President of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, Muhammed Ibrahim, has explained why the union suspended its strike.
Recall that SSANU had embarked on a strike in March 2022, shortly after the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) commenced strike.
Ibrahim said the union decided to suspend its strike to give the federal government a window of opportunity to fulfil its promises.
SSANU and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Education Institutions, earlier on Saturday, announced a suspension of the ongoing strike.
The decision to suspend the strike was reportedly taken at the end of a meeting with the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, in Abuja on Saturday.
The Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Professor Abubakar Rasheed, was also in attendance.
Speaking with PUNCH, Ibrahim said, “We suspended the strike for a period of two months. This is to give the government a window of opportunity to meet all the demands. After the two months, we will meet again and have a review.”
The unions had called for the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement; payment of earned allowances; end to the usurpation of non-academic career positions by Vice Chancellors; inclusion of university staff schools into the university community; non-payment of minimum wage arrears, and deployment of the Universities Peculiar Personnel Payroll System for payment of salaries and allowances.