The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, (SSANU) yesterday insisted that its leadership will not rest on its oars until the federal government pays their members the four months salaries owed to them within the period they were on strike.
The union also lamented that the government authorities are in deep slumber and that the negotiation between it and the government has been stagnated.
Speaking at the 42nd National Executive Council, (NEC) at the University of Calabar, SSANU national president, Comrade Mohammed Ibrahim noted with dismay that non teaching staff in the universities are passing through hardship.
Comrade Ibrahim also raised the alarm over the high inflation in the country, adding that it has worsened the difficulty Nigerians are passing through.
He said, "On the backlog of salaries as it affects federal university workers we have been shortchanged because when the law says for you to embark on any strike, you need to follow the due process, you are fully aware that our strike followed the due process because it was just a resumption of strike. We wrote to the government and notified them but there was a communication breakdown and that is why our strike was declared.
Therefore, it is not our fault that we went on strike and there should be no reason why our salaries should be stopped because we didn't (go on) strike because we wanted to (go on) strike, but because there was a breakdown of communication and negotiation between us and the federal government".
"So, the leadership of this union is leaving nothing to chance and I want to correct this misconception that SSANU leadership has given up the struggle for the retrieval of those four months. This we will not do while in office. We will do everything humanly possible to ensure that we get our money back. It is our entitlement, it is our salaries and we cannot leave it to anybody.
"Today, the government can be said to be sleeping deeply on our issues. They are in a very sound sleep because even the so-called FGN/SSANU negotiation can best be described as stagnated and stamped because, in the last six months, there wasn't any communication between the leadership and the government representatives, this is not good," he added.
