The situation almost degenerated into an open conflict at the University of Jos, where the Vice-Chancellor, Tanko Ishaya, a Professor, was spotted in a video trying to force open the locked university entrance gate personally.
Access in and out of many universities and inter-university centres across the country on Monday was difficult for many workers, students, and residents as protesting members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Edational and Associated Institutions (NASU) blocked entrances, obstructing human and vehicular movements.
From the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), to Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), University of Lagos, French Village, University of Jos (UNIJOS), Moddibo Adama University of Technology (MAUTECH), Yola, and Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, protesters locked up entrance gates to the campuses over what they described as the refusal of the Nigerian government to pay their withheld salaries since 2022.
The Joint Action Committee of the two unions had, at the weekend, directed their members nationwide to withdraw their services from the institutions, urging them to fully comply with the directive.
This was as the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), the umbrella body for workers' unions in Nigeria, appealed to President Bola Tinubu not to allow the matter to further degenerate.
Campus situation reports
The situation almost degenerated into an open conflict at the University of Jos, where the Vice-Chancellor, Tanko Ishaya, a Professor, was spotted in a video trying to personally force open the locked university entrance gate.
Mr Ishaya, dressed in a suit and guarded by his security officials had personally used stones to break the chains used to lock the gate by the protesters. This is as the workers in their hundreds chorused protest songs against the government.
There was, however, no harassment of any official either by the security operatives or the protesting workers.
Meanwhile, at OAU, workers and residents including pupils of primary schools were forced to trek distances to their destinations as cars were not allowed into and out of the campus as the protesters gathered to ensure compliance.
Many motorcycles were parked at the gates as the owners struggled to gain access to the campus through the pedestrian gates.
Also at FUOYE in Ekiti State, the leadership of the striking unions was engaged in a shouting match with security operatives who had allegedly threatened to seize the workers' mobile telephones and stopped them from recording the scene.
The situation is similar across other institutions including the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta>> (FUNAAB), Ogun State, University of Ilorin in Kwara State, and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, (ATBU), Bauchi State.
Students, institutions speak
A student of the Department of Botany at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Abdul-Malik Yahaya, told our reporter on the phone that his morning lectures suffered slight disruption as the striking workers refused to open the laboratory where the lecture was scheduled to hold.
He said the lecture was supposed to be held at the Botany Lab on the Samara Campus, but due to the striking workers' action, another lecture theatre was quickly arranged.
The student also said the departmental library was also locked as of the time he checked.
He said: "When we got to the laboratory, the laboratory technician told us the place would not be opened because they were on strike. We had to use another class for the lecture".
A student of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), AmazingGrace Ajao, said though the unions were on strike, there was no form of demonstration and that the ongoing examinations had continued without disruptions.
"The only reason the strike might affect the students is if there is no power supply within the school environment and the union refuses to put on the generator for general use because that will prevent the students from reading at night for their exams," the student said.
At UNILAG, the striking workers were seen gathered in the waiting area between the Senate Building and the Faculty of Art where the leadership addressed audiences. However, the ongoing first-semester examination continued uninterrupted.
A Mass Communication Department student of the institution, Bimbo Adelakun, said there was no sign of demonstrations or interruptions on the campus.
The spokesperson for the Obafemi Awolowo University, Biodun Olarewaju, said the university authority is doing all it could to ensure that the strike doesn't disrupt activities more than necessary.
"What we are trying to do as of this moment is to pacify and appeal with the union OAU chapter to allow the students and other people who have one business or the other within the school community to be allowed into the school campus," he said in a telephone interview.
Also, the Spokesperson for the University of Abuja, Habib Yakoob, confirmed the strike at the permanent site of the institution.
He, however, said it was limited to the school gate and that it did not interrupt learning activities within the campus.
"As far as I know, they are not preventing the students from having their lectures or preventing the school from carrying out any activities. The school is not locked, as everyone has access to the school premises. Another thing I have also noticed is that 90 per cent of the union members are not in school," he said via telephone on Monday.
NLC intervenes
In a statement issued on Monday and personally signed by the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, the labour leader said the government has not provided any credible reason for withholding the workers' salaries.
The statement, which is titled: "Arrest this Drift Now," said by withholding the workers' salaries due to the strike action in 2022 many families were thrown into what he termed "indescribable hardships."
Mr Ajaero wrote: "We join our affiliate unions, the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational (NASU) and Associated Institutions and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) in demanding the immediate payment of the withheld salaries of their members.
"There has been no credible reason or explanation for withholding those salaries in the first place. We recall this singular act plunged the members into indescribable hardship. Much worse, it defies logic to try to subject members of these unions to discriminatory treatment. By so doing government is clearly courting avoidable industrial disputes."
He added that at a time when "confidence is being restored to the public universities, the least the government could do is not engineer another strike."
"The toll on all the parties will be unacceptably high, especially for students and parents who bear the burden of movement on our dangerous roads. In light of this, we urge the government to expeditiously pay up the outstanding. We advise the government to not take for granted the maturity of these unions," the statement added.
Backstory
In its notice of strike issued at the weekend, the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the unions said it had exhausted all means within its power to ensure dialogue with the Nigerian government.
SSANU and NASU are protesting President Bola Tinubu's directive for the payment of four months of withheld salaries for the academic staff of universities but with the withheld salaries of the non-academic staff left unpaid.
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The administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari withheld the salaries of Nigerian university workers for an industrial action that crippled the universities for eight months in 2022.
Mr Buhari's government invoked a No Work, No Pay policy against the unions that embarked on strike within the period. These unions include the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) whose four of eight months withheld salaries have now been paid by the new administration of Mr Tinubu.
Other unions are SSANU, NASU, and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).
However, in October, President Bola Tinubu announced that his government would pay four months of the withheld salaries to members of ASUU. The announcement instantly raised concerns over the fate of the members of the other unions.
The National Vice President of SSANU, Abdussobur Salaam, told PREMIUM TIMES that the directive appeared to be selective in favour of a single union out of others whose members' salaries were withheld.
He said the president's directive if not reviewed to include SSANU and other unions could be a recipe for disaster as he threatened another round of strikes if SSANU members' withheld salaries were not paid alongside that of ASUU.
Some weeks ago, the Nigerian government paid four months of the more than seven months' salaries of the academics, leaving out the non-academic staff.
SSANU and NASU, therefore, wrote the government asking that its members should also be paid or they embark on another round of strike but their letters were not replied to as of Monday.
At its National Executive Council meeting last week, SSANU resolved to announce a one-week strike starting from Monday to press home the demand.
