Bulmun Sunday Dakwal The scene: Richard Danjuma, a final-year sociology student at the University of Jos (UNIJOS), arrived for his usual 8:00 AM lecture on Monday only to find the campus gates at Naraguta and Bauchi Road were locked.
A crowd of students and lecturers buzzed with frustration as the security guards denied them entry into the school premises. Why? The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) called a seven-day warning strike to protest unpaid salaries.
“I came to school this morning rushing to avoid being late for my test, just for me to meet the campus gate locked,” Danjuma said. “This is frustrating, we have paid our school fee, for a course that I’m meant to spend four years studying, it’s almost eight years now and I hope it doesn’t escalate to an Indefinite strike.”
At the main gate of the Naraguta campus (which houses the administrative block and most departments), University of Jos vice chancellor Tanko Ishaya voiced his opposition to the unions’ action to shut down the school gates. “You [referring to the unions] do not have any right to lock a government property,” Ishaya said. He instructed the security officers to reopen the gate to allow for academic activities.
UNIJOS, already a year behind schedule due to strikes and unrest in Jos, is grappling with yet another disruption as the second semester of the delayed 2022/2023 academic session faces fresh challenges. The vice chancellor vowed to do everything possible to maintain the academic calendar.
Like Danjuma, several other students who spoke with JoeyOffAir lamented the delayed calendar. “I am pursuing a four-year course and I’ve spent close to six years now, I can’t afford to add more years, I hope the issue gets resolved soon,” says Samuel Abioye, a mass communication student.
Know more about the SSANU/SANU strike: Nigerian universities faced a double blow in 2022. Following a nationwide strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), SSANU and NASU also launched their industrial action just two months later. This further paralyzed university operations as they protested the government’s broken promises and chronic underfunding.
In response, the Buhari administration withheld their salaries under a “No Work, No Pay” policy. The National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) also joined the strike in solidarity.
SSANU condemned the “No Work, No Pay” policy, arguing they followed proper procedures before their four-month strike. Despite this, former President Buhari never released withheld salaries.
“We are only soliciting for our salaries to be released, the government can not pay ASUU and leave other unions it’s owing,” said SSANU national chairman, Anthony Joro. “You can’t have four children and give food to one to leave the other three to starve, it is not done like that.”
Zoom in: President Bola Tinubu’s administration released withheld salaries to ASUU members last month, but SSANU and NASU were left out. Fuming, the two unions demanded equal treatment and threatened a nationwide strike through multiple letters and an ultimatum to the government. Speaking to journalists in front of the Naraguta Campus gate, the UNIJOS NASU chairman hinted at a potential indefinite strike if their demands weren’t met after the initial one-week warning action.
“We have given the government a one-week ultimatum if they do not respond, we’ll have no other choice than to go on an indefinite strike,” he said.
Meanwhile, the federal government has yet to comment on the issue, and the silence adds to the growing anxiety as universities like Obafemi Awolowo University also closed down the campus gates.
