The Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU), has said it will be meeting with the Federal Government on July 25, 2024 over its unmet demands.
This was as non-academic staff of universities declared on Sunday that they were set for a one-day protest today, (Tuesday), on campuses over their withheld four-month salaries. The one-day protest would be a prelude to a nationwide protest planned for July 18.
ASUU National President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, who disclosed this in a phone interview with our correspondent at the weekend. said July 25 was the implementation date in the timeline agreed to with the Federal Government.
For some weeks now, ASUU chapters across campuses in the country have been engaging in protests. The protesting academics, who were joined by students, threatened to embark on another round of industrial action if the Government refused to fulfill the promises made to them.
The union also published an open letter to President Bola Tinubu, demanding the full implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the Federal Government since 2009.
Osodeke emphasised that the protests yielded a positive result, saying it led to the Federal Government calling the union for a meeting and fixing a timeline to meet some of the promises.
Meanwhile, unions of non-academic staff members of the university declared on Sunday that they will be embarking on a nationwide protest starting from Thursday, July 18, 2024, over their withheld four-month salaries.
However, before that, the unions said all branches of the non-academic unions under the auspices of the Joint Action Committee would protest at each of their branches today, Tuesday.
The workers, under the aegis of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, (SSANU), and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, (NASU), said their meeting with the Government officials had collapsed.
The two unions, operating under the auspices of the Joint Action Committee disclosed this in a circular jointly signed by the General Secretary of NASU, Peters Adeyemi, and President of SSANU, Mohammed Ibrahim.
The circular directed all branches of the two unions to hold a mandatory general meeting today (July 8, 2024) to sensitise members to the insensitivity of the Government to their plights.
According to unions, the actions were necessitated by the failure of the Federal Government to pay their members withheld four-month salaries despite several meetings scheduled with the Minister of Education and its Labour counterpart.
