‘Promises don’t put food on table’ — SSANU chairman asks FG to pay withheld salaries

Nurudeen Yusuf, chairman of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian universities (SSANU) at the University of Abuja chapter, says the union is protesting the non-payment of its withheld two months’ salary by the federal government. 

On October 9, a joint action committee of SSANU at the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) protested across federal universities nationwide.

Speaking on Friday during Channels TV’s breakfast show, Yusuf explained that the protest was to get the attention of the federal government to renegotiate its 2009 agreement with the union.

“The crux of the matter is that we want a renegotiation of the agreement we entered into with the government in 2009,” he said. 

“This agreement, for 16 years, has been due for renegotiation, but the government has failed to renegotiate.”

Yusuf called on the government to intervene and improve the working conditions of its members to avert the union from going on a strike. 

“We are going to monitor the response from the government after our protest yesterday,” he said. 

“This is the beginning of a series of agitations. If we do not get a response, we are going to embark on what JAC called ‘an industrial war’.”

Yusuf decried the lack of sincerity on the part of the government in attending to its agitations, adding that it has been “promises without action.”

“We cannot continue to live on promises as it does not put food on our table,” he said. 

“You don’t need to set up a committee to pay salaries. Improve staff welfare and working conditions so we would deliver the best for the country, and I don’t think that is too much for the government.”

He urged the government to improve education funding and pay its 25/35 per cent salary arrears, which have been held since September 2024. 

“Imagine a university with over forty thousand students and available accommodation is less than five thousand, where will the remaining thirty-five thousand stay?” he asked.

“For a country to develop, we need to develop the education system. The universities must be properly funded.”

The SSANU chairman listed the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, release of its two months’ salary arrears, payment of third-party deductions, and the 25/35 per cent increase in salary arrears as some of the most urgent demands of the union.