By: Monday Danladi, Bauchi
Members of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Bauchi, branches of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), on Tuesday, joined their colleagues across the country to embark on a peaceful protest to demand for better working conditions and environmental.
The two Unions described the administration of President Bola Tinubu as a “failure” because it has not met with the expectations of Nigerians neither has it fulfilled its campaign promises.
The Unions under the aegies of Joint Action Committee (JAC), mobilized their members for peaceful protest they staged at the Yelwa Campus of the ATBU.
The protesters carried placards with various inscriptions marching through major roads within the campus singing, dancing and chanting solidarity songs.
Some of the inscriptions on the placards read: “Ministers of Labour and Education should be sacked,” “Tinubu, pay us our wage awards,” “pay us our four months arrears of withheld salaries and other allowances” and “SSANU says: Tax the rich, subsidize the poor.”
Others were: “SSANU says enough of hardship,” “Pay SSANU, NASU withheld salaries,” JAC of SSANU and NASU says no to divide and rule,” “End insecurity, create jobs and economic prosperity,” “Pay us our N50 billion Earned Allowances now,” among others.
Speaking in an interview with Journalists after the protest, the JAC Chairman, Sulisma Jatau, lamented that the President Tinubu led administration has failed to address hunger and suffering among Nigerians.
He chided the administration for choosing to spend money on things that are not necessary like buying a private jet for the President, the renovation of the residence of the Vice President, among others.
He declared that, “President Tinubu’s government is a failure. We have given him time enough. He promised that he was coming in to fix the nation. He has been there longing to govern this country and with what he is doing, it means he never had plans in how to govern this country.”
Sulisma Jatau added that, “Hardship in the country is too much, suffering is too much. We are suffering, people are dying. They have money to buy private jets, they have money to build a house for the Vice President when people are dying of hunger.”
According to him, “Our entitlements should be paid to us that is all, we are tired of empty promises. You can see all of us, we are looking haggard, we are not happy and this time around, we are serious and we won’t take it lightly. He has failed, that’s all.”
He vowed that if the Federal Government does not pay them their entitlements by next week, they will hold Nigerian universities to ransom by embarking on indefinite strike.
He declared that,”And we will make sure all Universities are closed, the Universities will remain closed until all our demands are met, they must pay us, no going back on our demands.”
Sulisma Jatau who is also the SSANU Branch Chairman, called for the immediate sacking of the Ministers of Education and that of Labour and Productivity, saying that the two Ministers have failed in their responsibilities of addressing the plight of the two Unions.
He demanded for the payment of their four months salary arrears vowing that they will not rest on their struggles until their demands are met.
The JAC Chairman said that: “This protest is geared towards making the government to pay us our salaries. They must pay our withheld salaries, they must pay our earned allowances, they must pay all our entitlements, 2009 agreement must be respected.”
“The Minister of Labour and the Minister of Education must be sacked. We demand for their sack because they promised us more than 10 times now and we have not seen the light of the day, so they must be jokers,” he added.
He stressed that, “As Honourable Ministers, they are supposed to be honourable in their own actions and if they are not, they should be sacked and those competent should be appointed to head those places.”
