Senior non-teaching staff at Sokoto State University began a five-working-day warning strike on Monday over unpaid entitlements, withdrawing their services after an ultimatum to the state government expired.
The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) announced the action in a statement signed by its chapter chairman, Ismail Bala Muhammed, and secretary, Mansur Ahmad.
The dispute concerns salary arrears, an allowance for non-teaching staff, annual salary increments and outstanding union check-off dues.
SSANU is seeking arrears from a 25 per cent salary increase, alongside approval and implementation of the 35 per cent Consolidated Non-Teaching Tools Allowance.
The chapter said it issued a 14-working-day ultimatum to the government on 14 October. It said talks with the commissioner for higher education, the ministry’s permanent secretary and the deputy governor had not resolved its demands.
According to the union, a government committee had also engaged unions at Sokoto State University and Shehu Shagari University of Education without securing a resolution.
The union said that at a meeting on 9 October the government maintained that arrears from the 25 per cent increase would not be paid, and that the allowance would start in January 2027, subject to budgetary provision. SSANU rejected that position. The government has not been quoted in the reports we saw.
SSANU asked Governor Ahmed Aliyu to intervene. It said it could begin an indefinite withdrawal of services if the outstanding issues were not addressed by the end of the warning action.
Sources: Punch; Daily Post
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