The National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) University of Ilorin chapter has demanded the unconditional release and payment of their five-and-a-half-month-withheld salaries from March 2022 to August 2022.
The Informant247 reports that members of the association held a peaceful protest at the University of Ilorin on Wednesday, where they declared a three-day warning strike to press home their demands.
The demonstration is coming a few days after their sister unions, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and National Association of Staff Union (NASU), held their own protest over the same issue.
Speaking to journalists during the protest, Chairman of Unilorin NAAT, Comrade O.P. Awolola, described the strike as their last resort after the government failed to respond to their demands despite several dialogues.
“We have been mandated by our national body to go on a three-day warning strike,” said Awolola, who claimed that members of one of the unions had been paid their own arrears while other sister unions were allegedly outschemed.
“Our major grievance is what we call being sidelined by the federal government, which, in its own ingenuity, has approved the payment of backlog of salaries to every member of the university-based unions. But to our dismay, only ASUU members have been paid their arrears, and other unions now have to wait endlessly for their own,” he said.
He stated that President Bola Tinubu had in January this year approved the payment of four months’ backlog salaries for all the unions in the University.
While stressing the critical role that the members of the association play in providing quality education for Nigerian students, he added that the economic situation in the country has also worsened their living conditions.
“NAAT is using this medium to appeal to President Bola Tinubu to call all those in charge of the release of funds in order to avert throwing our wards onto the streets,” he added.
Comrade Awolola recalled the death of a staff of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife, Mr. Olawuyi, a seasoned technologist and a member of the association, who was killed by a lion at the zoo of the institution. He stated that the late Olawuyi is also being owed, and the payment of the arrears will mean that his death will not be in vain.
In his own remarks, the Secretary of the Association, Comrade Ndagi Mustapha, noted that the body is not embittered with the payment of the arrears to ASUU members but only demands equity and fairness from the government.
“We have also paid our dues in this line of duty, and it will interest Nigerians to note that our members have fully carried out their respective duties for which salaries are being held, and what we demand from the government is equity and fairness,” he said.
Among other things, he noted that the fulfillment of their obligations has ensured that students have successfully graduated and were further mobilized by NYSC during the year under review.