*asks President Tinubu to sanction finance minister for refusing directive to pay salaries
By Michael Oche
Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), has threatened to resume their suspended strike action over the failure of the federal government to release two months from their four months withheld salaries despite directive by President Bola Tinubu.
The unions accused Minister of Finance, Wale Edun of disobeying the President’s directive on the release of the withheld salaries
Speaking to journalists on Wednesday in Abuja during the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of NASU, General Secretary, Peters Adeyemi said, “we are going to resume the suspended strike. We have given enough notice. In fact, very recently, we had to prevail on our members to say, ‘look, we think we are making headway. So if we start a strike now, it may not be good’, but everything that we have done shows clearly that the finance ministry and the Minister are not willing to pay the two months salaries.”
President Bola Tinubu had, while approving a N70,000 minimum wage for workers in the country, directed the Finance Minister to deploy resources and pay at least 50%(two months) out of the four months owed to NASU.
But four months after the presidential directive, precisely July 2024, NASU said the Minister of Finance is yet to heed the presidential directive.
“So our patient is already exhausted, we are going to resume the suspended strike.
There is no reason for withholding or for not paying this money. I think clearly that this is a big disrespect for the President and an attempt to provoke industrial action in an atmosphere that is cool and calm,” Adeyemi said.
He accused the minister of working against the interest of the President, saying that; “He (Wale Edun) is working against the president’s resolve in ensuring that there’s no strikes in the universities, and everything that is being done by this government, to at least prevent strikes. The Ministry of Education has done their own part. The President has done his own part, but the finance minister is sitting on the money.”
Speaking earlier, president of NASU, Comrade Makolo Hassan also accused the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun of ignoring a Presidential directive instructing the payment of 50 percent withheld salaries of the union members.
According to NASU president, “As this NEC meeting holds, the Federal Government has refused to resolve the issue of the 4 months unpaid salaries of NASU members in the universities and inter-University centres despite the fact that we have been informed that the President has directed that 50% of the unpaid salary i.e 2 months be paid.
“We are reliably informed that the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Mr Wale Edun is the one sitting on the directive of Mr President on this matter.
” NASU will therefore like to use this forum to appeal to the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy to ensure that the presidential directive on this matter is implemented to avert further industrial crisis in our universities”.