Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), Taraba State University (TSU) branch, has threatened to embark on an indefinite strike if their long-standing demands are not addressed by the university management and the state government.
In a communiqué issued after an emergency congress meeting held on Thursday, 9th October 2025, the unions said they had joined the nationwide solidarity protest directed by their national leadership to compel the Federal Government to meet the pending demands of university non-teaching staff.
The statement, signed by Comrade Bitrus Joseph Ajibauka, Chairperson, and Nkyareuten Musa Ipeyen, JAC Secretary, lamented that despite several meetings and assurances, most of their grievances remain unresolved. They listed their demands to include the payment of outstanding salaries and allowances, unpaid full salaries for September and October 2022, withheld salary balances of June, November, and December 2022, Earned Administrative Allowances (EAA), the payment of the remaining 87.1% of accumulated sums, and settlement of pension and gratuity arrears.
‘We want the Taraba State Government to complete the process of the State-Defined Pension Scheme for the staff of Taraba State University, including benefits for deceased and retired staff, which should be promptly computed and paid to them and their families,’ the communiqué read in part.
The unions recalled that a Memorandum of Action (MoA) was signed on January 25, 2025, following the suspension of an earlier strike, but noted that the university management and the state government have yet to fulfil their commitments.
They warned that failure to meet their demands within the shortest possible time would leave them with no option but to resume the total, comprehensive, and indefinite strike earlier suspended in January 2025.
At the national level, Nigerian Tribune reports that the Joint National Action Committee of SSANU and NASU, led by Comrade Mohammed H. Ibrahim, National President of SSANU, and Prince Peters A. Adeyemi, JP, General Secretary of NASU, had directed all university branches to stage solidarity protests nationwide.
The unions are demanding that the Federal Government address the unjust disbursement of the N50 billion earned allowances, non-payment of two months’ outstanding salaries, non-remittance of third-party deductions for May and June 2022, and delay in the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/NASU/SSANU agreement, among other issues.
They also faulted the slow pace of intervention by the Joint Consultative Committee set up by the Federal Ministry of Education, which met twice between September 19 and October 6, 2025, without tangible progress.
Meanwhile, the TSU JAC urged Governor Agbu Kefas and the university authorities to act swiftly to avert an imminent shutdown of academic and administrative activities on campus.
‘Our congress-in-session unanimously resolved to appeal to the university management and the Taraba State Government to settle all outstanding issues to prevent the resumption of the suspended indefinite strike,’ the statement concluded.