SSANU suspends its strike threat after FG pays eight months of arrears

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has suspended the two-week strike ultimatum it gave the Federal Government on October 5, 2026, a day before it was due to run out. The union’s National President, Mohammed Ibrahim, announced the decision in a signed statement on Sunday, October 18, after its National Administrative Committee met and noted that the government had approved and released eight months of arrears, covering January to August 2026, on October 7.

For students in federal universities, the decision removes the immediate risk of a shutdown by senior non-teaching staff, the people who run offices such as registries, records, libraries and laboratories that registration, results and transcripts depend on. The union said it was standing down “in the interest of industrial harmony in the university system”, but it made clear the pause is conditional on more payments.

Two older pay debts are still on SSANU’s list

The arrears released this month only cover the current year. SSANU says it is still owed one year of arrears from the 25 and 35 percent salary awards the government introduced in 2023, and two months of salaries withheld from its members in 2022. It asked the Federal Government to settle both and to take “concrete steps” on every outstanding issue affecting members in federal and state universities.

State-owned universities are a separate fight. SSANU urged state governments that haven’t implemented the 2026 agreement to do so and to pay their own arrears, which matters at schools where the deal has stalled. Its branch at Lagos State University was among the unions that shut down LASU and its sister institutions earlier this month over Lagos State’s handling of the agreement, so students at state schools should follow their own branch’s notices rather than assume the national decision covers them.

Alausa wants vice-chancellors to stop sitting on staff allowances

The suspension came on the same day the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, told vice-chancellors of federal universities to pay eligible staff their CATA, CONTA and CONMESS allowances on time. In a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Ikharo Attah, the minister said government intervention had settled the funding arrears up to September, yet some eligible workers were still waiting for their money. “It is not right. It is not acceptable,” Alausa said.

He directed vice-chancellors to use personnel funds strictly for their approved purpose, clear administrative bottlenecks that delay payments, and keep engaging the government to protect industrial harmony. That warning matters to SSANU members because the money released at federal level still has to pass through each university’s bursary before it reaches staff, and delays at that stage can revive a dispute the national leadership has just paused.

Calm on campus for now, with conditions attached

SSANU’s decision follows a run of reforms the government has tied to its 2026 agreements with the tertiary unions, including the recent move to let federal universities hire staff without a recruitment waiver. The union didn’t set a new deadline for the 2022 and 2023 arrears, so no fresh ultimatum hangs over the semester, and how quickly the government settles those debts will decide whether this calm lasts.