One of Nigeria’s university based unions, National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), has opposed the federal government’s offer to float a loan scheme, known as Tertiary Institutions Staff Support Fund (TISSF), for university workers.
NAAT also condemned an order by Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, revoking the University of Abuja land.
In a statement signed by the NAAT president, Comrade (Hon). Ibeji Nwokoma, the union said after a careful study of the loan document, it became clear that it offered no real benefit but ‘will perpetually enslave the workers’.
The union said workers accepting the loan amounted to taking their salaries in advance, adding that there are NAAT cooperatives to take care of the short-term financial needs of members.
‘After carefully perusing the document on TISSF loan, NAAT views it as a distraction, and therefore rejects it and wishes to make it categorically clear that her members do not need a loan that will perpetually enslave them as it amounts to taking their salaries in advance since there are NAAT cooperatives to take care of the short-term financial needs of members.’
NAAT, instead, urged the federal government to pay all outstanding arrears legitimately earned by its members, which included payment of three and a half months of withheld salaries, payment of seven months arrears of Occupational Hazard Allowance (OHA), and release of third-party deductions for the two months of withheld salaries that were paid.
On the revocation of University of Abuja land by the FCT minister, NAAT condemned what it described as the unilateral and arbitrary action of the minister.
NAAT stated, ‘This land has been specifically allocated to support future expansion in Research Centres, new academic programmes as well as increase in students’ population and the need for additional hostel accommodations.
‘Moreover, the decision to revoke the land was taken without proper consideration of the university’s masterplan which will cause major distortions in its implementation by limiting any expansion to only four thousand hectares of land.’
- Workers in Taraba State in north eastern Nigeria, who are members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), have embarked on an indefinite state-wide general strike which began at midnight last Monday.
The state secretariat and other government offices are locked following the industrial action alleging irregularities in the operations of the state’s Biometric Data Capture Committee, which labour leaders claim have unjustly affected civil servants and remain unresolved despite repeated engagements with the government.
In a joint statement, NLC Chairman Peter Jediel and TUC Chairman Sule Abasu said the decision was reached during a Joint State Administrative Council meeting on August 6th.
The unions accused the committee of ‘engaging in illegal practices’ and they stressed that the strike was necessary to protect workers’ rights and restore fairness in the verification process.
The strike will continue indefinitely until the government addresses the grievances raised by the labour movement.
- The Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) has vehemently rejected what it describes as a ‘dangerous attempt to use the newly announced National Industrial Relations Policy to criminalise strike actions and weaken trade unionism in Nigeria’.
It was strongly worded reaction to comments made by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mallam Mohammed Idris, after a Federal Executive Council meeting of the coalition of four unions under JOHESU: Health Workers Union of Nigeria, the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals, the Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutions and Associated Institutions, and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities, Educational and Associated Institution.
The NLC and TUC – said the federal government’s position ‘negates the fundamental right of workers to freedom of association and right to strike’.
They said that the right is enshrined in the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 87 adopted in 1948, to which Nigeria is a signatory.
The Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) has vehemently rejected what it describes as a dangerous attempt to use the newly announced National Industrial Relations Policy to criminalise strike actions and weaken trade unionism in Nigeria.
They also called on the Federal Government to ‘activate and strengthen the National Labour Advisory Council for effective and sustainable tripartite engagements in ensuring best practices in labour administration and adherence to international labour standards and extant labour laws in Nigeria’.
The statement, jointly signed by JOHESU’s National Chairman, Ado Kabiru Minjibir, and National Secretary, Martins Egbanubi, warned that any attempt to muzzle workers’ voices under the guise of policy reform would be met with stiff resistance, and reminded the government that the right to strike remains a globally recognised pillar of labour relations.
- Meanwhile, the Universities’ Academic Staff Union (UASU) in Kenya issued last Thursday a fresh seven-day strike notice to Moi University management, citing delayed salaries and failure to honour key agreements.
In a statement, UASU Secretary General Constantine Opiyo announced that all union members at Moi University will withdraw their labour from August 20th, 2025, if the institution does not implement the agreed Return-To-Work Formula.
The union is demanding that salaries for June and July 2025 be paid in accordance with the negotiated 2021-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) rates.
It is also calling for full implementation of the Return-To-Work Formula signed with the University Council on 30th November, 2024, as well as adherence to clauses on staff review and promotion, and retirement age, contained in the 2021-2025 National CBA.
UASU further insists that the university must respect workers’ fundamental rights and freedoms as enshrined in Article 41 and Chapter Four of the Constitution.
Moi University has faced a prolonged management crisis marked by financial mismanagement, recurrent strikes, and growing frustration among students and parents.
In January, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba inaugurated a new university council, replacing the previous one over alleged poor governance.
At the time, Ogamba expressed confidence that the new leadership would restore stability and academic excellence to the institution after years of turbulence.
- The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said on Wednesday that it is deeply concerned by the increase in the official unemployment rate from 32.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2025 to 33.2 per cent in the second quarter.
The sectors that recorded a decrease in employment according to the latest Stats SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) include community and social services, agriculture, finance, transport, utilities and manufacturing.
The drop in community and social services jobs is likely linked to the cuts in US funding implemented earlier this year.
In the same vein the slump in employment in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors could also be related to the much talked about US tariffs even though they had not come into effect at the time.
COSATU also noted a drop in people not actively looking for work of 28,000, bringing the expanded unemployment rate in Quarter 2 to 42.9 per cent from 43.1 per cent in Quarter 1.
This, however, brings no comfort as the rate is the same as it was in Quarter 4 of 2024. Essentially, the real rate of unemployment is at a standstill.
COSATU said: ‘We cannot afford to accept an economy where four out of 10 South Africans are unemployed in an economy with a meagre growth rate of 1 per cent.
‘Government, working with business and labour, must rebuild the state, to enable it to provide the public and municipal services the economy needs to grow.
‘They must invest in critical economic infrastructure essential to stimulate growth, expanding public employment programmes to provide a path for young people to find permanent jobs, to overhaul our skills and education regimes to ensure workers have the skills employers need, and to ramp up financing available to small and medium side businesses in the export sector.’
