Nigeria’s public universities face fresh disruption as non-academic staff unions launched an indefinite nationwide strike on Monday over four months of withheld salaries, potentially paralyzing administrative functions across federal institutions.

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) announced the industrial action in a joint statement signed by SSANU President Mohammed Ibrahim and NASU General Secretary Peters Adeyemi.

The unions directed members across all public universities and inter-university centres to hold joint congresses on Monday, October 28, 2024, before commencing what they described as “an indefinite, comprehensive and total strike action.”

This latest action follows multiple protests and warning strikes during which the unions disrupted campus operations by closing hostels, locking university gates, and cutting off electricity supplies. The unions are protesting what they view as discriminatory treatment after the Federal Government paid withheld salaries to academic staff while excluding non-academic personnel.

The dispute stems from an eight-month strike in 2022 that led to the implementation of a “No Work, No Pay policy” by former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. While President Bola Tinubu approved the release of withheld salaries to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) last October, SSANU and NASU members remain unpaid.

Earlier this year, former Education Minister Tahir Mamman attributed the non-payment to a “communication problem” and denied any discrimination against the non-academic unions. However, the unions’ leadership maintains that the government’s selective payment approach is unfair and discriminatory.

The strike action comes after a three-week ultimatum issued to the Federal Government on September 17, 2023.