Yobe NASU gives Buni 14 days to meet welfare demands or face strike
- Non-academic staff in Yobe state-owned tertiary institutions have set a November 11 deadline for the government.
- They want a 65-year retirement age, the reviewed 2024 CONTEDISS salary table and non-teaching allowances.
- The union says lecturers got similar allowances while its own requests went unanswered.
Non-academic staff in Yobe State-owned tertiary institutions have told the state government to settle three welfare demands within 14 days or face a possible strike.
The ultimatum, which the union said began on October 28, runs out at midnight on November 11. It was announced in a statement signed by the Yobe State chairman of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), Comrade Ali Usman.
The workers want the 65-year retirement age applied to non-academic staff in state-owned tertiary institutions. They also want the reviewed 2024 salary table under the Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Structure (CONTEDISS) put into effect without further delay.
The third demand is approval and payment of the Consolidated Non-Teaching Tools Allowance (CONTTA) and the Earned Allowance (EA) that applies to them.
Why the union is angry
NASU says the state government has approved the Consolidated Academic Tools Allowance (CATA) and the Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) for lecturers, but left the matching requests for non-academic staff untouched.
Those requests, the union said, were submitted jointly through the Joint Academic and Non-Academic Staff Union (JANASU).
The union said it recognises the role lecturers play in building the institutions, but argued that its members keep the same institutions running through administrative, technical and day-to-day operational work.
According to the statement, treating the two groups differently could hurt how well the institutions run and strain relations between staff and management.
NASU also said the long wait has left many of its members unhappy and has pulled down morale in the affected schools.
What happens next
The union has asked Governor Mai Mala Buni and other government officials to step in before the deadline passes.
If nothing changes by November 11, NASU said its leadership will meet on November 12 to decide the next step under labour laws.
For students and parents in Yobe, the stakes are practical: a strike by non-academic staff can slow down registration, results, records and other services that keep tertiary institutions working, even when lectures continue.
