Academic and non-academic workers at the Nigeria Maritime University (NMU), Okerenkoko, in Gbaramatu, Warri South Local Government Area, have gone on strike indefinitely to protest 30 months of non-payment and bad working conditions.
This decision was made on Tuesday following a staff meeting with the media at the temporary campus in Kurutie. The employees overwhelmingly backed the strike in a statement signed by Oweikeye Pathfinder Endoro and Moses Yabrade following the meeting.
The workers began the strike to protest the alleged due payment of nearly 30 months’ worth of allowance as well as inadequate employee welfare and infrastructure, to which the administration had allegedly turned a deaf ear despite repeated warnings.
The outstanding allowances include the 13th-month payment, which is due every October, and the 28th-day accommodation allowance, which is due every May, according to the workers. All payments were supposed to be paid out in May and October 2019.
The strike also highlights the workers’ dissatisfaction due to insufficient infrastructure for teaching and learning, insufficient office space for employees, the absence of a library on the Okerenkoko campus, and a lack of residential housing for personnel, among others.
“Staff of NMU at all levels, namely, academic and non-academic agree that the patience and understanding with management regarding the needs of staffers has been long envisaged and misconstrued to imply ignorance and weakness,” stated the workers’ resolution.
The institution’s Registrar, Dr. Alfred Mulade, issued a statement claiming that the reports that the university was shut down by personnel were false and that such disinformation was spread by troublemakers.
