Non-academic activities were on Monday grounded at the University of Ibadan

Following the decision of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) to embark on an indefinite strike. The strike was in obedience to the directive of the national secretariat of the association that members should embark on the strike.

The strike, according to the chapter chairman, Wale Akinremi at the congress held at the Theatre Art Department of the institution was to protest against current situation with Nigerian University system and essentially the alleged relegation of non- teaching staff in Nigerian universities. Early yesterday morning, members of the union had gathered at the meeting venue to

confirm the earlier media report of the strike as declared by the national body of the union and it was a unanimous decision to toe the path of the national body after the chairman explained the reasons behind the decision.

Speaking with journalists after three hour-congress, Akinremi said the decision to embark on the strike should not be seen as a way to disrupt the smooth running of the university, but to let the Federal Government know and appreciate that the union was not timid. He charged the FG not to take their silence for timidity, stressing that, “if there is any union that should be on strike for several months now, it is SSANU, but, we have taken our time so as not to be seen as strike mongers. “Unfortunately, we are not happy about the signals being received which is why the strike has been inevitable. It is a national strike, this is not a strike against our Vice chancellor or against any other union.

"We have the mandate of our national body that from today(Monday)we should embark on sit at home strike, this means our members will be on strike until we receive another directive from our national body”, the chairman said. 

Akinremi, who reiterated the importance of education to the development of any country said the union was disappointed over FG's attitude to education,

particularly University education, which he maintained was below expectation, He urged the government to be more committed to issues concerning education in the country, failure of which “we will continue to lag behind in the comity of nations and this is not the vision of our founding fathers”.