By Gbayesola Samuel

Members of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities, University of Ibadan staged a protest on Monday, April 20, 2026, over what the union described as persistent welfare concerns and alleged irregularities affecting the promotion of non-academic staff members.

The protest held on Monday, April 20, 2026 at the University was Jointly organised by Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU-UI) and the National Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) under the umbrella of the Joint Action Congress.

This demonstration followed repeated unsuccessful attempts to engage the university management on staff-related concerns as affirmed by the union leaders.

Speaking during the protest, NASU-UI Chairman Femi Ogunlade said the demonstration was triggered by what he described as the management’s handling of staff welfare and treatment of union members within the institution.

“It’s all about our rights. It’s all about maltreatment from the part of the management. It’s all about the way the management is handling the welfare of our members,” he said.

Mr Femi further alleged that non-academic staff were being sidelined in decisions affecting their career progression within the university.

According to him, one of the major concerns raised by the unions relates to the ongoing review of the university’s scheme of service used to determine staff promotions.

He said the unions were not represented in discussions surrounding the review process despite existing provisions requiring their participation.

“The scheme of service is what is used to promote our members— It is to be reviewed every five years,” he said.

“And the council has mandated that every union representative must be represented whenever the scheme of service is to be reviewed. But this time around they want to do it without carrying NASU and SSANU along.”

He further stated that some staff members had experienced stalled promotions and, in some cases, reversal of previously approved career advancements.

“Imagine someone being promoted for a good 10 years and someone just wakes up one day and says the procedure by which he was promoted is not right and therefore he has to be demoted,” he said.

The NASU chairman also cited cases where staff members were allegedly redesignated into positions different from those for which they originally applied.

He referenced instances involving technical personnel such as zoo keepers who were reassigned to unrelated cadres without their consent.

“Another example is someone applying for a cadre, a zoo keeper. And a woman who is the representative of the management and a senior staff member who he is working with said “I don’t like your face”.

“ Someone can look at you and say “I hate your face so we cannot work together”,” he exclaimed.

“And because of that, they have to redesignate those people to another cadre they didn’t apply for. Without their consent, they move them from zoo keeper to office assistant, move them to porter.”

Mr Femi further criticised what he described as inconsistencies in policies affecting security personnel who were previously encouraged to obtain academic qualifications as part of a university-supported programme but were later unable to use the certificates for promotion as earlier promised.

“The University of Ibadan had a program. After they said that the security personnel should go and get their degree before they can be promoted.”

“And after the union fought for it, they now said okay, they are going to organize a program” he noted while recalling the incident.

“After those people completed the programme, they were told the certificates would no longer be used for their promotion,” he said.

Also, part of the concerns raised by the chairman is on poor working conditions affecting some categories of staff, including drivers within the university system.

He added that repeated efforts by the union to communicate these concerns to management had not received responses.

“In 2025 we wrote 21 letters to them. No acknowledgement,” he said.

He added that although the university management had recently invited union representatives to a meeting following the protest notice, the unions proceeded with the demonstration after what they described as delays in engagement.

The Union leaders also warned that failure to address the issues raised could lead to further industrial action.

According to a source, the demonstration at the UI main gate was part of the ongoing protest of the union on poor treatment of non-academic staff which began on Friday, April 17, 2026.

As of the moment of the filling there is no official statement from the management on the alleged issues.

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