₦70, 000 transport intervention: 3 unions disown JNPSNC, back TUC

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru ABUJA — THREE registered public service unions have publicly disowned a press release issued in the name of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSNC) on 30 October 2026, declaring that no one can speak for workers without their mandate. In a joint statement issued on 1 November 2026 and signed by Comrades Kayode Alakija, President of the Senior Staff Association of Statutory Corporations and Government-Owned Companies (SSASCGOC); John Alli, President of the Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI); and Dr. Kamal Ibrahim, President of the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), the unions said they were neither consulted nor invited to any meeting where the issues in the JNPSNC statement were discussed.

The unions said: “The statement is therefore unauthorized and cannot be passed off as the collective position of public service trade unions. We did not participate in its preparation, endorse its contents or authorize anyone to speak on our behalf. ” The three unions also said the Vice Chairman of the JNPSNC, representing the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), was not consulted. “ASCSN, a constituent member of the Council and a registered union representing over 300,000 public servants, was equally sidelined,” the statement said. “If the Council’s own Vice Chairman and a major constituent union could be ignored, the credibility of the process is seriously compromised,” the unions added. While expressing their rejection of the N70,000 intervention, SSASCGOC, SSAUTHRIAI and NUAHP aligned themselves with the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), describing it as grossly inadequate amid rising living costs.…