The National Executive Council of the Academic Staff Union
of Universities is reportedly planning for an emergency meeting to discuss the
withheld eight-month salary arrears of their members by the federal government.
ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, who confirmed the
planned meeting, said that the date for the meeting had yet to be decided by
the National Executive Council of the union.
We had reported that ASUU, an umbrella body of the lecturers
in the public universities embarked on strike on February 14, 2022, to force
the federal government to implement the 2009 ASUU/FG agreement on how to fund
the university education in Nigeria to meet the global best practice.
However, the strike action lasted for eight after series of
failed negotiations before the Speaker House of Representatives, Femi
Gbajabiamila, brokered peace deal with striking lecturers.
Meanwhile, after the lecturers returned to classrooms, the
President Muhammadu Buhari led government insisted that it would not going to
pay for those months the strike lasted.
Since then, ASUU members had protested against the policy of
no-work-no-pay policy, threatening that if they are not paid, all the semesters
and examination papers of students would not be marked.
But speaking with PUNCH, ASUU President said, “We (NEC) had
met before now and reached resolutions but will meet again to decide on the
next step to take, and when we do so, we will let the public know.
“But what I can assure you is that we will meet very soon,
and take a decision on this issue of withheld salaries. The FG must pay up
these debts. It is our right.”
“We have given the government some time to see if there will
be any improvement, but they have done nothing. We are collating reports from
our members and will take action,” he said.
While lamenting the situation, he said lecturers in Nigerian
universities were going through hard times.
“Our members are passing through difficult times while they
are doing the same work the FG said they did not do and were not going to be
paid for.
“We are doing all these in the interest of the country but
this will not be forever. We will certainly meet very soon and take a proper
decision at that meeting,” he added.
He said there was no headway on the discussions between the
lecturers and the Federal Government, noting that the legal battle between them
would continue this February.