The National Executive Council of the Academic Staff Union of Universities is meeting in Abuja on Monday to decide whether to resume the strike it called off in October.
The new issue is the payment of half salary to lecturers for October 2022.
The Monday meeting is to discuss the union’s response to this.
Some lecturers say the union could decide on any of the following:
- Stay at home.
- Seize students’ examination results.
- Or scrap the 2021/22 academic session.
But some universities have already taken action.
The Punch reports that the ASUU chapter at the University of Jos resolved that lecturers will stay home until the withheld salaries are paid, that of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi has decided to abolish the 2021/22 academic session, and the Gombe State University ASUU resolved to seize students’ results.
The lead counsel to ASUU, Femi Falana (SAN), has faulted the federal government’s “no work, no pay” policy.
He argued in a statement released Sunday that the government should treat the lecturers like it treated doctors who went on strike for two months in 2021.
“It is public knowledge that the members of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors embarked on a strike that lasted two months last year,” he wrote.
“The federal government dragged the striking doctors to the National Industrial Court, which ordered the NARD to call off the strike.
“As soon as the strike was called off, President Muhammadu Buhari jettisoned the “no work, no pay” principle and ordered the payment of the salaries for the two months that the strike lasted.
“On that occasion, the President overruled Dr. Chris Ngige (Employment Minister) in the interest of industrial harmony in the health sector.”
Mr. Falana charged the government to “treat all workers equally.”
ASUU called off its eight-month strike on October 14 and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment said lecturers were not paid half-salaries but had their wages paid pro-rata.
