ASUU Strike Looming Over Unpaid Eight-Month Salaries

With the current ‘no work, no pay’ stance of the federal government of Nigeria, the Academic Staff Union of Universities – ASUU threatens to take another measure against the government if the eight-month salaries are unpaid. Professor Moyosore Ajao, the president of ASUU at the University of Ilorin chapter, gave the forewarning following the government’s refusal to pay the salary accrued during the eight months strike. 

In his speech delivered by the Union’s secretary, Dr Abdul Ganiyu Olatunji, at a special congress titled ‘Casualisation of Intellectual Workers in Nigeria: Prelude to Our Response’ he said all concerned entities and Nigerians should pressure the federal government to pay its members’ 8-month salaries across the country.

Ajao said, “Members of the public are hereby sensitised and put on notice again that a fresh crisis, which will surpass all previous ones, is looming in Nigerian universities as our members cannot and will not continue to do free work that will not be remunerated.

We hope that with this notice, all relevant stakeholders, who have the ear of the government, will act fast before the fragile peace restored on our campuses nationwide collapses. Our union and its members should not be held responsible for the consequences that its actions, in response to the crude wickedness of the Nigerian state, would have on all stakeholders.”

In the move to change the stance of the government, different chapters of ASUU, such as the University of Lagos, the University of Benin, the University of Ibadan, the University of Abuja, Usman Danfodiyo University, and the Federal University of Technology Akure, embarked on a protest over their unpaid salaries and the October half payment.

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What the Federal Government of Nigeria is saying

Despite the move made by ASUU regarding the non-payment of eight-month salaries, the federal government stands by its word that lecturers will not be paid for work not done.

During a briefing with State House correspondents, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, disclosed the government’s decision. He said, “Lecturers would not be paid for work not done.”

While ASUU was addressing Newsmen at the special congress held at the local branch of the congress, the union said they would also invoke their ‘No pay, no work’ if the no payment persists.

Ajao said, “In the coming days, the union would respond by considering invoking the ‘No Pay, No work’ policy and would abandon the works that have accumulated for those periods which the government has falsely claimed, through Chris Ngige, that our members have not worked.”

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