The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has condemned the payment of ‘half salaries’ to its members for October by the government of Nigeria.
The situation has been described as ‘insulting, humiliating and embarrassing’.
The federal government, it is understood, insisted on the ‘no work, no pay’ policy for the period the university lecturers were away from the classrooms on strike.
ASUU had begun the strike on 14 February, 2022, and announced its suspension on 14 October, making it eight months of strike action.
NEC meet over issue
With this latest development, the National Executive Council (NEC) of ASUU, it was gathered, is considering several actions, casting fears of another looming strike.
A member of NEC, according to a national daily, said the union would be forced to explore some options if the complete salaries are not paid.
‘We don’t have to go on strike; there are lots of options available’, Punch quoted him as saying.
‘We can decide to stay at home, we can decide to seize results, or we can decide to cancel the session since the government won’t pay the withheld salary and we can’t work for months that we weren’t paid for’.
The current situation now means students who have apparently resumed studies in various universities after eight months of frustrating strike can still not learn because of the decision of the federal government to punish lecturers by slashing their salaries.
There is a likelihood of another ‘strike’ looming if this situation is not addressed.
‘Misleading policy’
Meanwhile, legal luminary, Femi Falana, has argued that the position of the federal government on the ‘no work no pay’ policy is misleading.
He explained that since the industrial action was suspended, the public universities have adjusted their calendars to ensure that the 2021–2022 academic sessions are not cancelled.
To this end, students are currently taking lectures or writing examinations that were disrupted during the strike.
The government should know that if it continues to play ping pong with the welfare of university lecturers, these lecturers may be forced to make teaching their ‘side hustle’ and start looking for better-paying sources of income for sustenance.
This, in the long run, will affect the quality of education Nigerian students receive, making an already bad situation worse.
The Nigerian government should honour its part of the agreement with university lecturers to avoid these incessant strikes.
There should be a middle ground and a better way to resolve issues in a way that students would not be affected.
Photo credit: BBC
