Strike stalemate: Pay salary backlog or forget unfinished sessions— ASUU; FG — ‘no-work, no-pay’
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The tug oof war between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government continued on Friday with the academicians insisted on full payment of backlog of salaries to lecturers, while the Government insists on ‘no-work, no-pay rule’ for the varsity workers.
It could be recalled that the meeting held on Tuesday between the Government and ASUU to end the over six-month strike ended in a deadlock.
News Band reported on August 17 that after three hours of talks, the much-awaited meeting ended with no formal agreement signed by the parties.
Leaders of the striking lecturers met with the Nimi Briggs Committee renegotiating the 2009 Agreements with the university unions at the National Universities Commission (NUC) Secretariat.
A source at the meeting told our reporter that what the government team proposed to the ASUU was a far-cry from the demands of the striking varsity teachers union.
Read details below:
Strike: FG, ASUU fail to reach agreement – News Band
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s breakfast show, Sunrise Daily, ASUU President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, maintained that without payment of backlog of salaries, Nigerians should forgo unfinished academic sessions.
President Osodeke explained that though public varsities have been shut since February, the lecturers should be paid since they have to teach to make up for time lost during the closure.
Reacting to government’s insistence on non-payment rule, Osodeke said: “Let me tell you the difference between ASUU and other labour unions.
“When other unions go on strike and come back, all those periods for which you are on strike, you don’t need to do the backlog of work,” the ASUU chief explained.
“But for ASUU, when we go back today, we are going to start from the 2020/2021 session. For these two sets of students that have been admitted by JAMB, we have to teach them over these periods to ensure that we meet up with the system.
“So, we are going to do the backlog of the work we have left behind.
“We are not going to start today and say ‘This session is 2022/2023, therefore, all these two sets of people that have been admitted by JAMB are cancelled.
“We have to take another admission for the 2023/2024 session’.”
He noted that if ASUU agree on government’s condition, the lectures that should have been given to students for 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 [sessions], should be forgone to enable the academicians start a new session 2022/2023 in September when a new session begins.
He also condemned a “pity party” over the government’s withholding of the lecturers’ wages as the union can take care of its members.
On its part, the Federal Government claimed that ASUU’s insistence on payment of backlog of members’ salaries is the catalyst behind the prolonged strike.
Minister of Education Adamu Adamu, who spoke for the government at the weekly Ministerial Briefing organised by the Presidential Communication Team in Abuja, said President Muhammadu Buhari flatly rejected the payment of the salary backlog.
Adamu said: “All contentious issues between the government and ASUU had been settled, except the quest for members’ salaries for the period of the strike to be paid, a demand that President Buhari has flatly rejected.”
He advised ASUU to see the no-work, no-salary stance of the government as its members’ compensation to students for the period they had stayed at home.
Adamu disclosed that the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian University (SSANU), the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and Allied Institutions (NASU), the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), Academic Staff Union Polytechnics (ASUP) and Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), have all agreed with the government’s terms.
He said the five unions, except ASUU, would call off their strikes within a week.
He said the government had in the past 10 years spent N2.5 trillion on university education and over N6 trillion of capital and recurrent projects through TEFFUND and UBEC on the entire education sector in seven years.
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Adamu said: “The stand the government has taken now is not to pay the months in which no work was done. I think there should be a penalty for some behaviour like this.
“I believe teachers will think twice before they join a strike. The government is not acting arbitrarily. There is a law which says if there is no work, there will be no pay.
“Unions in tertiary institutions in the country, especially ASUU, have been engaged in recurring and avoidable strikes that have crippled the university system.
“This is despite the huge investments of over N2.5 trillion in tertiary institutions in the last 10 years from TETFUND alone.
“Many Nigerians may not know that the government is paying the salaries of every staff in its tertiary institutions, academic and non-academic staff, while these institutions are also in full control of their Internally Generated Revenues (IGR).
“The government of President Muhammadu Buhari has expended a total of N6,003,947,848,237 in capital and recurrent expenditure in the education sector in the last seven years.
“This is in addition to interventions from TETFUND and UBEC amounting to N2.5trillion and N553,134,967,498 respectively in capital investment.
“We must also note and appreciate the huge investments from states and the private sector at all levels of our educational system.
“We will continue to improve on the implementation of the Ministerial Strategic Plan (MSP) all through to 2023 for the overall development of the education sector and the Nigerian nation.
“We will continue to create the necessary enabling environment to attract more and more private sector investment. We shall hand over a better education sector than we met it, he said.
The minister, while stressing that the government was doing everything humanly possible to end the strike, said students were free to “take ASUU to court” to claim damages.
Welcoming the advice of the minister, meanwhile, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has threatened to drag both ASUU and the government to court.
In a statement by its President, Sunday Asefon, NANS said: “Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to the Minister of Education Malam Adamu Adamu where he suggested that Nigerian students affected by the ASUU strike must sue ASUU for liabilities suffered as a result of the strike.
“Perhaps the only thing Malam Adamu Adamu has gotten right since he became a minister is the fact that Nigerian students needed to be compensated for their wasted time, opportunities, and resources.
“However, the minister is clever by half by suggesting ASUU should be held liable for the liabilities.
“Since Nigerian students do not think like the minister… since we can separate what is right from wrong… we will yield the advice of the minister by exploring legal windows for compensation of our students for numerous liabilities suffered as a result of the incessant and prolonged ASUU strike.
“We have, therefore, decided to take the advice of the minister and seek legal redress for the liabilities suffered.
“We will, therefore, consult with our legal advisers to see what options are available for us to explore legally against the Federal Government and Minister of Education.”
