“We are ready to wait for two years until FG responds” – ASUU President

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has lamented the effect of the no-work-no-pay policy invoked by the Federal Government, saying it was meant to weaken their resolve.

The National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke spoke in an interview with The PUNCH.

Osodeke said that the last time he received his salary was in February, adding that the government’s strategy of withholding their salaries is meant to weaken their resolve over the union’s demands.

He however said members of the union would remain steadfast even if they will have to do menial jobs or embark on farming to get money.

He added that three weeks after they had the last meeting with the renegotiation committee, nothing had been heard from the government.

He said, “We have not heard anything from the government. This is the third week after the meeting with the renegotiation committee headed by Prof. Briggs. We will keep waiting until they respond.

“Ngige believes that our members will become hungry and beg them, but we will not beg them. We are ready to wait for a year, two years, till they respond.

“If it means doing taxi work, selling groundnut, doing farming to feed, we will engage in those ventures but he should be rest assured that his strategy of withholding our salaries will not work.”

Salaam corroborated Osodeke’s position, saying the government has resolved to use coercive means through salary stoppage.

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He said, “The government itself has been delaying the process of negotiations. It seems they are comfortable with allowing the strike to linger long because there has been no serious commitment to any issues so far.

“Government must show more commitment towards resolving the issues that led to the strike rather than using coercive means through salary stoppage.”

A  Professor of Linguistics, University of Ibadan, Francis Egbokhare, also confirmed that he had been without salary for five months.

He said, “If you don’t pay people who have accumulated much debt, the system will pay, one way or the other.

“Morale is already very low. Complicating it by withholding salaries will be a monumental error. The consequences on the system will reverberate everywhere.  A good number of lecturers have left for greener pastures overseas.  Many have adapted to alternative income operations.

“If we are not paid, self-help and coping strategies will be mainstreamed and normalised.  I think that a simple cost-benefit analysis will reveal the folly in the threat.”

“We’re done with negotiations, Strike can end tomorrow” – ASUU President

On Monday, the ASUU President rose students’ hope of calling strike when he said they had completed negotiations with the Federal Government and they could end the strike ‘tomorrow’.

“The strike can end tomorrow. We are done with the negotiations and now waiting for the government to call us for the signing of the renegotiated agreement,” ASUU President Emmanuel Osodeke, told Channels TV’s Politics Today.

Osodeke was however quick to explain that all the issues that led to the strike remained unresolved since a pact has yet to be signed by the parties to the dispute.

His words: “If the government  had been  willing to resolve the issues affecting Nigerians, then there would be no need to go on strike. The problem is the will of the government to resolve issues,

“All the issues that made us go on strike are still there; that is the revitalisation fund that is putting more money into universities and revitalising the infrastructure in the universities. “There is also the issue of our mode of payments in the universities.

There is no university in the world where lecturers are paid salaries from the Accountant General’s Office.

“We have challenged them to provide one, if universities are a universal body, why are they doing things differently? “We talk of negotiation of the agreement, the proliferation of universities, among others, so there are lots of issues that they have not resolved.

“What we are doing is for the benefit of Nigerians.  We want a a situation where there will not be a disparity between the children of the rich and the poor in knowledge acquisition in this country.”

CREDIT: ALLSCHOOL, Punch