ASUU Plans Emergency NEC Meeting Over Withheld salaries

ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, who confirmed the planned meeting, said that the date for the meeting had yet to be decided by the National Executive Council of the union.

The National Executive Council of the Academic Staff Union of Universities is reportedly planning for an emergency meeting to discuss the withheld eight-month salary arrears of their members by the federal government.

ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, who confirmed the planned meeting, said that the date for the meeting had yet to be decided by the National Executive Council of the union.

We had reported that ASUU, an umbrella body of the lecturers in the public universities embarked on strike on February 14, 2022, to force the federal government to implement the 2009 ASUU/FG agreement on how to fund the university education in Nigeria to meet the global best practice.

However, the strike action lasted for eight after series of failed negotiations before the Speaker House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, brokered peace deal with striking lecturers.

Meanwhile, after the lecturers returned to classrooms, the President Muhammadu Buhari led government insisted that it would not going to pay for those months the strike lasted.

Since then, ASUU members had protested against the policy of no-work-no-pay policy, threatening that if they are not paid, all the semesters and examination papers of students would not be marked.

But speaking with PUNCH, ASUU President said, “We (NEC) had met before now and reached resolutions but will meet again to decide on the next step to take, and when we do so, we will let the public know.

“But what I can assure you is that we will meet very soon, and take a decision on this issue of withheld salaries. The FG must pay up these debts. It is our right.”

“We have given the government some time to see if there will be any improvement, but they have done nothing. We are collating reports from our members and will take action,” he said.

While lamenting the situation, he said lecturers in Nigerian universities were going through hard times.

“Our members are passing through difficult times while they are doing the same work the FG said they did not do and were not going to be paid for.

“We are doing all these in the interest of the country but this will not be forever. We will certainly meet very soon and take a proper decision at that meeting,” he added.

He said there was no headway on the discussions between the lecturers and the Federal Government, noting that the legal battle between them would continue this February.

February 04, 2023