Following a brief meeting in Abuja with the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Education Institutions (NASU) on Saturday postponed their imminent strike measures.
The suspension was anticipated to begin on Wednesday.
The Federal Government has pledged N50 billion, according to the Minister of Education, to pay earned allowances for SSANU, NASU, and Academic Staff Union of Universities members.
However, given that ASUU is still on strike, activities in public universities are anticipated to be restricted.
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Minister Adamu said ASUU rejected the government’s proposal over the “no work, no pay” clause. On Thursday, Minister Adamu had hinted at the suspension of SSANU and NASU’s strikes.
ASUU’s Stance
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday, ASUU’s President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, said salary backlogs must be cleared before lecturers return to the classroom.
Professor Osodeke said;
If we agree on that, therefore, the lectures we should have given [to students] for 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 [sessions], should be allowed to go so we start a new session, 2022/2023, in September.
Therefore, by July next year, I would go on my leave as we used to have in those days so that the backlog is gone. All the lectures that remain; all the two sets of admissions that JAMB has given that are waiting should become irrelevant.
He explained that 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.
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’.
The ASUU chief also said the union does not need a pity party over the government’s withholding of the lecturers’ wages, maintaining that the union “can take care” of its members.
ASUU has been on strike since February 14.
