The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has insisted that it would not call off its strike action until the Federal Government fulfils its promise and pays all the withheld salaries of its members.
According to a report from Punch, this disclosure was made by the President of ASUU, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, during a telephone interview on Sunday, December 6, 2020, in Lagos, where he said the government should not expect the lecturers to resume without paying the withheld salaries.
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Ogunyemi explained that the university lecturers were still consulting and at the same time waiting for the government to fulfil its promise of releasing the withheld salaries of members of the union.
The ASUU President said, “We are still consulting and we have not finished consultation. By the end of this week, we shall make our report public. There are promises government made with dates, government promised to release the salaries of our members, the withheld salaries have not been paid and we need to have information on that. Government should not expect us to resume without releasing our salaries.”
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While stating that the union would take a final decision once the timeline expired this week without the salaries being paid, Ogunyemi also pointed out that he could not determine when ASUU would suspend the strike.
He said, “I can’t vouch for anything about resumption, but my members will determine that. The only thing I know is that payment of withheld salaries can smoothen the process and that is what we have told the government. It will aid the final decision.
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“The government gave a timeline and we are monitoring, once the timeline expires this week, our members will take a final decision. If they pay the withheld salaries, it will make the process easier to handle.”
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What you should know about ASUU strike
- It can be recalled that there were media reports on November 27 that ASUU had agreed to call off its 8-month old strike action, following the Federal Government’s promise to increase its offer for Earned Allowances and funding for the revitalization of public universities from N65 billion to N70 billion.
- However, a day later, the ASUU President denied that the union had agreed to call off the strike. He said it was only agreed that the union would convey the government’s message to their various organs and then report back to the government. It also said that the payment of outstanding salaries must not be done through the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS).
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I’ve stayed at home for almost a year now and all what you guys care to do is we are having a meeting we are having an agreement.. do you people have conscience at all or if you were to have children in our shoes will you be using their career to play like this you guys should ask yourself wisely and make a wise decision now that is still early