FG Vs ASUU: No serious country in the world treats its scholars the way Nigeria does – Professor Emmanuel Osodeke.
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been on strike since February 14 over improved welfare, revitalization of public universities, and academic autonomy among other demands.
The face-off between the Federal Government has lasted too long and left our teeming students idle and unproductive thereby dashing hopes and crushing dreams.
ASUU’s President Professor Emmanuel Osodeke spoke to Punch Newspaper and said the government’s decision not to meet the union’s demands is hurting the nation.
However, the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Education Institutions (NASU) on Saturday suspended their strike actions after the Federal Government committed N50 billion to pay earned allowances for university staff, including ASUU but ASUU rejected the government’s proposal over the “no work, no pay” rule.
According to Mallam Adamu Adamu, the minister of Education, he 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.”
The Minister further stated that: “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 behavior like this,” he warned. “I think 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.”
ASUU sure responded predictably as Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, ASUU president stated emotionally that: “no serious country in the world treats its scholars” the way Nigeria does. He then framed the strike action as one in which ASUU had zero blame: he claimed that the federal government “imposed the ongoing strike and encouraged it to linger.”
