... Says Government Yet To Meet Union’s Demands
...HURIWA Condemns Govt’s Nonchalant Position
The National Executive Committee of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, headed by its President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, is scheduled to meet and discuss the inability of the Federal Government to meet their demands.
The NEC is also expected to deliberate on the half salary paid to members of ASUU by the Federal Government last October.
The meeting which will take place at the union’s headquarters at the permanent site of the University of Abuja campus, would cause palpable tension among university communities.
The union’s leadership would use the opportunity of the meeting to address the government’s decision and discuss their responses to the development.
ASUU President, who spoke in an interview with reporters, said the Federal Government was yet to meet any of the union’s demands.
Osodeke declined to give further details of the meeting’s date, saying: “I won’t say in advance when the meeting will take place. We are having a private meeting and will release the outcome when it is appropriate,” he added.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, har last week, stated that the government would not pay lecturers’ full salary, despite their nationwide protests.
It appears that the Federal Government and the ASUU are gearing up for another confrontation. ASUU had, last Monday, begun protests across the country to press home their demand for full salary, after the Federal Government failed to pay them for the eight months the lecturers were on strike.
Adamu, who spoke in Abuja, on Wednesday, emphasised that the protesting academics would not be paid for work that was not completed in accordance with the “No work, no pay” policy.
Meanwhile, a civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights’ Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has expressed sadness and disappointment that less than one month after the ASUU suspended its eight-month strike, the union and the Federal Government were back on a warpath, largely as a result of the bellicose and lawless position of the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige.
HURIWA, which condemned the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government for being totally nonchalant towards the educational rights of the children of the poor and less-privileged in the society, warned the government that: “it is playing with fire by pushing millions of youths in public universities system to the wall.”
The group lamented that the children of political elite were educated abroad, using the country’s common patrimony, noting
that ASUU was set to meet tomorrow to decide whether to embark on another strike or not.
“HURIWA noted that the Federal Government has failed in every aspect of our national life and has completely collapsed the economy of Nigeria…,” the group added.
