By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Lecturers in Nigerian public universities under the aegis of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), have ended a National Executive Council Meeting In Calabar, Cross River State, where they resolved not to embark on another round of industrial action over their withheld eight months salaries by the federal government, but to continue in protests at branch level and keep engaging stakeholders to amicable resolution of the issues.
“The National President will officially come out with the communique of the meeting. But we considered reports from branches regarding our nationwide protests and we are glad with what we got. It was agreed that the protests should continue, we need to let Nigerian people see that we have really given the government a long rope”, Vanguard quoted a source as saying.
The lecturers have demanded the payment of salaries for eight months, a period when they embarked on strike nationwide.
The federal government has said it will apply “no work, no pay policy” on the lecturers, saying it will not pay for the eight months ASUU members did not work.
The lecturers have called off their strike in October, a month the federal government paid for 18 days, applying “pro-rata” payment method, a decision ASUU says amounts to casualisation of its employment.
For the month of November however, the lecturers were paid in full.
“Some prominent Nigerians and different groups have been on the matter. Seeking the way out, we also want to give the people more time to intervene too. At least at the end of the day, if we are pushed to the wall, whatever we decide to do, everybody will see that we have tired and endured enough,” the source added.
A number of personalities, including the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, intervened and also, the National Industrial Court of Nigeria in Abuja gave an order for the union to shelve the strike before it would continue to entertain the matter before it.
