Anxiety as ASUU continues protest, says NEC’ll decide next step

The no-work, no-pay Federal Government policy was the subject of a peaceful demonstration on Tuesday by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities at the Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University (formerly Federal University of Agriculture) Makurdi, Benue State.

The Federal Government had, in October 2022, paid prorated salaries to the lecturers after they called off their eight-month strike, saying they only worked for 18 days and should be paid as such.

The ASUU members who converged on the south core of the institution and marched through the campus, said the protest was intended to express their frustration with the Federal Government over the half-salary and the failure to pay for the eight months and implement necessary agreements.

Addressing members of the union before the protest, the ASUU chairman, Prof. Simon Ejembi, said, “We picked Wednesday as a no-lecture day, but yet we decided that students should go to class and receive lectures just to prove to the government that we can cover whatever gap they thought we left behind.

“We did not go on strike because we wanted to go on strike, but because the government failed to do its part; so we can’t be punished for that.

“We suspended the eight-month strike on September 8 due to a court ruling, and even when we appealed the judgment, the FG insisted that we go back to work.

“For the record, each time we return to work, the FG does not speak to us again; now that we have returned, they have stopped our salary since April, and we are paid per day of work. In fact, the present government is lawless and unserious. They want students off campus because they are not interested in students being in school because their children are abroad.” Punch