Academic Staff Union of Universities warned Nigerians on Monday, that a new crisis would likely begin in Universities if the Federal Government kept withholding their pay.
Gatekeepers News reports that the Union urged interested parties and well-meaning Nigerians to pressure the Federal Government into paying its eight-month salaries across the country.
ASUU Chairman of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Moyosore Ajao said this at a Special Congress of the Local branch held at the University’s Main Auditorium on Monday.
The university lecturers had staged a solidarity rally within the University’s campus before returning to the auditorium and then Ajao’s speech was read by the Secretary of the Union, Dr. AbdulGaniyu Olatunji.
Ajao said, “Members of the public are hereby sensitized and put on notice again that a fresh crisis, which will surpass all previous ones, is looming again in Nigerian universities as our members cannot and will not continue to do free work that will not be remunerated. We hope that with this notice, all relevant stakeholders, who have the ear of the government, will act fast before the fragile peace restored on our campuses nationwide collapses.”
“Our union and its members should not be held responsible for the consequences that its actions, in response to the crude wickedness of the Nigerian state, would have on all stakeholders.”
Also, ASUU Members at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, protested against what they described as the victimization of lecturers by the Federal Government and its agents.
The Chairman, ASUU-UI, Ayoola Akinwole, spoke with journalists on Monday during a protest where he said that the Federal Government has not honoured the agreement with the Union since December 23, 2020.
Akinwole said the Government played politics with the lives of Nigerians and moved to stop the payment of ASUU members’ salaries for seven months, leading to starvation and death of some members of the union.
“The only explanation for this is that the government is hell-bent on destroying ASUU in order to have the freedom to destroy public universities.
“As a union of intellectuals, it is our historical responsibility to protect public universities from collapse and fight for the interest of our members as well as the interests of the Nigerian students. All these considerations necessitate today’s protest,” he added.
