The University of Abuja (UNIABUJA) chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), on Friday, protested the part payment of the salaries of its members by the Federal Government.
ASUU has been at loggerheads with the Federal Government since October when the union suspended its eight-month strike in line with an order by the National Industrial Court for the lecturers to return to work.
The Federal Government subsequently paid ASUU members a fraction of their monthly salaries on the basis of a “no work, no pay” policy, leading to protests by the union.
Members of ASUU in UNIABUJA, who boycotted their lecture rooms, occupied the entrance of the school’s Mini Campus with a banner that read “ASUU UNIABUJA Branch Say No to the Casualization of the Lecturers in the Nigerian Universities!”
The university staff were seen chanting solidarity songs and holding up signs that read, among others, “Education Is Life; Fund Our Universities Adequately”, “Lecturers Too Need Earthly Rewards for Teaching All Professionals,” and “No Work, No Pay Is Not Applicable To University Systems.”
Similarly, the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto chapter of ASUU called on President Muhammadu Buhari to stop using “starvation” to fight their members.
The Chairman of the chapter, Nurudeen Almustapha, on Thurday, led a procession to submit a demand letter to Buhari through the Vice Chancellor of the university, calling for immediate payment of their withheld salary by the Federal Government.
Almustapha urged the president to honour the agreement he signed with the national leadership of the union.
The ASUU chairman described the attitude of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige as worrisome and called on the president to stop the casualisation policy of the minister through pro rata payment of salary.