ASUU alleges government’s using ‘force of hunger’ over strike, says no salaries for lecturers since February

*Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, President of Academic Staff Union of Universities, has accused the Nigerian Government of using ‘hunger’ as a tool to force the striking lecturers into returning to their classrooms

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), again, has accused the Federal Government of not listening to their demands over time.

Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, President of ASUU, said instead, the Nigerian Government has been using the ‘force of hunger’ strategy against the striking lecturers by refusing to pay them their salaries since February this year.

Osodeke, who disclosed this development Tuesday, August 2, 2022, in an interview on Channels TV, said none of its University lecturers has been paid since the union embarked on industrial action February.

Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, President of ASUU (2nd right) and other Union’s officials at a meeting in Abuja

The ASUU President, particularly, accused the Nigerian Government of using hunger as a tool to force the striking lecturers into returning to their classrooms.

Osodeke, however, restated that the current administration in the country cannot use the force of hunger to pull the striking Union members back to work.

According to him, the Federal Government thinks that depriving the lecturers of their salaries will force the University teachers to collapse and end the strike.

He said: “Our salaries have been held; this is the sixth month or salaries have been held.

“They thought that if they hold our salaries for two or three months, we will come begging and say ‘pls allow us to go back to work.”

He further noted: “But we as a union of intellectuals, we have grown beyond that.

“You can’t use the force of hunger to pull our members back, which is exactly what the government is doing.”

It is recalled that ASUU February 14, 2022, embarked on strike to press home its demands for a better welfare package, revamping of the country’s education sector among others.

Incidentally, the situation  has forced several Nigerian students to remain at home ever since then.

Worried by the lingering industrial dispute, President Muhammadu Buhari, July 19, subsequently, directed the Malam Adamu Adamu, Honourable Minister for Education, to proffer a solution to the challenge and report back to him in two weeks.

The presidential ultimatum was expected to end Tuesday, August 2, as ASUU remains adamant until its demands are met.

The academic union at the weekend extended the strike by another four weeks, thus dashing the hopes of students to return to school.

However, Prof. Osodeke reportedly said that ASUU is still open to negotiations with the government representatives to end the lingering industrial dispute in the West African country’s education system.

There is no room for a master-slave relationship in the academic world, said he.

Osodeke as well stated that Nigerian workers have every right to criticise a wrong government policy.

The ASUU leader also condemned the controversial Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), a platform the government wasn’t to use to pay lecturers their salaries.

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