ASUU schedules NEC emergency meeting on withheld salaries

The National Executive Council of the Union of Academic Personnel of Universities will soon meet to discuss the eight months’ withheld salary arrears of their members, Saturday POINT reliably learned.

While the date for the meeting has not yet been set by the union’s National Executive Council, ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, confirmed the development to our correspondent, noting that a due date would soon be chosen and communicated to the public. be notified.

“We (NEC) had previously met and reached resolutions, but will meet again to decide on the next step to take, and when we do, we will notify the public.

“But what I can assure you is that we will meet very soon and make a decision on this issue of withheld salaries. The DPO must pay these debts. It’s our right.

“We have given the government some time to see if there is any improvement, but they have not done anything. We are collecting reports from our members and will take action,” he said.

While deploring the situation, he said teachers at Nigerian universities were struggling.

“Our members are going through hard times doing the same work that the DPO said they weren’t doing and they wouldn’t be paid for.

“We are all doing this for the sake of the country, but this will not be forever. We will definitely meet very soon and make a right decision at that meeting,” he added.

He said there was no progress in discussions between the teachers and the federal government, noting that the legal battle between them would continue in February.

Speaking also of withheld teachers’ salaries, ASUU President, Department of the University of Lagos, Dr. Dele Ashiru, said he was shocked that the federal government had not yet moved forward.

He also noted that teacher morale at his university had become “very low”.

He said, “As I speak to you now, nothing has changed. Unfortunately, the federal government is still adamant. The morale of our members has gotten so low.

“If the people with the responsibility to develop human capacities for Nigeria, Africa and the world are treated in this way, it shows the premium that those who govern us place on education.

“It’s not a worry either, because they can’t give what they don’t have. If we have leaders who are anti-intellectual, they cannot respect intellectualism nor honor those who engage in that profession. What is certain is that ASUU will continue to struggle until all amounts owed by its members are paid.

A sociology professor at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Ifeanacho Ikechukwu, told our correspondent that teachers were going through hard times because their salaries were not being paid.

He noted that some teachers had taken odd jobs in order to survive, and stated that the FG had chosen to be adamant about their demands.

Ikechukwu lamented the situation and said, “It has been terrible with teachers. Morale among teachers is very low. We have experienced this unnecessarily prolonged strike due to government ignorance. We were without a salary for eight months.

“We resumed on the understanding that we were negotiating with a government that had ears and conscience. What is happening now turns out to be the opposite. Many of our teachers have had to use different coping strategies. Our children have to go back to school. We have to buy fuel at the current price.

“We are still fighting to make sure we get back to normal by firing on all cylinders to teach morning, noon and night and give exams, to be graded in two weeks, just because we want to regain lost ground. What is the basis on which a reasonable person can say ‘no work, no pay’?

“I think the first problem is that the government doesn’t see the value of education. It is seeing education as part of the benevolence that the government bestows on the people to gain popularity. The government now sees education as an unnecessary burden and cost to the country’s economy.

“It is not interested in building the future. Some teachers have retreated into their shells. Some of them work but cannot justify why they have to wake up in the morning and go to class to teach, especially those who see this profession as a calling.”