Varsity Lecturers’ Strike Breached Court Order

A former presidential aide and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ita Enang, has asked the federal government to take the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to court for contempt over its request for the payment of unpaid salaries, among other demands.

Enang, who made this known in an interview yesterday in Abuja, said the demand contravened a court order obtained in 2023, which stated that the union was not entitled to salaries while on strike.

ASUU began a two-week warning strike on October 13, 2025, to pressure the government to implement the 2009 agreement it reached with the federal government regarding staff welfare, funding, and university autonomy.

Enang said, “They are going on strike to compel the federal government to disobey the court order. If you want to go on strike, you have to agree that, under the law, you have to forfeit your salaries for the period.

“In the US and the UK, there is a Strike Fund, the money that the union pays members during a strike, because during such periods they are not entitled to salaries from their employers.

“I advise ASUU to call off the strike and return to work while they continue negotiations with the federal government.

“The middle ground is for the federal government and for ASUU to know that the same responsibility that the federal government owes to it as a trade union and employees is the same responsibility that the federal government owes to the students.

“The innocent students whose academic calendar and life have been truncated and prejudiced.

“So, the academic staff union should know that those who want to go on strike should be prepared to lose their salary according to the law and they should read the judgment, particularly paragraph two in that judgment, because in that judgment, one of the things we claimed was that the period that the workers were on strike should not be counted.

According to Enang, all the issues raised by ASUU have been addressed by the Ministry of Education and the federal government, wondering what the union was looking for in ordering a fresh strike, insisting that it constituted contempt of court.

The former lawmaker referred to the relevant sections of the International Labour Organisation, which supported the lack of salaries for workers who embarked on strike, insisting that the federal government’s “no work, no pay” directive was in tandem with domestic and international labour laws.”

Enang continued: “The question we asked the court to determine on page two of the judgment was to interpret the provisions of section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act, Capt. 8, Laws of the Federation, titled – ‘Special Provisions with Respect to Payment of Wages During Strikes and Lockouts’, specifically dealing with the rights of employers and employees and workers during the period of any strike or lockout.

“Can ASUU or any union that embarked on strike be asking to be paid salaries, even with the explicit provisions of the law?

“And to determine whether ASUU members are entitled to emolument or strike pay during the period of the current strike. The judgment was in the federal government’s favour,” he said.