Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria (MMWG) has lamented the lingering face-off between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and federal government and called on both parties to to shift ground with a view of paving way to resolve the crisis in the interest of the citizens of the nation.
The group’s national coordinator, Malam Ibrahim Abdullahi, who commented on three salient issues of ASUU strike, granting of bail for serious economic crimes and plea bargaining, said that the hardline posture of ASUU and federal government has worsened matters.
It appealed to ASUU to show more patriotism by calling-off the strike since the federal government had accepted the new pay platform introduced by UTAS with marginal increase in salaries of ASUU members saying that should not be the end of the matter as negotiations for better pay and fulfilment of other parts of 2009 Agreement could continue.
The group also called on the federal government to be magnanimous by waving the ‘No work, No Pay’ policy on this particular ASUU strike pointing out that the matter was now delicate and cannot be resolved by any hardline stance.
Abdullahi added that the lecturers on strike will be paid their outstanding salaries to date as soon as they resume duty so that lectures could commence, pointing-out that the seven months strike of ASUU was creating economic hardship for some Nigerians and it was reversing the educational gains already achieved.
As parents, the group argued that ASUU were supposed to give consideration to the economic hardship created by its strike and resolve the crisis by ‘bending a little’ to get the matter resolved by resuming duties latest by Monday 29th August, 2022 so that the Federal Government could order payment of their outstanding salaries, give go ahead to UTAS Pay Platform and negotiation for other demand could continue after resumption of lectures.”
The group called on the federal government and National Assembly to make serious economic crimes non bailable and to abolish ‘plea bargaining’ in the nation’s Administration of Criminal Justice (ACJ) System.
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