No Work, No Pay: We’ll Forgo Unfinished Academic Sessions, ASUU Replies Federal Govt

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said its members would begin lectures from the 2022/2023 session and forgo unfinished academic sessions lost during the strike, if government fails to pay the backlog of their salary arrears.

ASUU president, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, stated this yesterday at an interview on Channels Television’s breakfast show, Sunrise Daily, following the government’s insistence on non-payment of the lecturers over the industrial action.

He said though public varsities had been shut since February, the lecturers should be paid since they have to teach to make up for time lost during the closure.

Osodeke said, “Let me tell you the difference between ASUU and other labour unions. When other unions go on strike and come back, all those periods for which you are on strike, you don’t need to do the backlog of work.

“But for ASUU, when we go back today, we are going to start from the 2020/2021 session. For these two sets of students that have been admitted by JAMB, we have to teach them over the period to ensure that we meet up with the system.

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“So, we are going to do the backlog of the work we have left behind. We are not going to start today and say, ‘This session is 2022/2023. Therefore, all these two sets of people that have been admitted by JAMB are cancelled. We have to take another admission for the 2023/2024 session,” he said.

He said if the government maintains its stance on the non-payment of the salary backlog, members of the union were not obliged to make up for the lost academic time.

“If we agree on that, therefore, the lectures we should have given (to students) for the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 sessions should be allowed to go so we start a new session 2022/2023 within September which is when a new session should start.

“Therefore, by July next year, I would go on my leave as we used to have in those days so that the backlog is gone. All the lectures that remain; all the two sets of admissions that JAMB has given that are waiting should become irrelevant,” Professor Osodeke added.