Academic Staff Union of Universities has said it would not end the strike it embarked on eight months ago until Federal Government paid all withheld salaries of its members.
The union’s president, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, stated this during a telephone interview with ThePunch on Sunday in Lagos State.
He expressed that the government should not expect the lecturers to resume without paying the withheld salaries.
This comes as many Nigerian students anticipated resumption to class after the union last week agreed to end its strike following the Federal Government’s promise to release N70bn to ASUU as earned allowance.
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However, Ogunyemi explained that the members were still consulting and at the same time waiting for the government to fulfil its promise of releasing members’ withheld salaries.
He stated;
We are still consulting; we have not finished consultation, by the end of this week we shall make our report public. There are promises government made with dates. Government promised to release salaries of our members. The withheld salaries have not been paid and we need to have information on that. Government should not expect us to resume without releasing our salaries.
The ASUU chairman emphasised that once the timeline expired this week without the salaries being paid, the union would take a final decision.
Ogunyemi also said that he could not individually determine when ASUU would suspend the strike, stressing;
I can’t vouch for anything about resumption, but my members will determine that. The only thing I know is that payment of withheld salaries can smoothen the process and that is what we have told the government. It will aid the final decision.
The government gave a timeline and we are monitoring, once the timeline expires this week, our members will take a final decision. If they pay the withheld salaries, it will make the process easier to handle.
The union on March 23 embarked on an indefinite strike over the failure of the Federal Government to keep to the 2019 Memorandum of Action between them as well as disagreement over the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) that ASUU rejected.
Read Also: Just In: ASUU Begins Indefinite Strike
ASUU and Federal Government has since engaged in several meetings to negotiate the demands of the union in order to bring the strike to end.
