President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Emmanuel Osodeke said members of the union haven’t received their salaries since in February when they began the ongoing strike.
ASUU Won’t Call Off Strike
KanyiDaily recalls that ASUU had embarked on a warning strike since February 14, over the failure of the federal government to meet its demands.
Amid the strike, the government and the union have held a series of meetings, but both sides have reached no agreement on ending the strike.
Speaking on Channels TV this morning, ASUU president accused the Buhari-led government of using hunger as a tool to force the striking lecturers into returning to their classrooms.
Osodeke said ASUU would not succumb to the antics of the government, vowing that the union would not call off its ongoing industrial action until its demands are met.
He said, “Our salaries have been held, this is the sixth month or salaries have been held. They thought that if they hold our salaries for two or three months we will come begging and say ‘pls allow us to go back to work.
“But we as a union of intellectuals, we have grown beyond that. You can’t use the force of hunger to pull our members back which is exactly what the government is doing.”
This comes barely 24 hours after ASUU announced a four-week extension of the ongoing strike to give the Federal Government enough time to resolve all outstanding issues with the lecturers.
[IRP]