The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to down tools after two weeks if the President Bola Tinubu administration fails to pay public university lecturers their withheld salaries.
ASUU President Emmanuel Osodeke said it is unfair for the Federal Government to pay lecturers four months of their 2022 withheld salaries and hold on to that of three-and-half months.
Osodeke expressed his displeasure on Thursday while arguing that public universities in the country have so far covered the work for the period that they were on strike in 2022 and should be duly paid.
The ASUU president sad the two-week ultimatum to the government began on May 13, 2024.
Recall that in 2022, academic and non-academic unions in Nigeria embarked on an eight-month strike to press home some of their demands including a better welfare package.
The administration of then President Muhammadu Buhari subsequently invoked a ‘no work, no pay policy’ against the unions but President Bola Tinubu, in October 2023, approved the release of four of the about eight months withheld salaries.
Osodeke said ASUU members must be fully paid for the entire period of the industrial action in 2022.
He submitted that the Tinubu administration has not done lecturers any favours by clearing four of their about eight months’ withheld salaries.