CEM REPORT, EDUCATION | Another wave of protest is set to hit the country as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is set to embark on a one-day nationwide protest rally over the implementation by the Federal Government of a “no-work, no-pay” policy for lecturers in the country.
The protest will be organised at the branch level of the union across public university campuses nationwide, as the national body directed its members to choose a day within the week to hold a special congress and also go on a protest rally within their campuses.
According to ASUU the protest rally aims simply to draw the attention of Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora to ASUU’s strong dissatisfaction of the Federal Government’s attempt at casualization of the academics in the country by using ‘no-work, no-pay policy’ to remunerate them.
Nigerian Tribune reports that UNILAG-ASUU had fixed Tuesday, November 15, for its rally.
The chairman of ASUU, University of Lagos (UNILAG) branch, Dele Ashiru, who confirmed the protest rally insisted that university lecturers are intellectuals and professionals and cannot, therefore, be treated like casual workers.
He added that the casualization of academics, who are intellectuals for any reason is totally alien to the academic system anywhere globally.
Expected to address the conference are; Abiodun Aremu, who is the Secretary General of the Joint Front Action; Hassan Soweto, the National Coordinator of Education Rights Campaign; Giwa Yisa Temitope, the Public Relations Officer of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), and Victor Odeyemi, amongst other rights activists.
Recall that the Federal Government paid only half salary for October to the public university lecturers, who had been on industrial action for eight months and returned to work on October 14.
The half salary payment, the lecturers believe, was the handiwork of the Minister of Labour and Employment, who had been vowing that the Federal Government would implement a “no-work, no-pay” policy for the lecturers then
CEM reported that ASUU after it emergency national executive meeting is considering legal action against the federal government instead of a fresh strike.
