The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has stood their grounds that they will not enter lecture halls to finish academic sessions until the Federal Government (FG) pays their salary backlogs.
Despite the fact that public universities have been closed since February, according to union president Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, lecturers should still be paid because they are required to teach in order to make up for the time lost due to the shutdown.
Following the government’s insistence on not paying the lecturers due to the industrial action, Osodeke was speaking during an interview with one of Nigeria’s news station.
“If we agree on that, therefore, the lectures we should have given [to students] for 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 [sessions], should be allowed to go so we start a new session, 2022/2023, in September,” Professor Osodeke added.
“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.”
He clarified that you are not required to complete the backlog of work during the times that “other unions go on strike and then return, all those periods for which you are on strike.
“However, for ASUU, we’ll begin with the 2020–2021 session when we return today. We must impart knowledge to these two groups of pupils who have been accepted by JAMB during these times in order to comply with the system.
“As a result, we will finish the job that has been left undone in the backlog. We won’t start today by declaring that because the session is in 2022–2023, all of the two sets of applicants who have been accepted by JAMB are no longer eligible. We must accept a different admittance.”