ASUU also directed its branches to choose a day within the week to hold a special congress and also go on protest rallies within their campuses
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has directed its members nationwide to hold a one-day rally to protest against
Federal Government’s decision to commence the implementation of a “no-work, no-pay” policy for lecturers.
This was made known on Sunday, November 13, by Dr. Dele Ashiru, the chairman of ASUU, University of Lagos (UNILAG) chapter.
According to the Nigerian Tribune, Ashiru said the national body directed that the protests should take place on a free-lecture day at all the branches of the union.
He went on to say each ASUU branch is expected to choose a day within the week to hold the special congress and a protest rally within its campus.
To this effect, the UNILAG-ASUU had fixed Tuesday, November 15, for its own rally, where it will draw the attention of Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora to ASUU’s strong dissatisfaction with the Federal Government’s attempt at casualisation of the academics in the country by using ‘no-work, no-pay policy’ to remunerate them.
Ashiru insisted that university lecturers are intellectuals and professionals and cannot, therefore, be treated like casual workers.
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He further said casualisation of academics, who are intellectuals by any reason, is totally alien to the academic system anywhere globally.
According to him, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, wants to prove that he knows more than every other person in the world but we will show him that his attempt to cage the lecturers, particularly from engaging in unionism would never come to pass as far as Nigeria is concerned.
Meanwhile, in a memo by the UNILAG branch to members of the union, they were directed to come out on Tuesday for the rally, saying “A people united can never be defeated.”
The memo also indicated that some rights activists such as Abiodun Aremu, 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 the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), and Victor Odeyemi, among others will be addressing the gathering.
The Federal Government paid only half salary for the month of October to the public university lecturers, who had been on industrial action for eight months, after returning 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.