November 05, (THEWILL) – The University of Jos (UNIJOS) chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has directed its members to suspend all academic work until their withheld salaries are paid.
THEWILL earlier reported that the Federal Government had paid Varsity lecturers half their salary for the month of October 2022.
It is the first payment they have received since the suspension of the industrial action on 14 October, and they have said the government’s action does not reflect the understanding reached before the strike was suspended
Reacting to the development, the UNIJOS chapter of ASUU in a statement issued by its Chairman, Associate Professor Lazarus Maigoro after its emergency congress on Friday, described the half salaries as mutilated.
While it emphasised that the union has not declared a strike, Maigoro, however, directed members to stay away from work until the Federal Government remedied the situation.
The statement read in part: “In view of the bottleneck placed by Ngige towards paying our members the backlog of our salaries, the congress of ASUU, University of Jos met today 4th November, 2022 and resolved to stay at home, though not on strike until the backlog of the withheld salaries are paid.
“For the avoidance of doubt, our members are back to work, willing and ready to work but are unable to work.
“Based on the revised academic calendar for the 2020/2021 session approved by the senate of the univeristy, lectures should have started already but the challenge of lack of payment of salaries has constrained our members from going to the classroom to teach.
“What this implies is that the students who have resumed already will have to wait indefinitely while we wait for our withheld salaries to be paid to us, unfortunately. The struggle continues.”
The Union, however, fingered the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, for being allegedly responsible for the “embarrassing treatment.”
According to them, “It has become crystal clear now that he (Mr Ngige) wasn’t happy that the House of Representatives brokered a truce on some of the issues we went on strike for and has gone behind to undermine it.
“It is also very clear to us now why he shamelessly walked out on the leadership of the House of Representatives at one of the meetings with all stakeholders to the glare of all Nigerians because he never wanted any form of resolution to be reached on the issues being discussed and is leaving no stone unturned to frustrate it, even though he piously prides himself as the chief conciliator of the nation.”
Meanwhile, the National Executive Council of ASUU is set to meet on Monday, to deliberate on the matter and take appropriate action.
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