Pay Salary Backlog Or Forget Unfinished Academic Sessions, ASUU Tells FG

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has insisted on the payment of the salary backlog to lecturers, maintaining that without the move, unfinished academic sessions should be forgotten.  

President of the union Professor Emmanuel Osodeke made the remark on Friday, explaining that though public varsities have been shut since February, the lecturers should be paid since they have to teach to make up for time lost during the closure.

Osodeke was speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s breakfast show, Sunrise Daily following the government’s insistence on non-payment of the lecturers over the industrial action.

He explained that when quote: “other unions go on strike and come back, all those periods for which you are on strike, you don’t need to do the backlog of work.

“But for ASUU, when we go back today, we are going to start from the 2020/2021 session. For these two sets of students that have been admitted by JAMB, we have to teach them over these periods to ensure that we meet up with the system.

The ASUU chief also said the union does not need a pity party over the government’s withholding of the lecturers’ wages, maintaining that the union “can take care” of its members.