The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has slammed the Federal Government for using hunger to pull members of the union back into the classrooms.
ASUU said that the government will not succeed in its attempt to “use hunger to force its members back to the classroom.
ASUU embarked on a warning strike over the alleged refusal of the federal government to keep up with the union’s demands including the implementation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU renegotiation agreement, deployment of UTAS, payment of outstanding arrears of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), promotion arrears, and the release of withheld salaries of academics.
The Union had on Monday extended the strike by another four weeks, thus dashing the hopes of students to return to school.
Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, President of the union, made this known when he appeared on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
He said since the strike began in February, the Federal Government had withheld its members’ salaries.
“Our salaries have been withheld. This is the sixth month our salaries have been withheld,” he said.
“They thought that if they hold our salaries for two or three months, we will come begging and say ‘please allow us to go back to work.
“But as a union of intellectuals, we have grown beyond that. You can’t use the force of hunger to pull our members back, which is exactly what the government is doing.”
