There’s apparently still fire on the mountain as Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has said that the issues leading to the eight-month strike have not been resolved, adding that no agreement signed with the Federal Government, lecturers eight months salaries still unpaid, lecturers are complaining there is no transportation money to school.
According to Osodeke, who spoke on matters arising from the suspension of the ASUU strike on Channel Television Sunday, the union suspended the industrial action to obey the industrial court.
“The lecturers are resuming because we are obeying an industrial court judgement because the issues have not been fully resolved, no agreement signed,” he said.
Justifying the positions of the lecturers, Osodeke stated that, unlike in the past, when lecturers lived in staff quarters close to campuses, most lecturers now live far away from school campuses because most schools cannot accommodate them.
He stated that because they have not been paid for eight months, they will be unable to afford transportation to their respective schools to teach students.
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Osodeke said: “In schools those days, every lecturer lives on campus and you can trek to your office but these days, many lecturers live 20, 30 kilometres to their offices. How will they pay for their transport to work?
“These are the issues we are going to have that the branches will have to deal with.” We expect the government to pay the money [eight months’ salary arrears] so that these people will go back to work while we are negotiating on other issues. “
Osodeke said, “We suspended the strike in the hope that the government will do the necessary and that by tomorrow, if the universities are open, hopefully, the lecturers will return to work.”
“We are resuming because we are obeying an industrial court judgement because the issues have not been fully resolved, no agreement signed.
“We are also hoping that with the intervention of the Speaker [of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila], as promised by him, we will resolve this problem within a very short time,” Osodeke added.
His words: ”Our lecturers will teach, but you can’t expect someone who is owed eight months’ salary, maybe from his bank, who has collected more than N1m as a loan and you have not paid him one kobo and you want him to go to class and teach.”
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