The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said it would not call off its strike until the salary arrears of its members were paid.

The union also maintained that the lecturers would not teach students to make up for the six months they had been on strike if the Federal Government failed to pay for the “period of strike.”

The union’s national president, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, said this in response to a statement by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, that the federal government would not concede to ASUU’s demands for the backlog of salaries withheld within the period.

On February 14 this year, ASUU embarked on a one-month warning strike, however, extending it indefinitely until the FG would meet its demands. 

Other associations such as the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Educational Institutions and National Association of Academic Technologists later followed suit, shutting down public universities nationwide.

Adamu had told State House correspondents on Thursday that the government would not pay the lecturers for the period of strike.

But reacting to the government’s position, Osodeke said, “He is joking. If they fail to pay, we will not teach those students; we won’t make up for that period. We will start a new session (2022/2023). We won’t conduct examinations; we will start a fresh session totally.

“Lecturers are not doctors that once life is gone, it can’t be brought back. For lecturers, we can still resume where we stopped and still teach them and make up for lost time. But for us, if they fail to pay we won’t make up for the lost time. We won’t go back to fill backlogs; the schools will start a new session, 2022/2023. Examinations and the period lost won’t be taught.”

According to the prof, since FG wants to do “no work no pay”, they will also do “no pay no work”. Adding, he said, “If they won’t pay the backlog, we won’t teach the backlog. We are not like other workers. He doesn’t know what he is saying”.

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