The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Thursday threatened to embark on strike over its members’ withheld salaries.
The ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, gave the warning when he featured in Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
He said the varsity lecturers would down tools if the Federal Government failed to pay their withheld salaries at the end of the two-week ultimatum issued by the union.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in 2022 invoked the “No Work, No Pay” policy in a bid to force ASUU to suspend its eight-month strike at the time.
The union suspended the strike in October of the same year.
President Bola Tinubu had since lifted the “No Work, No Pay” policy and ordered the payment of the varsity teachers’ withheld salaries.
In the programme, Osodeke argued that it was unfair for the federal government to pay lecturers four months of their withheld salaries and hold on to three-and-half months.
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The ASUU president added that the two-week ultimatum to the government began on May 13.
He said: “It’s not about paying four months out of the seven-and-half months’ withheld salaries.
“Every university in Nigeria today is in the 2023/2024 academic year which means that by September/October, they will be in the 2024/2025 academic year.
“The implication of this is that all the work for which we were not paid when we were on strike, we have covered them by making sacrifices.
“None of our members have gone on leave in the past three to four years. We have not gone on vacation so that we can cover the work that we didn’t do while we were on strike which we have covered.
“You can check, ask the students. But when you said you are paying four out of seven-and-half, I don’t think you are being fair to us.”
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