FG withdraws ‘no work, no pay’ threat issued to ASUU

He said: “Well, we have confirmed that they have withdrawn that threat (no work no pay). So it appears the threat is not there for now. But even if the threat is there, we are prepared for that because for our members, no sacrifice is too much to salvage Nigeria’s education.

“Shortly before our action while the NLC (Nigeria Labour Congress) hullabaloo was going on with federal government, they went to the Federal Executive Council that they were activating that rule.”

Professor Ogunyemi said the strike is important to rescue the education sector from imminent collapse .

It would be recalled that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had on November 5, announced the commencement of an indefinite nationwide strike with immediate effect.

The decision was announced at the end of an emergency meeting on Sunday night.

This came just as the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is also preparing to commence a nationwide strike on Tuesday, October 6th, 2018 over a disagreement between the organised labour union and the governments on the N30,000 minimum wage.

Briefing newsmen after the closed-door meeting which led to the commencement of the strike, ASUU president, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, said the strike was total and with immediate effect.

He listed the reasons for their action to include: Failure on the side of the government to honour the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, signed between the union and the federal government in 2017.

He also mentioned that renegotiation with ASUU which the government intentionally ignored with impunity was part of the reasons for the strike.