The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says its members will not give a backlog of lectures if their salary arrears are not paid.
ASUU has been on strike since February 14.
Adamu Adamu, minister of education, had said the federal government would not give in to ASUU’s demand for the payment of a backlog of salaries withheld during the strike.
Speaking with The Punch on Thursday, Emmanuel Osodeke, president of the union, said university lecturers will not go back to class if their salary arrears are not paid.
“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,” he said.
“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, in 2022/2023. Examinations and the period lost won’t be taught.”
‘’If they want to do ‘no work no pay,’ we will also do ‘no pay no work.’ 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.”
