Lecturers Don’t Have Transport Fares To Resume Work – ASUU President
Excited Nigerian students may have their excitement cut short as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), National president, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke has said that lecturers do not have transportation fares to go to work following the suspension of the 8 months old strike.
Osodeke while featuring on Channel’s Television programme ‘Politics Today’ on Sunday, regretted that the lack of money may hinder members of ASUU from resuming to work as the Federal Government is yet to pay them 8 months salary arrears.
“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.”
“we suspended the strike hoping that the government will do the needful and by tomorrow, if the universities are open, hopefully, the lecturers will go back 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.
“Our lecturers will teach but you can’t expect someone who is owed eight months’ salary, maybe from his bank, he 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.
“I pray they go there because of the children and do the best they can do. You don’t expect a hungry man to go there [school] with an open mind” Osodeke said.
