Wednesday 30 October 2013

No-Work-No-Pay rule may escalate crisis – ASUU

The Delta State University Chapter of
the Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASUU) on Wednesday warned that
implementing the No-Work-No-Pay policy
would worsen the industrial crisis in public
universities. The Chairman of the chapter, Dr Emmanuel
Mordi, said in Asaba that the state government
was planning to implement the policy for the
first time. NAN reports that the state Governor, Dr
Emmanuel Uduaghan, had urged ASUU
members to return to classroom or face
implementation of the policy. “When the strike is called off, lecturers will say:
`No pay, no work’. It does not help anybody; it
can only escalate the crisis. “It is unfortunate that ASUU is at the receiving
end, as the government, being stronger, has
the power to withhold ASUU members’ salaries,
he said. He said that ASUU was willing to call off the
strike and would do so as soon as the Federal
Government showed more commitment. “We are anxious to call off the strike, but the
government said we should wait for so many
months. “What we must note is that our students are
also our children. Some lecturers are also
students; so, this is a very painful surgical
operation, which we have to carry out in the
best interest of our future generation.” Also the Adamawa chapter of the Christian
Association of Nigeria (CAN) on Wednesday
said the lingering strike by university teachers
in the country could destroy the nation’s
tertiary education. The Chairman of the association, Rev. Moses
Taparki, in an interview in Yola, expressed
displeasure over the inability of the Federal
Government and the Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU) to resolve the issues. Describing the situation as “unfortunate”, he
said it had lingered in spite of appeals and
interventions by groups and individuals, and
blamed the government and the union for their
seeming “insensitivity” to the issue. The cleric said the damage the strike had done
to the university system in the country in the
past four months would take several years to
redress. “The government and ASUU should take
responsibility for the sad development. Many
groups and individuals, including religious
leaders and traditional rulers, have appealed to
them but all have been in vain,” he said. “For the rigid positions the government and the
university teachers have maintained on the
matter, I maintain that both parties must take
full responsibility for the damage the strike
has done to the system,” he stressed.

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