From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) President, Emmanuel Osodeke, has said that lecturers will not pick up from were they left off in teaching before the strike if the federal government refuses to pay their salary arrears.
Osodeke spoke while reacting to a statement by Adamu Adamu, minister of education, that the federal government will not concede to ASUU’s demands for the payment of a backlog of salaries withheld within the period of the strike.
According to him, “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
“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.”
ASUU and other university-based unions have been on strike for almost six months and schools shut down due to the inability of the government to meet a litany of demands.