The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has faulted the Nigerian government’s decision to enforce the “no work, no pay” policy on the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), SaharaReporters reports.
Sowore, who spoke at the presidential town hall organised by News Central TV on Friday evening, insisted that if the Nigerian government must enforce the “no work, no pay” policy, it must start with President Muhammadu Buhari because he barely works.
While fielding a question about the government’s insistence on enforcing the no work, no pay policy on ASUU members who embarked on strike for eight months and how he could handle it differently, the human rights activist and #RevolutionNow convener maintained that Nigerian workers must be paid when their industrial action is based on a just course.
Sowore said, “When the strike is just, you must pay the strikers. They didn’t want to do this, it was the government that forced them into it.
“If you want to start the enforcement of not paying the people who are not working, I think the President should be number one because he barely works. And the truth is that these are the things that escalate the problems. You can’t keep escalating the problems by engaging in things that made them.
“Our higher institutions are too important to be played with the technical part of laws. Let’s put the money they asked for. They are specific about how much they want. Let’s find the money and give it to them. Their demands have been the same since the 1990s.”
He maintained that education was too important and that even though it could be said that education was expensive, it was not as expensive as it was seen to be compared to its importance in society.
Recall that ASUU went on strike on February 14 this year over the government’s failure to meet its demands, including improved funding for government-owned tertiary institutions.
The eight-month strike ended on October 18, but while the university lecturers expected the government to pay them for the period they were on strike, the government insisted on enforcing the “no work, no pay” policy. Hence, the lecturers were paid half their salary for the month of October.
This has also generated another nationwide uproar as ASUU has threatened to embark on sit-at-home if the federal government fails to pay them full salaries.
