UI ASUU members protest half salary, say FG ‘lawless, merciless’

Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at the University of Ibadan (UI) have organised a protest to demand the implementation of their demands by the federal government.

The protest followed the decision of the federal government to pay members of the union half of their salaries for October.

TheCable had reported how lecturers received partial payment after the union’s eight-month strike ended.

ASUU condemned the move and accused the government of treating lecturers like causal workers by paying them on a pro-rata basis.

But the federal government justified its action and said the lecturers would not be paid for work not done.

The government had insisted that the lecturers were paid based on the number of days they worked in the stated month.

Rankled by the development, the union members agreed to hold a one-day protest to demand payment of their salaries.

ASUU members in UI staged their protest within the campus on Monday.

In now-viral photos from the protest, the aggrieved lecturers were seen with placards with inscriptions such as “no to poor living conditions” and “ASUU demands immediate payment of all outstanding entitlements of its members”.

Addressing journalists and students, Ayoola Akinwole, UI ASUU chairman, said members of the union would resist poor treatment from the government.

Akinwole described the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration as “the most lawless government” in Nigeria’s history.

“The present government is one of the most lawless governments Nigeria has ever seen. The government that doesn’t obey its own rule, the government that doesn’t obey its own court, a government that is merciless in meting out draconian policies on the working class. Our people say no to all these treatments,” he said.

UI joins the list of varsities that have held the one-day protest.

The University of Lagos (UNILAG), University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), and Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) previously held their protests.