Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) chapter protested on Wednesday to voice their opposition to the Federal Government’s no-work, no-pay policy following the payment of half salary to lecturers in Nigerian universities in October.
The academics who participated in the demonstration marched through the campus of the college to show their displeasure with the federal government’s payment of half-salary and the eight-month payment delay.
The lecturers were seen with placards with inscriptions such as “Pay the arrears of our salaries”, “ASUU FUTA says no to criminalization of legal strikes, casualisation of the academics in Nigeria”, and “Ngige’s rascality can’t solve the problems in education sector”.
The chapter’s Chairman, Prof. Olayinka Awopetu said the protest was staged to express the union’s displeasure with the trivialization of academia by the government.
Awopetu added that the union selected Wednesday as a no-lecture day, calling on stakeholders and Nigerians to pressure the Federal Government to reconsider the policy.
“We did not go on strike because we wanted to go on strike but because the government failed to do its own part, so we can’t be punished for that,” he said.
The NLC Chairman, Sunday Adeleye, who was represented by his secretary, Kehinde Shado, accused the federal government of the intention to casualise ASUU members.
Abiodun Ibiyemi, the president of the students’ union at FUTA, also confirmed that the union’s standing and uproar had the support of the students.