Nigerian students may be in for more months at home as the face off between the Federal Government and the Academic staff Union of Universities is not giving any signs of coming to its end.
The union leaders are insisting that the government owe it a duty to pay the arrears of the six months of the strike as condition against government’s declaration that it would not pay for services not rendered.
Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, had declared at a news conference held at the villa on Thursday that the government would not pay any arears. He said that is one of the major areas of contention and reason the strike has not been called off.
“He is joking. 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, 2022/2023. Examinations and the period lost won’t be taught.”
He added, ‘’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.”
The union had in February this year declared its first strike extending it now for the third time.
The development has caused outrage nationwide with million of students becoming frustrated with the forced sit-at-home.