Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, on Wednesday while briefing journalists at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, insisted that the ‘no work, no pay’ rule stands.
The Nigerian government on Wednesday reiterated that the university lecturers would not be paid for work, not done, amid fear of another showdown in the tertiary education sector.
SaharaReporters had reported that university lecturers under the umbrella of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on February 14 embarked on strike action to demand that federal government should implement an agreement it signed with ASUU in 2009.
The agreement was on how the university education could be founded.
After eight months of the industrial action, the strike was called off, and part of the reason for the suspension of the strike was that federal government would pay the owed salaries of its members.
Earlier in September, the Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Nanah Opiah had while addressing journalists during the lingering strike, said the Federal Government had done his best to resolve the issues raised by ASUU but they had been adamant to call off the strike.
The minister who spoke when he visited Federal University Lokoja, Kogi State had said the “no work, no pay” policy stands.
He said, “The Federal Government cannot pay lecturers for what they did not work for. The strike has continued to portray the country in a bad light and has succeeded in causing more pains for parents and students.”
However on the background of the pro-rata October salary payment, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, on Wednesday while briefing journalists at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, insisted that the ‘no work, no pay’ rule stands.
Responding to the allegation made by the President of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodoke, suggesting that paying the lecturers on a pro-rata basis was a ploy to make them casual workers, the Minister remarked that government had no such plan.
“Nobody can make University lecturers casual workers,” he said.
When told that the lecturers were threatening a one-day action to protest the government’s action, Adamu said he was not aware.