No-Work-No-Pay rule may escalate crisis – ASUU

Asaba – The Delta State University Chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Wednesday warned that implementing the  No-Work-No-Pay policy would worsen the industrial crisis in public universities.

The Chairman of the chapter, Dr Emmanuel Mordi, said in Asaba that the state government was planning to implement the policy for the first time.

NAN reports that the state Governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, had urged ASUU members

to return to classroom or face implementation of the policy.

“When the strike is called off, lecturers will say: `No pay, no work’.  It does not help anybody; it can only escalate the crisis.

“It is unfortunate that ASUU is at the receiving end, as the government, being stronger, has the power to withhold ASUU members’ salaries, he said.

He said that ASUU was willing to call off the strike and would do so as soon as the Federal Government showed more commitment.

“We are anxious to call off the strike, but the government said we should wait for so many months.

“What we must note is that our students are also our children. Some lecturers are also students; so, this is a very painful surgical operation, which we have to carry out in the best interest of our future generation.”

Also the Adamawa chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) on Wednesday said the lingering strike by university teachers in the country could destroy the nation’s tertiary education.

The Chairman of the association, Rev. Moses Taparki, in an interview  in Yola,  expressed displeasure over the inability of the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to resolve the issues.

Describing the situation as “unfortunate”, he said it had lingered in spite of appeals and interventions by groups and individuals, and blamed the government and the union for their seeming “insensitivity” to the issue.

The cleric said the damage the strike had done to the university system in the country in the past four months would take several years to redress.

“The government and ASUU should take responsibility for the sad development. Many groups and individuals, including religious leaders and traditional rulers, have appealed to them but all have been in vain,” he said.

“For the rigid positions the government and the university teachers have maintained on the matter, I maintain that both parties must take full responsibility for the damage the strike has done to the system,” he stressed.