Few months after it suspended its protracted industry action over disagreement with the government, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may embark on another strike, says a former president of the union, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi.
Ogunyemi, who was a guest on a Channels Television programme on Saturday night, based his premise on the Federal Government’s insensitivity to the plight of lecturers.
He noted that the lecturers may soon embark on another industrial action due to the injustice being meted on them by the government.
“We must understand what triggers strike action. I don’t think anybody can promise you there will be no strike in 2023,” Ogunyemi said.
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“I don’t think any ASUU leader can promise that, because when our members’ salaries are withheld. Because if the government is saying no work, no pay, then at some point, our members can say no pay, no work.
“The work they said our members did not do in 2022 between February and October, many universities have made our members to do the work; they have taught courses that were left untaught, they have conducted exams that were not conducted and they are about graduating students that ordinarily supposed to lose the session because the government failed.
“In our universities today, our members are being made to teach in arrears. If the government is withholding arrears of their salaries, things may get to a head where our members will insist that their salaries be paid,” he said.