ASUU To FG: Hold Your Loan, Pay Our Withheld Salaries
By: Ahmed Rufa’i, Dutse
The Academic Staff Unions of Universities of Federal University Dutse in Jigawa State, have joined their counterparts nationwide to demand for the payment of their withheld salaries by the Federal Government.
They said the government should keep the loan package it recently unveiled for staff of universities, saying instead, it should pay them all their outstanding entitlements and sign the renegotiated 2009 agreement it had with the union.
The chairperson of FUD’s ASUU branch, Comrade Salim Ahmed told newsmen during a peaceful protest held at the university’s permanent site, said “enough is enough” as he accused the government of jeopardizing the future of Nigeria Universities.
“Federal Government should learn to respect agreements,” he added, as other lecturers display placards with inscriptions such as “Our take home can not take us home”; “Pay lecturers African average salary”; “We don’t need your loan”, among others.
He said the peaceful protest was to raise awareness on the plight of the academic staff ahead of the planned nationwide total strike in three weeks time, if the Federal Government failed to meet their demands.
“We have a lot of pending issues the Federal Government is not paying attention to, including renegotiation of 2009 agreement, signing of Yayele’s led committee report, third party deduction and payment of three months and half salaries among others.
“We have been waiting for the government to do the needful but still nothing has been done. Enough is enough, our patient is now over,” Comrade Salim said.
