Half-Salary: ASUU declares lecture-free day, plans protest

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has concluded plans to embark on a one-day nationwide protest over the Federal Government’s decision to implement a “no-work, no-pay” policy for lecturers in the country.

According to The Punch, the protest will be organised at various branches of the union across public university campuses nationwide and it will double as a lecture-free day for all lecturers who are members.

This was disclosed to the paper by a member of the National Executive Council of the union on Sunday, November 13, 2022.

The source said: “We are protesting. Branches will choose their own dates, the government needs to understand that we are not casual workers.”

Confirming the development, the chairperson of ASUU, University of Lagos branch, Dele Ashir, stated in a letter that the branch would protest on Tuesday, November 15, 2022.

The letter which was addressed to “all stakeholders” noted that the special congress/ protest rally against the casualization of intellectualism in Nigeria will hold on “Tuesday, November 15, 2022, at Julius Berger auditorium.”

Meanwhile, the National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, could not be immediately reached for comments as of the time of filing this report.

This comes in the wake of the Federal Government’s decision to pay the members of ASUU in pro-rata for the number of days that they worked in October, counting from the day that they suspended their industrial action.

Recall that ASUU had embarked on an eight-month strike that commenced on February 14 and was suspended on October 14, 2022.