The Nigerian Federal Government has chosen to go tough on striking university lecturers, saying they would not be paid for the duration of their strike.
The Nigerian Minister of Education, Alhaji Adamu Adamu announced on Thursday that the government will not yield to pressure by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for their members to be paid the backlog of salaries withheld over the ongoing strike, saying it is meant to be the penalty for their needless action.
The minister stated this while appearing at the ministerial media briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday, insisting that not paying the backlog of salary will deter others who may contemplate strike in future.
He stated that the government turned down ASUU’s demand to be paid for the five months that they have been on strike because it believes that they will now think twice before taking such a step.
He said the strike by the university-based unions came despite the N6 trillion expended on education on capital and recurrent expenditures by the present administration directly as well as spending by agencies such as Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TEFFUND) and Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) which expended N2.6 trillion and N553 billion respectively.
