The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has announced a one-day nationwide protest rally in response to the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government’s implementation of a “no-work, no-pay” policy for lecturers in the country.The nationwide protest rally would take place at the union’s branch level on public university campuses across the nation, with lectures suspended for the one-day protest.

ASUU members at various universities are expected to pick a weekday for a special congress and to hold protest rallies on their campuses.

Recalls that the Buhari-led government paid only half salary to public university lecturers who had been on strike for eight months before returning to work on October 14th.

Dr. Dele Ashiru, chairman of ASUU, University of Lagos (UNILAG) branch, confirmed the new directive to Nigerian Tribune on Sunday, saying UNILAG-ASUU had set Tuesday, November 15, for its own rally.

According to him, the protest rally is intended to draw the attention of Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora to ASUU’s strong dissatisfaction with the Buhari Government’s attempt to casualize academics in the country by remunerating them through a “no-work, no-pay policy.”

While insisting that university lecturers are intellectuals and professionals, Ashiru stated that all members of ASUU, UNILAG branch, are expected to attend the congress and participate fully in the protest rally, just as other lecturers in other branches of ASUU would.

He stated that academic casualization is completely alien to the academic system globally, and that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, wishes to demonstrate that he knows more than everyone else on the world.

He stated that the Union would show Ngige that his attempt to confine lecturers, particularly those engaged in unionism, would fail in Nigeria.